That was a quote from someone who has been visiting our church. They said they had been to lots of Easter services, "but this one was amazing and moving. It was the best easter ever." Someone else said, "I have never seen anyone let baptism be the focus of an Easter service... It was awesome." We heard from some friends of ours who live across the street from a family visiting our church who said their 4 year old daughter came running across the street to tell them that the "real Easter bunny was at my church this morning."
Just a little bit of what God did yesterday at Journey. It really was amazing because God showed up and did what only He can do--change lives! Worship was awesome... the guys knocked it out of the park! The baptism videos were awesome and told the stories of 7 people who were once living life far away from God and now they are becoming passionate Christ followers. I always get choked up when I baptize people and yesterday was no different. The only problems yesterday were totally my fault. I forgot to tell the tech guys about recording the actual baptism... so we missed that. Glad Zach had his fancy camera on the front row taking pics. We'll post them later. I know we aren't suppose to talk about numbers for fear of falling into the comparison trap...but we had 113 yesteday... we've been averaging 65. We challenge our people to double in attendance... It almost happened... So, I want to celebrate a couple of things:
- our people invited their friends and they came. Way to go... keep it up EVERY WEEK!
- our volunteers absolutely blew me away at their willingness to serve above and beyond and create an environment where EVERYONE felt welcomed and loved. Others came up to me after church and said, how do you get to volunteer around here? That's awesome!
After church we had the Easter Egg-stravaganza and the big giant inflatables ... it was cool to see some of our adults having fun and playing on the giant slide. (I didn't see any of them push any kids out of the way to break in line... that was a good thing.) I wished we could have that every week and we could begin the service by coming down the slide! That would be cool!
If you were there yesterday, I'd love to hear your thoughts. leave a comment or drop me an email. Have a great week.
Eric, I am excited that God did an amazing thing sunday at Journey church. He rewards faithfulness. You are Faithful!!!! Enjoy it...
Posted by: jeff murphy | March 26, 2008 at 06:39 PM
Good job dude! Glad you grew so much on easter!
Posted by: casey graham | March 25, 2008 at 05:57 AM
Great news Eric. I'm proud of you guys! Get some rest today.
Posted by: Pete Wilson | March 24, 2008 at 09:22 AM