So it's official ... again.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wow, what an amazing youth service we had tonight. It was to be the last service w/ the Velas being 100% the youth pastors. They presented me to the group tonight and it should be down hill here from here. The transition should be complete by October 1. So for those of you keeping score at home, thats two presentations down and one this Sunday to go. I'm so excited ... This whole Youth Pastor deal is so out of the blue. it really amazes me how God's plan all comes together. It is so wild. Anyhoo, Worship tonight was amazing ... absolutely amazing. Things had kind of gotten a bit off in that area for several reasons (I won't bore you with them here). So I talked to the team and asked Aaron to lead the next few services with just him and an acoustic guitar. Kind of going for a more intimate setting and not so ROCK N ROLL!!! The atmosphere in the place was amazing from the get go. The whole leadership team had been fasting all day. SIDENOTE: While we were on our annual Bell Family Holiday, the leadership decided to fast the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. I'll be honest, I wasn't too jazzed about the whole idea when I heard it, but I was wrong. I believe fasting is paying off HUGE. Now I'm the biggest fan of this whole fasting gig. It really is making a difference. We started off w/ about 30 min of power packed prayer for the youth and then a good 20 min of just greetin and hangin out. Aaron did a superb job of leading in worship. Really top notch. I'm so grateful that he went along w/ the idea to lay the band thing down for a season. He easily could have made a fuss. But there was none of that. After about a good fifteen minutes of worship, Rick really kicked it into high gear. This resulted in a 90% response to the altar, and about 100% of those respondents making commitments to either full time ministry or missions work. WOW ... so huge. During this time I was able to have some one-on-one time with someone God has really laid on my heart. Deep stuff. Amazing times. Seriously, I think this was the best CGEN youth service in a long long time. I'm praying that the commitments made tonight will last a lifetime.
posted by MATTHEW JOHN BELL @ 9/15/2005 12:06:00 AM,
