.Real.Greg.Lee.

I spoke in our Student Life Worship Service last night, so I put on the coolest shirt I own and experienced a powerful night with  them.  These High School and Middle School students are incredible.  They  are only outpaced by Jared (our Student Life Pastor) and the adult leaders that invest in them!

After I got to see them interact and worship with them, I got up to speak and I had to take a few minutes to tell them how thankful I am for them — because they make our church a better church.  Here’s why:

1.  Their worship is unbridled.  They sing with their whole hearts.  No reservation.  No worry about the person next to them.  No audience except God.  I think our adult worship has become more passionate lately too, but these guys are still a model for us.

2.  Their acceptance is extreme.  It’s a mark of youthfulness that we lose somewhere along the way, isn’t it?  They accept people for who they are.  They aren’t making judgements based on how someone looks, dresses, thinks, or what they have in their past.  They are GRACE WHOLESALERS.  Suncrest as a whole is really good at this too, but it’s always worth a personal check-in for each of us.

3.  They hang out.  Church isn’t an event or a service — it is a place to hang out with friends.  I didn’t see anyone walk in late and walk out as soon as it was done.  They connect in relationships where truth meets life.

4.  They aren’t perfect…and they know it.  We talked about communion last night and the essence of the gospel.  I described it this way:  I’m messed up.  I can’t fix myself.  God sent Jesus to bring make a way back to Him.  You could see it in their eyes…the HURT (of what they have done) intersecting with the HOPE (of what Jesus has done for them).

These students aren’t just “the future of the church”.  They ARE the church.  And our church is better for their influence around here.

~ by Greg Lee on September 23, 2009.

Posted in Suncrest