Sundays in the Park

Yesterday was the first time for Risttee to have an outdoor service along the river in Tartu. With such a short summer, we have to get out and enjoy the sunshine, and rather than just talk about God, we could look around and see his hand work, bask in his sunshine and worship by just being there.

Lots of people walked by and stopped for a while. People really enjoyed the band, which sounded great outside. Music is such a powerful tool. It draws people in, evokes emotion, its really the soundtrack of our lives. The band rocked out with the song Hero which set up the story of Samson. I told the story in detail. Took a little longer than I planned, but no one can complain about not getting all the details! Then after the story, the band rocked again with 3 worship songs. The people hung out for a while, enjoyed a short picnic and then everyone went their separate ways.

The whole idea was a little scary. We don't want to cause any problems in our city, or invoke negative emotions to Christianity which seem to be prevalent. We just want to share Christ through our lives and the lives of the people at Risttee and I hope we did it. Its non traditional, but I think its important to go to where people are, not just wait for them to come to us. I applaud our people for making this a reality and showing a great example to our city and the church in Estonia. Other pastors and church leaders, I hope you have the courage to try something new, change it up, it has far more benefits than drawbacks. We have a big God who is up to big things and sometimes the walls of our churches hold us back from being part of them.