It’s offically Thursday morning here in the Sheets household (12:35AM to be exact) – I’m finishing a cup of decaf coffee that my wife brewed after my long shower and I will be glad to roll into our bed in just a few minutes – but I felt the “need” to update all of you who might have been praying for tonight’s goings-on!
Tonight was an incredible event.
The Warsaw Wesleyan gym has never seen such a time as was had tonight. All together we had 111 people attend tonight’s Kick-Off! 79 of those were students in 7th through 12th grade, so we were shy of our goal of having 100 students, but still had a record-crowd for any BOX event!
Now for the real news…
For the last few months I’ve been feeling the Lord’s leading to do things a little different this year at our Fall Kick-Off. I haven’t really mentioned it a lot because I wanted to be sure that I was motivated by the Lord and not by anything else. What I felt God asking me to do was somehow present the Gospel at our Kick-Off this year. The last three Kick-Offs have been all about eating pizza, drinking soda, listening to loud music, and fellowshipping together. The last three years have been more about getting our students to bring their friends to a “church event” without it feeling too much like “church” and thus not seeing them ever again. This year it was as if I was nudged to present the Gospel in a “new” way – and at first I wasn’t sure what that would look like.
God is God – did you know that? He has a way of working things out.
Tonight I showed a 25-minute film illustrating the Gospel message of a father sacrificing his son to save a train-load of people. The film is called, “The Most” and the imagery is so powerful – I really can’t explain what it draws out of me – but I followed it up with a short, “lowest common denominator”, this-is-how-much-God-loves-you, message and then gave an opportunity for students to make a commitment to Christ for the first time.
Seven of tonight’s students stood to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior for the first time tonight!
It was an incredible thing to witness – not just for me, the youth pastor – but for their peers and sponsors, too!
I also invited those who needed to recommit their lives to Christ to stand and pray tonight and at least forty other students stood committing to get on the right track – tonight.
I’m so thankful that God still uses his “still, small voice” to get through to my media-hungry mind and ask me to “change things up”!
I’m also thankful that I won’t be needing to shave my head! (and so is Jess!)
Tomorrow I will attempt to sleep in for a bit and then I’ve got a few hours of work to do in cleaning up the things I didn’t get cleaned up before heading home tonight!
Ah, God is good.
As much as I wanted to see a shaved head – the fact that 7 young people came to Christ for the first time is AWESOME! Much better than a shaved head. Also awesome that 40 stood to rededicate. I don’t know if you realize it or not – but dedicated folks like you have a huge impact on young people. Especially those kids that do not have a Godly influence at home.( I was one of those) In a world where everything tells you that there is no God & that we are our own God events like last night are vital!
Way to GO P Stev!
Wow! I’ve got chills! Congratulations on a night to remember! God is doing a great work in you AND through you!
That’s awesome Stev! I’m so excited for you! And this is just the kickoff! Just think what God has in store for the rest of the year!
As one of your teens, I would just like to tell you how amazing last night was.
Not the hanging out and seeing all of those gangster girls..ha.
But, when we got down to the worship, and the message. as small as it may have seemed, it hit me right in the heart.
I have missed Wednesday nights so much, and I know that a lot of the rest of us have too.
I think you’ll really be surprised this year, at how much a lot of us have grown up.
:)
Rejoicing with you today, my friend!
Well, I have to ditto my pal Kathy… Stev.. you really DON”T know what an impact you have… and a positive one at that. Many of these kids who don’t have any influence.. see it in you and Jess. Some of these kids made comments about you last night that showed they KNOW your love for Christ and them! Your witness impacted them… The seeds can’t be counted, nor thier fruit! Thank you for listening to the Lords prompting, being open to do whatever He tells you, and loving those kids! oops.. TEENS! :)
Hey Stev! I’m pretty sure we watched that movie when I was counseling at YoungLife camp this summer. If its the same one, it is soo absolutely amazing and powerful!!! Those images still stick in my mind 3 months later! I’m so excited that it touched so many kids last night!
God is so good! I look forward to hearing future blessings that will happen with your youth because of what He did in thier lives at the Kick-Off. I remember as a teenager how important my youth pastor and his wife were in my life. God certainly used them to bring me into a closer walk with him. It is so awesome Stevan, that God is using you and Jess to help other teens come to know Him and a desire to be more like Him. So excited for you.
What wonderful, and blessed news. Thanks for sharing it with us. It is proof of answered prayer. We continue to pray for you and your family. Wow!!! God is so so good!!! Yes He is!!!!
I couldn’t help but notice that the first sentence after this awesome posting was A NIGHT OF STRESS from the previous posting.
Over the last few months, I’ve noticed that this STRESS has proceeded a wonderful blessing on many occasions. Maybe God has given you an internal warning system for incoming blessings.
That thought might make the next alert less stressful.
We’re so proud of what God is doing for you and Jess.
Dad
I love to see how God moves and gets us to come around to His way of looking at things. Congrats on a great kick off! I will keep praying for you and the kids.