Sunday may have been the most significant service we’ve had at WH since I’ve been here. We put our graduating seniors on stage and then let the church loose. For the next 90 minutes, these students heard how we have seen God work in them and through them. No agenda, no music, just God-stories all morning long.
And it was awesome.
When we started planning the service months ago, there was some hesitation. Sure, it could be an awesome spiritual marker, but what about those who hadn’t made their faith a priority? What about those who came only to the midweek life group? The rest of the church wouldn’t know who they were. What about those students whose families weren’t believers? Would they even show up? What if nobody said anything?
Is the reward of having a spiritual marker for our graduates, our student ministry, and the church as a whole worth the risk? That’s the question that ultimately we had to deal with and I’m proud of our Creative and Student Ministry Teams in their answer – YES.
Losing Control Of A Service
We had in our minds the service lasting about an hour. There were a couple of times when I tried to ‘wind down’ the sharing. Wasn’t going to happen. People kept getting up telling stories of how this student coached their kid in Upward. This student babysat and the kids wanted to grow up to be like them. A couple of students were now followers of Jesus this past year because of these students. Life change story after life change story.
Every time there was a lull, I’d stand up to close the service but someone else would stand up. Finally the seniors just took the microphone from me and said – “Just sit down.”
But what a marker it was for our seniors. What a marker it was for the rest of our student ministry. What a marker for our church.
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2 Comments
Grant,
It was also a spiritual marker for us as parents. It reminded me that worship can occur without a sermon…imagine that! God was honored because He did a work in the life of students and involved the entire community of Western Hills to do it. What could be more worshipful than that? Thanks pal for loving our kids and for the team having the wisdom to do this. Also, the letter in the worship guide was perfect. I better stop…I am getting emotional just thinking about it.
Praise God for the wonderful service that you all had at Western Hills Baptist Church. Let us take the Youth energy and apply it life at 29th and Auburn Road.