A couple of years ago Laurie Guy published a book called Worlds in Collision:The Gay Debate in New Zealand, 1960-1986 (with a lovely pink cover) which looked at the response of the NZ churches to the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. The book is a fascinating read and a wonderful contribution to NZ church history, the history of homosexual law reform in NZ and NZ social history during these turbulent years. I think the title of the book is a pearler and so I've used it for this blog post even though this post is nothing to do with homosexuality.
This week I've been reading from a book called The Prodigal Project and one particular story struck me as a perfect example of 'worlds in collision'. The world of church worship world in collision with the society its trying to reach. Mike Riddell, one of the authors of the book, wrote this story:
"A young girl lived with her family next door to a Baptist church. Her parents were not churchgoers, but they made use of the Sunday School to get their daughter out of the house on a Sunday morning. Each week she would attend Sunday School, and then stay on for the church service which followed. Family life was not pleasant, and she enjoyed the welcome relief of a different group of people who seemed much 'nicer'.
The church was charismatic, and on one particular Sunday, there was the usual long bracket of choruses at the beginning of the service. A very worshipful atmosphere developed as the congregation continued to sing songs over and over. Eventually, after a particularly moving chorus, a silence fell over the assembled people. It was one of those times in which worshippers are caught up in the presence of God, and hold their breath in expectation of some prophecy or exhortation from the Lord.
This time, however, the silence gave way not to any encouraging word, but to the sound of screaming from next door. There was the unmistakable noise of a woman being beaten; a succession of wailing and weeping interspersed with the thud of fist on flesh. The young girl, together with the rest of the congregation, listened in horror. She recognized the voice of her mother crying in anguish, and knew once more her father was erupting in violent anger. She waited in anticipation, to see what would happen.
The worship leader was tense. He had planned carefully the sequence of songs to lead to this very point, where people might 'break through' into the presence of God. And now instead, the whole atmosphere was being destroyed by this unwelcome intrusion of the outside world. He did the only thing he could think of; he led out in another song of praise. The congregation welcomed the opportunity to move on and drown out the ghastly sounds assaulting their ears. As they sang, the worship quickly shut out the noise from next door. The incident stayed with the young girl for the rest of her life, though she did not understand until much later why it made her so angry."
