Fish Out of Water - This Kind Old Lady Embraced by Love

On Friday night I walked into the foyer of Pope Chapel to find it filled with students, none of whom I knew.  Music pulsed from behind the closed inner doors to the chapel, providing a soundtrack to the low roar of chatter and laughter filling the room.  It was all so loud.  An introvert's nightmare.  I had arrived a few minutes later than planned because I had to park further away than expected.  A lot happening at CNU on a Friday night.  I made my way to the ladies room.  After the drive down from Williamsburg, I needed a pit stop, plus it was a good place to hide for a few minutes and prepare myself to walk up to strangers.  As often as I'm up in front of people, it still surprises me how shy I am in a room full of people I don't know.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I saw that the doors to the chapel had been opened and most of the students had gone inside.  It was time to go to Thrive.  I've been invited many times, but this was the first time I've been able to attend.  Thrive seeks to unite all the campus ministries at CNU in a monthly worship service.  I went in to the chapel where a band was playing on the stage and perhaps a hundred people were singing.  Tylor was on the keyboard - he was the first student to talk to me when I started the prayer station.  Anderson was playing violin.  He's the one whom I wrote about in this post.  Violin Guy, who sometimes serenades the campus with his music from the balcony of the Administration Building.  I really enjoyed how his playing enhanced the music.  In addition to Tylor and Anderson there were people on acoustic and electric guitars, singers, and a drummer.  They were really good!  Even though I didn't know a single song, I appreciated the passion and skill with which they played.

I have to admit, I was a fish out of water.  I am a cradle Episcopalian, and I am used to hymns accompanied by an organ, prayers read out of a book, and very structured worship.  Walking into Thrive felt like I was attending a rock concert for God.  I could see the appeal.  Most of the faces I saw radiated with joy.  Students danced in the aisles.  Voices were raised in praise and worship as everyone sang with the band.  In the foyer art supplies were available for those who wanted to worship through art.  Luke, the young man who started Thrive when he felt God calling him to bring the ministries together to worship, led everyone in prayer and invited people to pray in whatever way they felt God calling them.  Occasionally I saw students sitting near each other, bent over, clearly praying for one another.  The message of the night was clearly about how much God loves us and how we do not need to fear.

One song was so upbeat and joyful that people were jumping up and down to the rhythm, and in another that talked about running into Christ's embrace, students ran around the perimeter of the chapel almost like a Conga line but faster.  It reminded me of how I used to dance around the edges of the room at fraternity parties in college, caught up in the joy of the music and the movement and the release of stress and tension. 

I stood in the back for the first half and was able to greet Luke and some others whom I've met either at the prayer station or around campus.  Several students introduced themselves and said they had seen me but hadn't come up to the prayer station yet.  At one point the band stopped playing and we were invited to find another person and pray together.  My friend from the admissions office who shines with the light of Christ came back from where she had been sitting in the front.  It was delightful to see her and to hear about the happenings at her church.  She invited me to come sit with her on the 2nd row, so I did.  Shortly after I joined her, Tylor invited us all into a time of silence.  At last, something that was familiar to me!  I thanked God for all these young people who may worship differently than I do but who are choosing to spend a Friday evening in college praising God. 

Toward the end of the evening, a little over two hours in, Luke invited me to come up on the stage.  He told the crowd that I was the Episcopal Campus Minister and that I'm the one who sits at the prayer station.  They cheered.  He said, "This kind old lady sits and prays with students on our campus."  (Ouch!  There goes my delusion of hipness.)  He expressed how much he values the prayer ministry.  He quoted Corinthians and talked about how we're all part of the body of Christ.  And then he asked them to sign some pieces of paper that were put on tables at the edges of the room to say that they wanted me to continue my ministry at CNU.  "We need her on our campus," he said.

You see, the students learned last week what I have known for a couple of months - this is my last semester as the Episcopal Chaplain to CNU.  The diocese is interested in funding new models of campus ministry, and so the money for my position will only be available through June of this year. 

When Luke invited those attending Thrive to sign the papers in support of me, everyone got up and moved into line at the tables.  Tears crept into my eyes.  92 people signed.  Luke had written "We love Lauren" at the top of two of the pages.  Humbled does not begin to express how I felt.  Students came up and hugged me, and my friend from Admissions was the first to sign on one of the sheets of paper. 

At about 10:45 I found Luke and said that the "kind old lady" was turning into a pumpkin.  He told me they were on their last song, but I found that a Thrive song is kind of like time in a basketball game.  It may say 3 minutes on the clock, but those 3 minutes can take an hour.  When the Spirit moves, you gotta keep singing!  I still needed to drive back to Williamsburg, and I wanted to absorb all that I had experienced. 

I love the way we worship in the Episcopal Church, and nothing fills me with greater joy than the great honor and privilege of celebrating the Eucharist.  But I'm glad for the opportunity to worship in a more evangelical way, to experience how another part of the body of Christ expresses their love of God.  They were singing and dancing before the Lord, like David.  Many of the songs were based on Psalms, and several Psalms were read out loud.  In Morning Prayer we say the Venite, Psalm 95:   
Come, let us sing to the Lord; *
   let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
   and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. 
That's what Thrive was doing, singing to the Lord, shouting for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

This kind old lady is grateful to Luke for inviting me and having the idea for a petition in support of my ministry, to the band for their wonderful music, to all those who embraced me and spoke to me, and to God, for another lesson that we have been created in infinite and glorious variety, and our worship reflects the diversity of our creation.