Thanks to those of you that came & those of you that prayed for our Rally last night. It was an utterly cool night. I can honestly say that EVERY ONE of those prayers we prayed were ANSWERED! I was stoked about how many people showed up & mostly that the Holy Spirit showed up.
Part of it is the fun of just being together. I love just chillin’ and saying hello & catching up with people. Church is cool when people like each other. I had dinner with a few people. One was Petra. She’s a greeter at our church. I heard about her name & how she’s come to love it (not so much as a little girl). She is a greeter on our LIT (Lasting Impressions Team) ministry. She ate early and couldn’t wait to get out & start greeting people. I don’t think she was asked; it’s just in her spiritual DNA. Cool.
Worship was awesome. The rally was mostly about owning a vision. Jason is a vision / passion guy & I thought that came out as he led us in worship.
The panel was STELLAR! Each story was moving, full of insight, motivating and Christ-exalting.
Mike was able to do a little riff on staying focused from Nehemiah.
Then I did something of a vision talk kind of laying out for people who call Journey THEIR Church; kind of a reflection on what is in front of us.
My favorite part of the talk (weird to say I know) was something that wasn’t in the notes, just came out. Here it is more or less:
We have really 3 things that make up our life: Time. Energy. Resource. We own a vision when we are in with ALL 3. It’s great to give time. It’s great to invest energy. It’s nice to invest our means. But we are in with SKIN when we have all 3 in the game.
O.K. The highlight of the night: FUN WITH PROPERTY DEFACEMENT.
It was moving beyond words when we went to one of our walls & wrote names of people we care about who are far from God right on the wall with sharpies. This idea came as I was running some ideas by our facilities team leader (he never even flinched – Matt rocks!). It became real obvious that the Lord was in it.
Here’s some cool pics.
A lot of people felt reminded of prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Having been to the Wall & put many prayers in the cracks, I could kind of see it.
May the Lord fan into flame our passion for lost people. When it comes down to it this is what J-Up is all about.
Check out a comment on an earlier post – chills! Thanks Greg.
Last night was great…I felt a little like a soldier in Henry the V’s army as he was giving the speech prior to the battle of St. Crispins Day…”this story shall a good man teach his son…we few we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today who shed’s his blood with me shall be my brother be here nare so vile this day will gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now in bed will consider themselves cursed they were not here with us and hold their manhood cheap while any speaks that fought with us upon St Crispins Day!”
Journey Up 2.0 will be for many of us here, a mark in time, that defines a changed life, a mended heart, a renewed commitment, a saved soul. And if in that process the financial situation of the church is reclaimed, all the better. My prayer is that this becomes a time for this church of heavenly investment, of personal growth in relationships with Christ…where people will look back with “advantages” to the new lives created in them from this time forward; that the victories gained in these days would become the St. Crispin’s Day moments in lives well lived in service to the Kingdom.
