Our church, along with others in Ocean City, received an invitation from another church in town asking us to join together for a service celebrating unity among Christians. A quick count shows we have about 14 churches in our less than 12 square miles of Ocean City. That is a lot of churches for the full-time population of 11,000. 

If only one out of every two people who live in Ocean City attended church we probably would run out of seating. But, unfortunately, church-going is very out of style and doesn’t even cross the minds of most people. Our city reflects our nation in that many of our citizens have little interest in exploring any faith let alone the Christian faith. 

I believe that is why we need days of unity of not only the churches but between the people of God. My husband, Neil, and I attended the service along with several others from our church and we enjoyed a wonderfully thought-out, spirit-filled service. There were probably five other churches represented, some of which have very differing theology, but for this day we were focused on God and not discussing our differences but celebrating our unity in the Spirit.

I left the service feeling very much full of the Holy Spirit because we joined together in singing, prayer and praise to our Lord.

It was a brave and wonderful suggestion for the pastor of this church to invite others in town. You might think that an odd statement because all invited were Christians but the guest preacher was the presiding elder of the Atlantic City District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches. This was the pastor’s act of faith booking the presiding elder to preach to what may have been a congregation of just a few. 

Faith is a wonderful gift God has given His people. We do not have faith in ourselves but faith that if we follow God’s will, the Holy Spirit will lead us where we are to go and what we are to do on God’s behalf here on earth.

Jesus told His disciples, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” This is faith straight from God.

Move mountains? Well, when you consider how stuck we are to our particular pews in our particular churches I believe this pastor was praying for those mountains (us) to move – and move we did!

I was so happy to attend this particular service because even though our churches are seeing more integration in our pews, we do not yet have the beautiful mix we will enjoy in heaven as we praise our Lord. It would be lovely to see more of this coming together and celebrating our Lord. We need not worry about our differences because as we raise Holy Hands to God the Spirit Himself will convict us as He sees fit.

Some of us attend our churches because of theological stances, some because praise through music is important, others because we feel that we ‘fit in’ better with one congregation than another and some just because we were raised in our church and feel we should attend.

When Neil and I moved from Seattle to Ocean City we visited at least five of the local churches to hear and learn what was taught and sung in those churches. We had a bit of a difficult time finding a church that was as conservative as the one we attended in Washington but finally after much prayer and consideration we landed in our current church. 

It wasn’t easy to enter a new church in a new town because even though we were welcomed, well, we didn’t seem to click with anyone – for years. We attended various group events that helped us get to know one another but it was at least two years before we felt fully engaged in the church – and, Neil and I were already Christians.

I cannot imagine what it must be like for a seeker or a new Christian to enter an adult Sunday school class in the middle of a study of Romans and wonder if they are in over their heads. 

I am pleased that the Holy Spirit keeps us on track when we want to get off and get out, when we are afraid of looking stupid or when we fear we are not hearing His instructions correctly. He leads us out in faith – as small as a mustard seed but big enough to move mountains.

Thank you, pastor, for listening to a seemingly strange command from God and yet bringing the churches of Ocean City together in unity.

ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.