33live

Anyone who has worked in ministry for any length of time knows that with much careful planning, you can have a good church service…and when you throw those plans out the window and say “God, come mess things up,” you have a phenomenal service. That statement epitomizes 33 Live on the evening of November fourth.

The night started like any other typical youth group night. The Dibor eating in the lobby, a program meeting with lots of laughs, pre-service prayer. If you weren’t looking too close, you wouldn’t notice any difference. However, looking through a magnifying glass, you could detect little things that possibly had great repercussions. Someone putting a microphone up so that fiery prayers were spoken into the atmosphere. A call for every chair to be touched and prayed over. One of the prayer warriors running to the bathroom to reapply makeup that had been cried off in intercession and travail for the students that hadn’t even yet arrived. Little things that can shake a world.

And still, for the youth just rolling in at 7, nothing seemed too unique about the night. As always, there was a wonderful worship service with the group embodying the words they were singing about being a “dancing generation.” There was announcements, there was offering, and one of the Dibor stood to deliver their personal testimony.

This is where God decided to mess things up, in the most wonderful way.

Some were already feeling the anointing in the room from worship. Others began to feel it as Jay Rodgers laid his life bare and made vulnerable the things of his heart. It was one of those stories that causes you to wonder “how can one person possibly endure such pain?” And yet he called all to hope with his story of redemption.

As Pastor Christopher came forward to preach, he threw his carefully planned and much anticipated teaching to the wind and grabbed hold of the anointing present. Pointing out that Jay was not redeemed by a “cerebral” experience, he told the students that their generation is desperate for real encounters with the Living God…including all present. Then he called forward all who connected with the testimony in any aspect. The rest of the night, being completely ruined by man’s standards, was a smashing success in the Kingdom. Youth wept in each others arms far past the time when the leaders had wrapped up the service…and faces were transformed as they took their first breath of free air.