Celebrating What God is Doing - Monday Night Prayer 091409

Before our corporate prayer time on Monday nights which meets from 7 - 8, we have been having a devotional prayer time from 6:30 to 6:55. This really helps set the tone for corporate prayer. We have 30 or 40 people who have come to linger with God before corporate prayer takes off at 7. We usually play more intimate worship music over the speakers during this time to set the tone. We encourage people to read their bibles, to worship or just to pray during that time.

Monday Night as most nights people were ready to worship. We had just come off our 2nd anniversary weekend where there were 2650 in attendance. God continues to move in so many people and we hear story after story of life change. With that background you could sense the excitement of people in what God is doing. As we sang "Mighty to Save", "Everything" and "Came to my rescue" people seemed to truly be connecting with God.

We had a huge announcement to make that had so much meaning for us. I wanted that moment to be more that just a "here is an answer to prayer, let's be thankful". I sensed it needed to be a true celebration of our hearts as we heard this announcement. So I spent about 10 minutes sharing about the ways people celebrated. I also wanted it to be light hearted so that people wouldn't feel pressed to celebrate but be released to do that. So I shared on three different levels of celebration: Entry level, mid level, and advanced techniques. Again, we did this in a light hearted way. I had some guys illustrate the chest bump and the tiger pump as advanced techniques of celebration. Then I shared that anyone could use advanced techniques in the next thing I would share if they wanted to. This was all to set up our "Big" announcement. We had taken a risk and prayed for the weekend that 100 people would commit their hearts to Jesus on our second anniversary weekend. I know as a pastor we had prayer meeting every day of the week except Wednesday. And I had everyone stand as we made the announcement. 105 people had made a commitment to Christ for the first time this past weekend. It was a great site to see over 130 of our serious praying people clap, and make noise as they rejoiced in what God had done.

I think all of us continue to be amazed at how our God continues to do amazing things in our church and in our city. This celebration was a highlight for us as we continue to see people make the best decision they will ever make, inviting Jesus Christ to forgive their sins and come be Lord of their lives.

We closed with a worship song tonight.

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Thanks given for:

CC 28
Baptisms 20

Comments:
One of the greatest spiritual experiences I have ever had!

So amazing! It's different-like a breath of fresh air!

Awesome things are happening!

It gets better every week. Thank you!

Very insightful. You are truly inspired by the Lord Yahweh!

A blessing to be here!

Best experience I've ever had! Awesome!

There are not words to describe the way today felt, but it was amazing!

I had a conversation Sat night with a 1st grader that I was working with that was soooo excited because she brought her friend with her for the first time and they were having soooo much fun! The regular attendee looked at her guest and said, "See, I told you it would be fun! Isn't this the most fun ever!" Her friend giggled and smiled and yelled, "YEAH!" (We were singing part of this time, so it was loud :)

Prayer is Growing in the City - Monday Night Prayer 090709

We had 86 people come to pray on labor day weekend. How awesome is that ? Tonight after an encouraging time of worship we had a couple of people share about prayer times they have started. David Gray who teaches in a city lower school has begun a weekly prayer time with fellow teachers. He shared how prayer affects his school. Then Austin Wideman shared how he and a group of friends had started a prayer time for the high school students of the city. They were given a building to use by Frenship by a church plant. Their numbers jumped from 15 to 40 something the second week.

Cale York a college student shared about how God has called him to get involved in Youth with a Mission. He will be headed to the YWAM Missions base in Australia for training before he goes to serve an unreached people group in the world today.

Chris shared about our two year anniversary coming up the next weekend. We are moving to five services to be able to reach more people. We prayed specifically for 100 people to come to know Christ on that weekend as well as all the others aspects of the weekend.

We ended the night praying for anyone who needed prayer and praying specifically for single moms and stay at home moms.

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thanks given for
6 first time commitments
17 recommitments

Comments:
A breath of fresh air
Great, Pastor was amazing:)
Blew me away!
Wonderful series, great message
Needed to hear all of it. Thanks.

A Night of Intimacy and Prayer - Monday Night Prayer 083109

Last night was a time where there was such a sense of Gods presence with us as we worshiped and spent time cleansing our hearts before God and then on to various prayer topics.

I was reminded last night of a time when I was about 27 years old. I had just broken up with a girl I was very serious with and was struggling knowing my next step in life. I was very discouraged and broken. During that season I was in church one night and the worship leader came back up to the platform after the service was over and continued to play and lead worship for anyone who wanted to stay. I stayed and soaked in the gracious presence of God that night. I thought to myself right before i left "God I don't want to go back out there to the real world and deal with what I am going through" and I heard in my mind "It's okay, I will be with you". I knew God was saying He would be there as I walked through this tough time. And that season passed and I made it to the other side. I sensed last night the Lord was encouraging some others who were going through hard times emotionally that He would be with them.

We prayed for revival in our midst and in our city last night. We prayed that our two year anniversary coming up would be an amazing time of being in Gods presence.

We prayed that God would make Himself known in our day and in our time.

We ended the time praying for those who struggle with anger.

Logistics that worked tonight:
Turned the lights down to create an atmosphere where people were not as conscientious.

Read through passages in 1 Peter and Ephesians 4 calling us to put away our former ways of life and spent time asking God to show us any ways we were not aligned with Him.

Had everyone envision other parts of the building and pray for the ministries invovlved there

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Thanks given for:
13 first time commitments this week
10 recommitments to Christ

Tim-I needed that laugh! Thanks a lot!

Greatest Experience of my life! (this was a person that committed his life to Christ!)

So very freeing. Grounding!

Very encouraged and pointed to Christ,

Save the Childrens!...Love it! I love how we can praise Jesus, and still have fun! :)