Church on Sunday

We found the Hillsong church in Paris through MonaVie, Brig Hart, and the New Life Network.

We originally wanted to attend the service last Sunday, but because of the delay for our connecting flight, we missed it.

Anyhow, Hillsong Paris is a branch church planted by Hillsong London. As usual, the service started with some heavy rock and roll worship songs by Hillsong, then Pastor Brendan While gave the serman. The serman today is based on the book of Acts 3:1-9... how Peter and John healed the cripple. To break it down, there are four points Pastor Brendan illustrated:

1. stop and notice
As Christians, we should not just go on with the day-to-day lives of ours, we must always keep our eyes open so we can notice the needs around us. This takes effort, and is a conscious decision every day and every moment. It is too easy to get caught up with our own lives, but it is much more rewarding to see how we can make a positive impact based on others' needs.

2. know what you have to give
As much as we see our own short comings and things which we lack, we are still given great fortune by our almighty father to give to others. Silver and gold we might not have, but we can certainly give what Jesus has given us: a new life, a life to bless other people. We need to also look at ourselves not through the eyes of men, but rather through the eyes of our heavenly father. As He sees all of us being unique and precious, and He created all of us for great purposes on this earth. So we need to "discover" ourselves through the eyes of the Holy Spirit.

3. understsand who you are
We are God's children. As simple as that. We are not aimless beings evolved from the apes through millions of years of evolution. We were each individually created by God, to service different purposes in this world. Each one of us are put in a specific place at a specific time every single day to serve and help each other, all with the goal of making this world a better place.

4. Asking for the Holy Spirit to fill you up
We can achieve very little with our own strength and will. Plus, our minds and will only limits the unlimited God above. Therefore, a life is better lived following the guidance and the instructions of the Holy Spirit who lives inside us. With His guidance and an obedient heart, we shall see the broken hearts around us walking, jumping, and leaping in total joy, all with the purpose of glorifying God.

This photo was taken when we during the worship. As soon as my flash went off, the usher came up to me and asked me not to take any photo. He was nice, but I felt bad for "breaking" their rules. I wonder why they don't allow photos... But I guess it would be annoying to have cameras going off during the service.

The church is temporarily renting the MAZ center every Sunday. It reminded me of how our own church started years ago in the Silicon Valley, hauling equipment around every weekend... lots of sweats and people running around. Hillsong Paris started around 3 years ago, but it's only been recent that they actually had a church and service every Sunday. They started with small groups in Paris meeting in homes every week, Hillsong London would send different people from London to Paris every week to help with these meetings. After two years of paving the road to stability, now they have a good size of people so they decided to rent a space. But the space was packed already when we were there. We pray that it will grow and grow.

Tassy, a Scottish lady who's lived in Paris for 20 years came up to us and greeted us. She introduced us to one of the Pastors from London, and Eric, who is from Kentucky. She told me some background stories about the church, and mentioned that building a church is extremely difficult in Paris... as we all know why... Seeing how lively the service was, and how everyone was jumping up and down shouting in worship in a hot hot room, we pray that this congregation will triple and quadruple in no time. Paris shall, see a new revival.

Dear God, don't let the old churches in this great city be just historic monuments. Let them be filled once again with voices of worship for you, with people who want to freely express their desire for you and your work to bring another round of revival to Europe. Amen!