We wrapped up a series this weekend called “Significant”. It was really quite a cool series. They were lots of cool things throughout this series that I liked
• SIGNIFICANCE VIA SERVING and the MINISTRY EXPO – We are still following up all the 1st time serving people. The response was cool.
• SECRECY – I don’t think I ever taught directly on this. It was fun & it had lots of life in my own life. I see so much image management in my own life. There have been several times in the last couple of weeks that God has said to me, “This is just between us.”
• TODD STEPPING IN – Todd Tolson stepped in last week & did a great message. I listened to the CD on Tuesday. It was insightful, funny, challenging. Thanks Todd!
• SIGNIFICANCE AS A PRIMAL SOUL NEED – I am glad the Lord led me to this concept the 1st week. Part of this thought was shaped by psychologist Larry Crabb’s idea that we are all unconsciously strategizing for security & significance. I really think that this is part of the Imago Dei. I love preaching on stuff that you know that people have felt their whole life, but have perhaps never put words to.
• LEADERSHIP SUMMIT – that was this month & was like rocket fuel to my soul. I’m still processing some of the talks. I sense they will reverberate through our community for a while.
• THE WEDDING – I’m still taking this one in. See a couple of posts ago.
THIS WEEKEND: We talked about significance through the practice of prayer. The challenge is staying focused. There is so much that can & should be said in any talk on prayer. Here are a few highlights.
• THE PRAYER STATIONS – we planned this weekend to feel a little like our Good Friday services – shorter message & some kind of spiritual practice / activity & communion. I was worried about the “new to church” people. When I first started going to Church I was afraid of being asked to do stuff that would make it clear that I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. So we try to be sensitive to this. We got to test this right out of the box on Friday when my daughter Bethany showed up with 4 friends, 2 of which had never been to church, the other 2 “veterans” were on their 3rd visit to Journey… They loved it.
• OBSERVATION: PRAYER IS A FELT NEED. Pretty much everybody prays. I prayed before I knew God. Offering help in something people are already doing is a cool way to connect them to God & join HIM in something He is already doing in their lives.
• WORSHIP WAS FANTASTIC – We had cool songs; it sounded great & there was extra anointing.
• ONE DOZEN PRAYER OPPORTUNITIES – we took sign ups in the lobby for prayer opportunities. How cool that there were 12 different tables.
• WE HAD EXTRA PRAYER PEOPLE MANNING THE VARIOUS PRAYER STATIONS & THE ABOVE MENTIONED TABLES… there seemed to be extra anointing on each message. COINCIDENCE? I got to think of an excuse to get them to be in all the services more often.
• WEEPING – I was surprised as I cruised around the various prayer deals in the service how many people were crying. With NO prompting or manipulation. Lots of us felt the spirit descend on the room as the peeps were released to pray. Cool!
• MESSAGE WISE – I felt led to share a story about my brother Dave on Friday, I scribbled it onto my printed notes on my way out of my office. For some reason, this is hard for me to talk about. He died of a drug overdose about 19 years ago (Sept 27). I was assuming that was a leading for Friday. Before each other service a different person specifically told me that story needed to be in the message for that service. Hmmmm.
I’m kind of sad to see this month & this series end. Summer’s over! (for those of you outside of SD, that means the beaches are less crowed & the weather turns, umm, how do you say – perfect)
Of course if you saw the promo video of the series on “The Other Joseph” you, like me are looking forward to next weekend.
