Yesterday, we celebrated Good Friday McLean style. We showed the Passion movie on a huge screen with the ultimate surround sound system in the Smith Center. I had no idea what to expect regarding this event. The only thing that I knew was that God wanted me to share the Gospel with the people who came to the movie. That was my job. The rest was up to God.
Just before 6:00 PM, God threw us a curve ball. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago, there was a typo in the bulletin. The movie was to start at 8:00 PM, but the bulletin said 6:00 PM. Strangely enough people read it and showed up both ontime and two hours early. Our team jumped into action and got the moving up and running for them. Then, Dave Ramos, one of our pastors shared Christ with the early arrivers. That is when a typo became a God thing. As Dave lead the group to pray, a man prayed along with him and accepted Christ. Amazing. God can even use our mistakes to reach people.
With this experience in mind, we are all eager to see what would happen at 8. Well, what came next blew away any of our expectations. Over 700 people gathered to watch the movie. Many people brought friends and family just as we had asked them to do. The movie played. Let me just say this, the Passion has not lost it's power. The portrayal of Christ in this movie will never lose it's power in my opinion. After the movie, I gave people a few moments to compose themselves, then I shared the gospel focusing on Scripture and drawing on images from the movie. I am convinced that God created me for moments like this. I witnessed people come to faith in Christ and I witnessed people recommit their lives to Christ. This is what the Passion is all about. So glad that we took the risk and added the Passion experience to our Easter week line-up.
Can't wait to see what God does through the rest of the weekend services , Frontline Arlington and the Edge this weekend.
Just before 6:00 PM, God threw us a curve ball. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago, there was a typo in the bulletin. The movie was to start at 8:00 PM, but the bulletin said 6:00 PM. Strangely enough people read it and showed up both ontime and two hours early. Our team jumped into action and got the moving up and running for them. Then, Dave Ramos, one of our pastors shared Christ with the early arrivers. That is when a typo became a God thing. As Dave lead the group to pray, a man prayed along with him and accepted Christ. Amazing. God can even use our mistakes to reach people.
With this experience in mind, we are all eager to see what would happen at 8. Well, what came next blew away any of our expectations. Over 700 people gathered to watch the movie. Many people brought friends and family just as we had asked them to do. The movie played. Let me just say this, the Passion has not lost it's power. The portrayal of Christ in this movie will never lose it's power in my opinion. After the movie, I gave people a few moments to compose themselves, then I shared the gospel focusing on Scripture and drawing on images from the movie. I am convinced that God created me for moments like this. I witnessed people come to faith in Christ and I witnessed people recommit their lives to Christ. This is what the Passion is all about. So glad that we took the risk and added the Passion experience to our Easter week line-up.
Can't wait to see what God does through the rest of the weekend services , Frontline Arlington and the Edge this weekend.
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