It was 7:15 p.m. … Already 15 minutes late.

But no more people were wandering in.

Michael, our gracious and gifted musician who volunteered months ago to help reboot our shelter worship services after a years’ long hiatus, and I had made small talk long enough.

“Well, there’s three of us,” I said whimsically. “Jesus says that’s church. Shall we get started?”

“Gladly,” Michael said, as he glanced from me to our one lone worshipper that night. And with a joyful grin and a strum of the guitar, we began.

Jesus in the gospels actually said very little about “church” as we know it today, but one of the things he did emphasize was that it happens wherever as few as two people gather in his name.

Well, on that night in our shelter, we far surpassed Jesus’ quota, as we were three!

And you know what, despite our tiny numbers, that service was still holy and filled my proverbial cup.

Michael’s too, evidently! … Because after we wrapped up service, he didn’t mind at all that his excellent musical talents were on display for only two of us.

He said the service format was great for him because he was fascinated by the night’s discussion about the apostle Matthew’s call story, adding that what most think of as “church” today, doesn’t deliver a lesson that deep.

Now, maybe he was just flattering me, but he made it sound sincere!

I know that folks who prefer worshiping in an alternative location — think a brewery! — can take flack from those who can’t believe that “church” can take place anywhere but a sanctioned holy house, complete with all the accoutrements.

I bet, too, that many traditionalists wouldn’t necessarily consider our little Thursday night gathering — we’re still working on a name! — at our shelter “church” either.

But I will emphatically tell you that something holy is happening in our little gathering each week.

We’ve recently baptized three people, two children of a family staying at the shelter, and another former guest who was 51 years old and never baptized. … All three were unlike any baptisms I’ve ever performed, but I felt it in my very cells that the Holy Spirit was present.

Friends, let’s stop making such a fuss over how we do this thing we love called “church.”

Do I love serving the traditional, rural church I’ve been at for just about a decade? You bet! … It brings me tremendous joy.

But I also love the many other times each week when “church” happens at our emergency shelter, or at our food pantry or our supportive apartment buildings … or frankly, when someone stops me on the street.

Each of those times, “church” is happening and those experiences are just as joyous, and just as “church.” Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.