Saturday, January 22, 2005

We're here in Fresno. The Lord has been moving powerfully here. It's really been an incredible weekend. We're missing Mike, but we've been surrounded by the grace and power of the Lord. Powerful! The times of worship have been really moving and the people who've come from as far away as Alabama and Kentucky (mostly west coast folks though) have been extremely engaged in worship.

Here's a thought...maybe we should do something to make Sunday mornings more valuable to people. If we charged or made them drive 100 miles to get there, maybe they'd be more committed to the thought of coming for the sole reason of lifting up the name of Jesus. (of course, I'm kidding--sort of) It just seems to me that the reason these times are so powerful is because at these conferences all 500-1000 people (depending where the conference is) come ready. They're there because they want to be. They come hungry. There's an energy knowing that we're all there to lift up the name of Jesus. Sunday mornings too often lack that, in my opinion.

The team is having fun being together. It's one of God's greatest gifts to me. These people have weathered some serious stuff together. The ZOE singers are family to each other. It's a big blessing.

Tonight John York will fill in For Mike. Pray for him. It's really never a fun thing to fill someone else's shoes. He'll do a wonderful job though.

Blessings to all of you. Greetings to those of you in Nashville. Be sure to give Phillip Duncan a hug in the morning and thank him for his leadership while we're away.

1 comment:

Tim Castle said...

Ditto what you said about God moving powerfully. It's been a great weekend so far, starting with the worship time yesterday morning and going into the worship leader's track. The discussion was great, the ideas were helpful, and the time to meet others was, as always, a blessing. The worhip time we had with the stations was awesome, especially seeing how my kids got into it.

My kids are such an education to me. Their expressions of worship go beyond mimicking what they see their parents do. Natalie is insistent about seeing the screen and the praise team when it's time to sing. She makes me hold her so she can see, and presses her head against mine so tightly, except when she needs to lean away to clap. I love hearing her sing, even if it's a little off-pitch. John gets into the visual and tactical things -- the clay yesterday really grabbed him, and the videos draw him in. He doesn't get into the singing quite the way Natalie does, but he just had to sing along with "Who Am I?" last night.

As usual, my friend, God is using you and the rest of the ZOE folks to do great things.