June "BIG EVENT" Postponed

Remember the rodeo? Three years ago we wanted to pull off an event that would allow us to touch 2,000-3,000 people in a positive way so that we could meet them where they are and begin the process of moving them to where God wants them to be. The end result was a one day event that made connections with some 7,500 people. It was amazing. And over the last three years a lot of our growth as a church has come from people who have been making steps in their spiritual journey because of that first touch they had with our ministry at the rodeo.

Building on that, it was our goal to try to do the same kind of event this coming June but to make it more county wide rather than community wide. The thought was to rent out Clipper Magazine Stadium for a Sunday which would began with one big combined worship celebration and then and afternoon and evening full of free events that could allow us to make a first touch with some 10,000-15,000 people in Lancaster County. However, for this to take place, a lot of pieces had to fall together just right for us to be able to move forward full throttle. But as we near the end of January we have come to the realization that not all of the vital pieces needed to pull off this event have fallen into place and, as a result, we feel that it is best to postpone this event for now.

This is not a bad thing at all. We need to explore opportunities that are “outside of the box.” Some of these ideas will come to fruition and some of them won’t. But as I heard Craig Groeschel, pastor of Lifechurch TV, once say, “If we are going to reach people that no one is reaching, we have to do things that no one is doing.” I believe that. So, we will continue to think outside the box and trust the direction and timing of God for which of these ideas becomes reality. I especially want to thank the Big Event Planning Team that was working to see this event take place. I appreciate so much their sincere willingness to give of their time and efforts.

But we are not just postponing the “Big Event” idea until a more suitable time. We are still going to look to have on this same Sunday, June 27, 2010, a full-blown Grace Celebration as we find a location in which all of our people can come together for one big worship service in which we pull out all of the stops. This was one of the parts of the “Big Event” concept that I was most excited about and there is no reason why we can’t go forward with it. Imagine all of our church family together for one gigantic worship celebration. How awesome and cool will that be?

The reality is that on any given Sunday morning we have 1,500+ people in our facility. It doesn’t seem like that because we are all spread out in location and times. The teens and adults that are part of this 1,500+ people are divided into three services. 350-400 of these 1,500 people are 6th grade and under and they are in a totally different part of our building and they too are split between three morning worship services. How awesome will it be for the 1,500+ people who make up the Grace Church family to all be able to gather together in one place for one worship celebration and all lift up all of our voices as one to our great and glorious God?

So, be sure to mark June 27th on your calendars right now. Plan your vacations around that weekend. You don’t want to miss this Grace Worship Celebration. I believe that it will be so fun, so energetic and so remarkable that we will want to do it every single year!