
The universal church is a clear demonstration of God‘s sovereign power. Think about this for a moment. People from all nations gather together on the Lord’s Day with the same purpose, to worship God. Though we have various expressions of worship around the world, the Holy Spirit has the sovereign power to keep us together in one mind, which is to give glory and honor to the giver and sustainer of our lives. Now what a great blessing we have at Tenth that every Sunday morning representatives from this universal church gather together to worship in Fellowship Hall. This is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit who mobilizes his people for worship.
Conversations and great fellowship happen before the Internationals Worship starts. People catching up about how their week went, how their families and relatives back home are, updates on how God is at work in their lives; then the time for worship starts. It is hard to break this fellowship but everybody knows that the most important thing is about to happen: worship. Here people from many nations use one tongue, English, to sing praises to the Lord, to read the scripture in a responsive way, and to pray. God is praised in one language but you can hear many accents, which again is another testimony of God’s power bringing us together. Prayer requests are taken in the middle of the service; then we pray in three languages, Spanish, Chinese, and English. The word of God is preached in English but with the unique flavor of the accent of the speaker. After benediction sweet fellowship continues and new friends are often taken by the congregants to local restaurants.
In summary, this is a sample of the universal church worshiping at Tenth every Sunday. Anyone is invited; it is not worship for internationals but worship for the Lord and all are welcome. It is also a good opportunity for outreach as nonbelievers often visit us from other countries that are seeking for friendship and wanting to know more about Christianity.
The Internationals Worship service is a demonstration of God’s power bringing people together across cultures and language barriers. Soli Deo Gloria.