This weekend we launched Life Hurts God Heals during our first service North Campus gathering. I hung out for the launch to make sure everything went ok and Had Chris Gorham teach. He preached spectacularly of course, what I wasn't expecting however, was the overwhelming participation from the youth in the service.
Pierre broke some of our normal "lift rules" to start out our worship set. It was not a peppy, rah-rah, let's hop up and down feel. He shared from his heart and played an acoustic set reinforced with video clips from "The Passion of the Christ" movie. Usually teens need something super engaging to capture their attention for a service like that, but Pierre's authenticity and creativity broke down the usual funk we have to get past in order to get through to the young people.To me, this proves that teenagers respond first and foremost to authenticity instead of a cool light show, smooth transitions, and edgy video elements. That speaks to a deeper yearning to connect with the person of Jesus Christ.
Chris seamlessly wove in stories from Halloween experiences with his message on fear. It was full of great concreate examples of abstract concepts so that it was perfectly suited to young teenagers. The content of the message was actually suitable for any age group though, this guy has the right stuff!
I love that the service was run for the most part by guys younger than me. I realize that my value to shoreline and ultimatly the kingdom of G-d is directly related to my ability to let the Lord use me to reproduce other disciples, pastors, poets, prophets, and preachers! It was both humbling and exciting to catch a glimpse of that process because reproducing myself in others is beyond my capacity as a leader.
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