Sunday, we launched “Under the Influence,” a 2 week mini series where we talk about who influences you, and who are you influencing.
Everyone of us are influenced by outside sources: Our parents, spouses, kids, friends, bosses, coworkers, teammates, heroes, media, music, culture and the list can go on an on.
All of these voices are speaking into our lives and it is our job to limit the negative influences in our lives, maximize and discover new positive influencers.
We opened the service with an instrumental version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” After the song we did something that was out of the rote. Instead of kicking it off like most churches do with a melt-your-face, get your feet moving and hands clapping song, we read Psalm 100 and showed it on the screen as a call to worship. We followed it with a prayer to focus our minds on honoring God. We then kicked into the amped and epic Manifesto by the City Harmonic.
The message came right after Manifesto and was followed by a call for those far from God to make their first step and surrender to Jesus. Over 100 people made this decision. The second part of the call was to those who have been living their life under the influence of other things and have drifted away from Jesus as their main influence. Over 500 people signed a card saying they needed to re-surrender themselves to God.
I hate to say this, but the message wasn’t an emotional message full of deep theological truth or tear-jerking narrative. It was simple, clear and the call was given to respond and hundreds did. After thinking about this scenario I have three thoughts:
1) Holy Spirit does what we can’t. We need to do our part and let Him do His.
2) People are hungry for God to change their lives.
3) The weekend has to be missional for the church to be missional.
If we don’t model it, we can’t duplicate it.