Simply The Spirit

Last night we had some surprise guests come and lead worship in our mid-week STRIVE youth service. There were only a handful of youth and a few of us "older people" in the service. These guys came with two acoustic guitars and a love for God. The Holy Spirit met us in a very tangible way. We could feel him as he moved about the room.

Normally, our Wednesday night service is a Bible Study led by Pastor Josh (PJ) and it runs from 6:00pm - 7:15pm. Last night, we were still praying and praising at 9:15pm. It was incredible!

Really excited about some things spoken over my boys, confirming what God has been speaking to their hearts. Gotta love it when the Spirit uses someone you don't even know, or have talked to, to confirm something that you have been praying about.

Strive Youth Ministries remains small in number, but I believe that the Holy spirit sparked something in their hearts last night that will escalate into something beyond our wildest dreams.

It's easy to fall into a rut of trying to program church growth. It's refreshing to remember that it is "Not by might, not by power, but, by My Spirit, says the Lord"

Faith - We BELIEVE or We Don't

Okay, so there is an average of 20 visitors attending Grace Fellowship each week. One of the areas of ministry that we have identified as a priority, is in our visitor follow-up contacts. First, I tried to re-invent the wheel and design this elaborate program to help us track and keep record of our visitor contacts.

NAH!

Yesterday, we decided that we (our Pastoral Staff) were going to be men of faith and opted for a $20.00 a month subscription to Power Visitor, a program from Connection Power. Wow, talk about turn key! I'm impressed. It utilizes a team of individuals from the church who communicate with each other via emails to reach out to visitors through letters and phone calls. It really tracks our guests and allows us to have more detailed information about them and their needs.

I'm excited and curious to see how our congregations involvement in this program affects our visitor retention over the next few months. Sometimes in ministry, we have to take steps of faith. Do we have the resources to invest in computer programs right now? Well, there are plenty of other things that require funds, but, if we are faithful to God and faithfully minister to the people that He sends us, I believe that He will provide for our needs.

I'll keep the few of you who read this blog posted.

WOW

First I have to give "mad props" (Konanese - I'm learning) to the people who comprise Grace Fellowship. They worked tirelessly in the heat and humidity to put on Summer Blast '08 this past Saturday. We estimated that a total of 400 people showed up to enjoy the food, inflatables, games and concerts. The Keelings were awesome and were well attended by the southern Gospel music lovers. Fast Awake, Cornell Jordan and Beyond The Rage really blew-it-up for Christ on the Patio Stage that evening!

Special Props to Beyond The Rage's lead guitarist Bret Sanor for sharing his testimony after the concert in the Youth Room. For a guy who died in an industrial accident, came back to life and fought back through 2o broken bones, 27 pins, 4 rods and being told that he would never regain total use of his left arm and hand, he sure wails an awesome axe. He's the real deal, he knows his Bible and he knows his Lord!

God is awesome and when his people are willing to be used in many ways, great victories happen.

God's Gonna Blow-It-Up Big!

On Saturday, July 19th, our church is putting on a community event called SUMMER BLAST. As part of my duties as the Associate Pastor, I have been in charge of delegating responsibilities to the many leaders and volunteers at Grace Fellowship. I am amazed at the tremendous amount of servant-hearted people that God has blessed our church with. People have really taken whatever I have passed to them and are running with it. They are awesome!

One area that I have focused on, personally, is securing bands to play both inside the sanctuary and on the outside stage. We had scheduled a contemporary/gospel band to play inside and two Christian Rock bands to play outside. The tale begins here...

Monday, July 7, 9:30 AM - I get a phone call from one of the bands scheduled to play the outside stage, informing me that they can no longer participate in the event. No problem, after all I have almost two weeks to find a replacement, right?

Wednesday, July 8, 10:00 AM - My cell rings again, this time it is the other band very apologetically bowing out. At that point I had two options,(1)freak-out and allow the stress to pull my focus away from God's purposes, or, (2) go to God in prayer and ask for his help. Ok, I admit it, after freaking out a wee bit, I started praying. Within the hour from that time, God had given us another 2 bands, a pro sound and light stage and a lead guitarist with an incredible testimony! Oh yeah, the bands,who played the main stage at the Alive Festival this year, are playing for free.

We haven't even had the event yet and God gave us 28 visitors in church yesterday, brought about by the contacts made in preparation for this event! We have no idea how many people will be at this event but we are praying and believing God to work in and touch every life.
We will follow the event on Saturday by inviting all of the guests to FRIEND DAY on Sunday.
God is doing something amazing!

Unity of God's Message

Our Lead Pastor's son spoke during both services yesterday. Both were powerful messages that God intended to touch many lives. It was interesting to see how, even with a different speaker, God's message was directed towards the same end as our past few services.

What is God speaking to His church? Typically when you have a series of messages on the same topic, especially from different speakers, God is clearly sending a particular message. A message within a message that is always intended to draw us closer to Him.

A Locked Door

As part of the means in which we make a living, Robin and I clean a pet grooming shop every week. Last Saturday evening found us again at the task. This time it was a bit different. While we were working inside, the Steel Valley Super Nationals - car show and cruise was going on in the streets outside. Hundreds of muscle cars, monster trucks and bikes were cruising up and down the streets with spectators lining the sidewalks for two miles.

All was well and good until a thunderstorm moved in, dumping out a torrential downpour. People were running for cover: cars, awnings, or stores, anything to get out of the rain. Since we were cleaning the pet grooming shop, the lights were on. This led to many requests to come in, which I had to refuse. The weatherman called for thunderstorms and heavy rain, but I don't recall seeing a single umbrella or poncho.

It made me think of the many people that are cruising through, or simply watching others, cruise through life without a thought or plan for Christ's coming. Even with many warnings, many will be left outside the locked doors of Heaven in misery, missing the blessings of eternal life with Christ.

I wish I could have let them all in because I felt sorry for the people on the wet side of the door, locked by the boss's orders, I must admit that I was glad to be warm and dry.

In life, at death or at Christ's return, what side of the door will you be on?