Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Way Church Was Meant to Be!

Monday night was one of the sweetest nights of ministry I have ever experienced!  We had the premier launch of "Church at the Joe."  This was a night of kicking country Christian music, worship, prayer and preaching.  God moved in a powerful way.  There were over 600 in attendance and over 30 people trusted Christ as the personal Savior of their lives for the very first time!  And all this took place in a country music dance hall and bar.

It was so refreshing to get outside the four walls of the Church bubble (literally for us) and just be the Church in our City!  It just felt so right.  It just felt like something Jesus would do.

There was an air of excitement and energy like I have never known as the people came pouring into the building.  We had media coverage from all three local television stations and the Knoxville newspaper.  We even discovered that a nationwide Christian radio station had picked up the storyline for the day.  ABC News, New York called and did a phone interview for thier webpage.  And all this started in the heart of a layman who had a dream to do something significant for the Kingdom of God. 

After the service, the dance floor was full of people laughing and smiling as they tried out some country line dancing.  Others were talking smack around a friendly game of cornhole.  Still others were praying together and celebrating the night with light hearted conversation and soft drinks. 

From a distance, as I took it all in, I said to myself; "I would have never thought in a million years that this could be what church or vibrant ministry could look like for me."  I smiled, breathed out a big sigh of relief and said, "now, this just feels right!"  "This is surely how Church was meant to be!"  I cant wait till December!