I love it when a plan comes together.
In most ministry cases, though, plans are rarely in our control. Even the best-laid plans of man can be tossed aside like a rag doll, if God has something better in mind. Still, I’ve discovered that if the right group of people get together, and if those people possess the same focus, then extraordinary things happen. If “the plan” is to collectively honor God by offering Him the very best we can, then He honors that sacrifice.
The plan comes together... and that’s what happened this past weekend.
For the third year in a row, I had the pleasure of leading worship during LAUNCH Weekend at my home church in Lutz, Florida. It is a weekend event that serves as a kind of “spiritual supercharge” for students, as they are making their way through the school year. Founded in 2011 by myself and my former youth pastor, Kyle Nix, LAUNCH Weekend was my first opportunity to lead worship for this style of event. I had full creative control, and had few limitations (given our limited resources). We worked hard, but I’m not sure what we expected to happen that first year. We certainly didn’t expect to catch lightning in a bottle, which is what happened. God moved in a mighty way that weekend, and from that point onward, we were going to bring our very best to the table for this event.
Two years later, I joined forces with youth pastor Dan Lyle and speaker Jon Stepan to once again put on this event. Since I’m currently in a unique position than previous years, I really felt compelled to push the envelope with our musical expression of worship. Aside from the continued use of technology as an enhancement to my style of worship, this was the first year that I had an established band and repertoire at my disposal. I had also (gratefully) gained the trust of my church's leadership, who gave me the go-ahead to do something different from our "normal" services.
We went for it... and it was good.
My tag-team partners in leading worship for LAUNCH 2013, Allyson Kehoe (right) and Tayler Biles (left).
The funny thing about life, however, is that it continues to unfold without regard to "fun" events like this. It was certainly one of those weeks in the greater body of my home church, where we experienced everything from the joys of new life to the pains of unexpected death. As we cranked through the weekend event, the students were ready for worship. Once Sunday morning arrived, however, the Spirit was ripe to move through our entire church body. And move, it did.
This is the one thing that continues to stay with me, even after this weekend has ended. In planning this weekend event, there was no way for any of us to know what this past week was to bring for our church. Moreover, I am in a very limited position to do much to help minister to our church body in situations like this. Our plans were set months ahead of Sunday morning, and we were in no position to change things at the last minute.
But, this is how God works. Only God can allow a worship set list decided over a month in advance to strike the perfect chord in the hearts of the worshippers gathered. Only God can ensure that the perfect group of people are gathered to help shepherd the congregation through the desires of the Spirit. And, most importantly, only God can give a very exhausted group of leaders the strength to get through a service like that... twice. We are all nothing without Him, and it is only through Him that plans truly come together.