American Missionary Fellowship

Sunday morning I went to church with Ray Kraftson, one of our board members. We went to his family church, St. David’s in Wayne, and we went to the early service, which meets in the church – the smallest of the buildings on their campus – built in 1715. The church has no lights. There are candles in candelabras for when it is necessary to have light in the building.

I wish you could have been there with me. I wish you could have heard Frank Allen, the rector, preach. Do you know what he said? He said, “I love evangelists. In fact, I really love it when they get to the end of their talk and they ask people to make a decision, to bow their heads. I’m just amazed at what God will do because it’s a relationship with Jesus that makes the difference.”

The church had no music at all. We read out of The Common Book of Prayer. All the officiants wore vestments, robes with stoles. It was so unlike most of the churches many of us go to, but God was there, and the rector has a heart for evangelism.

The church is exploding. They built a new building. Why? Because the Gospel is preached there. And I am so proud that one of the people who is on our board is part of a church like that.

After church we went to the Merion Cricket Club to have breakfast. One of Ray’s friends, Jack, went with us. I rode with Jack over to the Cricket Club from the church service, and the first thing he asked me was my faith story. He wanted to know how I became a Christian. He wanted to know my journey with Jesus, and he began to tell me his.

It’s amazing to me that here is this church, and Jack and Ray, who have a heart for evangelism. They love a denomination that struggles with diversity of views, but I was so encouraged and felt the presence of God in a powerful way there. Then, there we were in the Merion Cricket Club, with men dressed up in white sweaters playing croquet outside, in a club formed before the turn of the century to play cricket, croquet, and tennis, talking about Jesus and what He wants to do in our lives.

In my opinion, that’s fellowship. The form and the pattern of worship do not make any difference because worship is a matter of the heart. So in a church built almost 300 years ago, without music, with candles for lighting, God showed up because He shows up to His people who love Him.