Last night was our first Experiencing God worship and story night. Shanda and Rachel did a great job planning for the night and it was great to see about 6 or 7 small groups well represented.
We started the open mic testimonies about 8:05 and frankly, I wasn't sure what to expect. About 8:55 I had to simply say, "that's it for tonight". The testimonies flowed one after another. I don't know what everyone was experiencing but hearing the God-stories for so many different people's lives was tremendously faith-building. It was exactly the encouragement I needed. Thanks to all of you who shared.
Now for this next part of the story I need to back up a bit in the day...
I was driving up to my kids' school to pick Tyce up when I noticed a banner outside of Fearon's Pub--Wellington and Ashland. It said, "Open mic night... guitar giveaway." Now I knew that Kyle was fussing about his junky guitar so I thought, "hey, free guitar." Texted Kyle and he was interested and the time for the open mic was 9:30pm--perfect. Go to the worship and story gathering and then go hang out in a pub and listen to some part-time troubadours.
What I didn't anticipate was that half the church would be showing up too. (Okay, it was just the entire Friday night small group.) There was something very right about a group of Christians taking their worship into a public house amidst beer, chili, sammichs and rowdy patrons. Felt like salt shaken in just the right place.
The free guitar? A Rolling Rock plastered electric--apparently a decent little potato masher. 5 people played and sang. 2 of them were part of our group--Kyle and Eric. Both of them rocked.
Kyle sang a subtle worship song called Mercy, a great song about loving his wife called Cumbersome and another song. All 3 originals. He said it was his worst job ever on those three songs and I thought it was great--tells you what I know about music.
Eric went last and also sounded great. His fingers were dancing on that fancy, chubby guitar of his. He gave a shout out to Jesus in a tactful way, sang some great worship tunes that he'd written--subtle songs with a good redemption message.
After he finished, I left (it was VERY late for this pastor/dad/husband dude.) Got a text this morning--Eric won the guitar.
Experiencing God Through Open Mic Night at the Pub. I'm sure that will be Blackaby's next special EG Workbook edition. Oops--nevermind... Driscoll already wrote it.
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