Fighting The National Weather Service

Last weekend we held our second God In The Great Outdoors (Gitgo) of the Summer. These services are different from our normal service in that we use illustrated messages with themes that set the pace for the whole event. Last Sunday we did Mission:Impossible and from the time you walked in the door you followed a burning fuse, had to get through customs with a passport, and I preached from a German checkpoint.

Probably the biggest surprise was the sport bike that came riding into the amphitheater and dropped off my Bible during the middle of my message. I heard people didn't realize it was a planned stunt. They just thought it was a random interruption until he stopped in front of me. Then they applauded as he road away.

The worst part of the day was that we had to fight the national weather service. Though we had diligently worked to invite friends, neighbors, and family only a few braved the heat to come out with us. I wanted to express that I was proud of the efforts of SRCers to get people to church. It just wasn't meant to be that time. Doing outdoor events under heat advisories may not be the smartest thing anyway, we're trying to find more flexibility under those conditions to move inside.

The best part of the morning was that God answered my prayer. At about 5:18 on Sunday morning I prayed in my office that God would use the message of the morning to bring salvation to the souls of people attending. At the conclusion of my message three people raised their hands to receive Christ and prayed the sinner's prayer. Here's the bottom line. We sweat, work, burn, setup, tear-down, have meetings, spend hours on little things to make the service stand out, give hard-earned money and effort for this one thing... Souls. Mission:Accomplished.


--Ben