A Shot in the Arm

I think the word "revival" is way-overused in Christian cultures, it's become a cliche. So, I'm describing the last two Sundays at TFC as a spiritual "shot in the arm." It's been incredible, to say the least. And it's had nothing to do with me! In fact, I did my best to keep church from happening (see post below) and then spent most of the service helping in TF Kidz.
Here's a rundown from yesterday.

• I was feeling quite sorry for myself at 8:20 when it looked like the trailer had no chance to make it to the school. But when we pulled into the Madison Elementary parking lot at 8:40, I thought, "if things are going this bad now, it probably means God's going to do some great stuff in our service." Which is EXACTLY what happened.
  
• Our Set-Up guys are FAST. In fact, my dad commented, "I love watching you guys, it's amazing to me."
  
• I had a good time helping in TF Kidz. It was fun watching the kids play together, sing together and interact with Pastor Andy's story.
  
• We had a LOT of first-time guests on Sunday and a couple return guests, too. One family came because their daughter is a classmate of AJ Boyd, who invited her to church "in our school." Emily Crow's best friend was at TFC, too. It was her first Sunday. Emily walked up and introduced her as "the top person on my Fave Five (actually 12) list." Church, that's what it's all about!
  
• It's an amazing privilege to have had my former Pastor, Dan Arnold, with us the past two Sundays. As I said last week, next to my dad, Dan has been the most significant evangelistic influence in my life. Dan is all about reaching people for Jesus. In fact, when he first became a pastor, he told God he'd quit if he ever went a year without leading someone to Jesus. That happened several years ago, so he took a year off, worked at Lowe's and ended up leading a lot of people to Christ at his job. WOW
  
• I can't describe how amazing it was to look across the cafeteria and see families embracing each other in prayer. It was incredible. I heard all kinds of amazing stories about what happened during this time, but they're probably too personal to share. But God was certainly moving in our congregation.
  
• We had one of our largest non-Easter crowds ever! Last Sunday was a big crowd, too. One family who was at TFC for their second time, told me they're sensing God ask them to make some big changes in their life so they can be a part of our church's mission.
  
• To read a great summary of Dan's teaching on Prayer, check out David Brush's blog.