What a great beginning to God at the Movies 5!
The fun factor that I mentioned in another post was off the off the hook.
I loved the songs that we used from the movie. Of course I’m a little biased since my son & Tegan were the ones doing that Moldy Peaches song.
The invite factor was rockin’ as well! I got introduced to dozens of friends & guests who were checking stuff out. The 10:30 service looked a lot like Christmas or Easter – that was cool.
Since I’m already overusing the term factor, there was one other that was high & honestly I was a little surprised. It was, for lack of a better way of saying it, the “stirring” of the Holy Spirit. I think it started with the new worship song that Jason & the team lead us in. Then during the message, I was surprised by how deeply moved people were & how many people were grabbing for tissues. Although we didn’t make this “an abortion message”, I did mention it & called Juno an “accidentally pro-life movie”. I have done a message on abortion at least once a year for as long as I can remember, but something was different this weekend. There were numerous women who came up seeking healing prayer. Just the mention of abortion stirs up powerful emotions in so many men & women. I’m going to talk about this in another blog post soon.
People made a real connection with the idea of believing & really leaning into the imago dei in themselves & affirming it in others. I really do believe that the reward for setting our course to live in cooperation with God’s renewal of the imago in us is that thing called “brokenhearted joy” (I believe that I 1st heard this phrase from John Piper). If you want to know what it was like from the stage at this point in the service, I remember saying some funny comment and … NOTHING. I knew right away & could feel the heaviness in the room. But it was a sweet thing not oppressive.
I’m already looking forward to next weekend!
