The first sermon was the rockiest. Probably because kids were running it. Amazingly, people showed. Most of them felt called for some reason or another. The Spirit of God had been stirring people to come. Just when I felt Jesus had done enough for us, he kept doing more. Ha!
It was a sermon about the love of God—how we were each planned, and our lives were precious in his sight.
Ally said it sucked, Zack said it was amazing, Billy agreed with Zack. I just figured Ally was jealous of my speaking ability.
We kept doing service every week. Zack's buddy, Leo, volunteered his band as the worship team. The chapel was really coming together. It became very big in the area, and when I went off for college, Zack, who by then was graduated, took the burden of preaching for a while. Ally and Billy felt called elsewhere after college ended. Ally took off California bound, Billy to Colorado. Zack said he was perfectly content with continuing the church we set up, so I passed the torch to him.
My first church after graduating seminary was in Kentucky. The first sermon was about God's love for us, fortunately it was much better than it was when I was fifteen. Towards the end, I noticed a familiar face in the crowd. My aunt had come with me. (She quit the alcohol, by the way. It was a process, but she eventually became clean).
The familiar face I saw was not my aunt, however.
He didn't stay long, just long enough for me to get a glimpse of him. I stopped mid- sermon once I saw him. I broke out in a huge smile, as did he, and for the last time, I heard the audible voice I had heard when I was 14.
"Maxwell, I am so proud of you.'
I love you."
Then as strangely as the dirty homeless man appeared, he was gone.
YOU ARE READING
The Chapel
General FictionMaxwell, a teenager in a world of hurt, discovers that something greater is taking place than what meets the eye in his own homelife, school, and neighborhood. He and his new friends team up with a stranger to fix up the old Chapel building near his...
