Hi, it's been a little while since I've sent out an update and this one is a good one. We are always concious of peoples time and the weekends that we have these services we don't have a church sercvice the next day. That was always one of my gripes doing church the 'traditional way' all those years. Church shouldn't be a burden with so many time commitments that it interfers with healthy family time. So many people I've talked to have said, "I love God but I've grown tired of church". We are very sensitive to peoples time. When working, a house to maintain, kids in school, etc. time becomes a precious commodity. Doing Simple Church gives us the freedom to not over tax people.

Well, Steve had an idea, "Let's get here early for the Saturation Service and walk the streets with someone playing the guitar and talk to people and invite them to the service. It seemed like a great idea to me and we went about promoting it that way. Brett had a friend that had taught at the school of ministry he attended that played the guitar and said she would like to come also. Our plan was to meet at 6pm at the center and send a group out on the streets and have a group stay and pray.
Well time arrived and the group that went out was comprised of Steve, Bret and Linda. The group that stayed was comprised of "Me". For those that know me I got all busted up when I was in the service and recently became Medically retired because of those injuries. I was hurting and staying back and praying sounded like a great plan to me. I used to love street ministry but pain has a way of narrowing your focus. There's just some things I realistically can't do anymore.

Steve was a little concerned about heading out, he said, "I've never done anything like this before". I have seen him handle groups of youth (large groups), speak and teach classes and once I had to be somewhere else and he took the youth to an Acquire the Fire weekend convention. I knew he wouldn't have any problems. I stayed and cleaned up a little and prayed for them.
 
They came back rejoicing as God used them to talk to many people and broke down walls and calmed hostiities. I was really encouraged as they told me all the reports of how God worked through them. The area where the Freedom Center is located is a rough area and you never know who you'll run into on the streets there. It's like Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world in Mark 16. He said you'll encounter hardship, be persecuted, etc. but the one thing you can count on, the thing that will give you strength and the courage to do it is this, "I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Those who went out on the streets experienced the Lord's presence in a way that motivated them and gave them confidence.

What a great start to a great night. Brett wasn't alone this time doing all the music. Linda from the Westmoreland School of Ministry was there with her guitar backing him up. They both moved in a powerful anointing to sing, play and lead us all into God's presence. In my opinion the thing that's missing from the lives of many "believers", the thing that would bring them joy and strengthen them to 'walk the walk' is the Manifest Presence of God. That's what we began to experience to some degree. Being in His Presence really re-charges your batteries so to speak. It's really hard to explain what this is like to someone, I guess because there's nothing like it this side of heaven.  

Steve came back from the 'street ministry' really encouraged, he had a word for us as a group and began to minister and pray for people. To be honest I didn't even get out of my seat. I stood up a few times and raised my hands and sat down again. My hip, lower back and leg were really hurting and I was happy to let Steve move in the gifts God has placed in him. I've always been good at 'releasing' people to flow in the giftings God has given them. So many church leaders feel threatened, insecure and try to not let anyone else 'appear' to be more spiritual than they are. They manipulate and control the flow of the service and make sure the spotlight is always on them. I'm at the place where I say, "God use them!" If He uses them more than me, praise God. People need to be used in the ministry and be given opportunities. I think the biggest thing is that there needs to be an atmosphere of 'Freedom' where they feel secure enough to step out if they feel the Holy Spirit urging them to do it. Spiritually things were really popping! 

Patty was beginning to pray for people also. She came over and prayed for me and I ended up on the floor. It's kinda hard to control things when you are laying like a sack of potatos on the floor. I gave up doing that years ago and just trust God to keep things going in a good direction, He hasn't let me down yet. Steve was going like a ministry machine and I just sat and enjoyed God's Presence. I might have prayed for a person or two, I'm not sure. Things start getting thick and recall for me gets a little fuzzy at times like this.

All the while this is going on others are praying together and Brett and Linda are pumping out the live anointed praise and worship.  At one point when I looked over at them Linda was playing the guitar and Brett was singing the book of Psalms. That's when I know it's getting good when Brett puts down the written music, turns off the overhead and is just singing the Bible. To be honest I'm not sure exactly how many people we had at this service. It wasn't the biggest crowd we've ever had but it was a good sized group for a service like this. If we get many more we are going to have to seriously think about re-arranging things a little bit to accomodate them.

We have Saturation Services every last Fri. of the month. This month in light of school starting back up at the end  we wanted to be considerate of those with families and not over commit them. Our normal church service is Sat. at 5pm to around 6:30pm. Many times people stay longer to talk. I figure that if we can't say what we need to in an hour and a half then maybe we should just have a 'continuation' and continue next week. We have a meal just like the early church did and have genuine fellowship. We have 'open meetings' where everyones opinion is valued and we talk about scripture.
 
I do love the Saturation Services!  Till the next update, Yours for Him, Pastor Danny

 

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