This weekend we talked about SIGNIFICANCE THROUGH SERVING. In some ways this message & weekend was the center of our SIGNIFICANT series. This was the, “O.k., here’s what we as a church need to do” weekend in some ways. Here’s a few highlights:
• A TURNING POINT FOR PEOPLE – I usually have a couple of our prayer team types say a quick prayer over me for anointing sometime during the service. On Friday during this time I got a strong impression that this was going to be a turning point weekend. We have SO MANY NEW PEOPLE at Journey – I meet about a a dozen per week – that it is imperative that people take a step IN!
• A WORD FOR FRIDAY – the above seemed to result in one of those word from God moments right as Jason was praying at the end of the worship set – I felt like he was in a Holy Spirit zone. I got up & we had a prayer moment. I wasn’t sure if it was connecting. The next day my daughter Bethany told me that her friend from work whom she had brought, said – wow, what was said was just for me. Not the message, that moment. She said, before she arrived, that church really wasn’t her thing. I love how God works beyond us & our plans.
• MINISTRY EXPO – we had a ministry expo after the service featuring tons of opportunities to serve. We didn’t ask people to sign up, but just pick a couple of things they might be interested in. It was a great time. We had 185 NEW people sign up to be contacted.
• MESSAGE THOUGHTS – Honestly, I didn’t feel like all the services were equally clear & flowing well, but there were 2 things that were fun for me – I love speaking on a narrative of the life of Christ & its always fun looking at another way that the diamond of “Grace” reflects the light of life. I love how Jesus deconstructs our dysfunctional approaches to significance. Exaggeration
• PERSONAL STUFF – This was an interesting weekend with little ups & downs all though it for me. Up – beautiful beach day w/ decent waves on Saturday surfing with a great group of guys from Journey. Down – super crowded, someone drops in on me & dings my best board (2 boards in the shop). Up – it was Linda’s B-day on Saturday & we had a great dinner for her. Down – David’s car breaks down in Alpine during dinner. Down – feeling sick on Monday. Up – my friend Butch had some spare time came over & fixed some long overdue stuff at my house. We had a great time hanging out & catching up. There’s other stuff that I won’t bore you with, but its always interesting to me how the ups & downs of life for some reason surprise me.
