How a Cancellation Becomes a Win

Friday night was an amazing night for Awaken Church! That’s weird to say when we had to cancel Movies in the Park, the biggest community outreach event we do all year.

All week, we knew there was a chance for rain and thunderstorms on Friday night. But, that’s pretty much every night in the Spring and Summer in Columbia, so everything went forward as planned.

Our crew began setting up for the event at 3:30pm. The weather was perfect, we had a ton of volunteers, and everything was rolling along very well. By the time the gates officially opened, we already had 600 people at the park for the event. 30 minutes later when I welcomed everyone and introduced our sponsors, 2100 people were at the park. Awesome!

It was incredible to see how well our teams served those in attendance. Red shirts were everywhere and doing everything from serving drinks and popcorn, to welcoming, to parking…even spraying bug spray for those who needed it. The best part was to see how much fun our teams were having while they served.

Then, 5 minutes before we started the movie, I get a weather statement on my phone saying a Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been issued for our area. We check the radar and sure enough, a massive storm is on its way with high winds, large hail, heavy rain, and lots of lightning. We could see the clouds and lightning in the distance, the wind was picking up, and the temperature was dropping. Not good!

I had no choice but to call off the event. As I stood to make the announcement, a gust of wind blew through the park that almost turned our movie screen into a kite! Thankfully, it fell gracefully, and no one was hurt. I announced the event was cancelled and asked everyone to leave calmly. What happened next blew me away.

Those same teams in those same red shirts went to work like I have never seen a group of people work. What took 4 hours to set up was safely packed up in about 30 minutes. I saw our team helping families gather their belongings, holding little kids hands, walking with people to their cars…doing whatever it took to help people. No one asked them to do it…they just did it.

With that many people leaving all at once and exiting onto the busiest road in our part of the city, 5 of our men ran out to the street with vests and parking flashlights and started directing traffic. No one asked them to do it…they just did it.

A team went around picking up trash that the wind was blowing everywhere. Another team was driving around the field gathering the trash out of trash cans. No one asked them to do it…they just did it.

Did I mention that it was pouring rain the whole time most of this was going on?

So, we didn’t get to show the movie. But, we did get to serve and love on people, we did get to bless our city and our sponsors, and we did get to have those divine appointment type conversations with people. And hopefully, God used our teams to demonstrate the gospel through their selfless service.

And that’s how a cancellation becomes a win. Awaken Church, I’m so proud of you!

Why We Do Movies in the Park

Heading into the Summer of 2009, our Launch Team was looking for a way to connect with the community in a big way prior to launching Awaken. After much discussion amongst ourselves, meetings with community leaders, and learning from other churches, we landed on Movies in the Park. What has happened since, has been nothing short of mind-blowing!

That first summer, with about 20-25 people on our launch team, we put on this outdoor movie event hoping that a couple hundred people would show up. Much to our surprise, over 1000 people came to both events! Last summer, we saw an average of 2000 people come to each event. Now, Movies in the Park has become an anticipated event in our part of the city.

Our goals for Movies in the Park are much more and much deeper than just drawing a big crowd of people. Here are the big reasons why we do this event:

1. To bless our city :: We constantly reinforce the DNA in our church that we are here to make a difference in our city. We want to be so involved in the city that if we vanished, the city would weep and miss us. The idea for this event really started out of conversations with community leaders and asking, “What does the community need?”
2. To involve people :: Movies in the Park has become a great first step for people who have been attending Awaken, but have yet to get involved. It’s fun to serve at the event and new people get connected with our Partners and volunteers.
3. To connect with people & invite them to Awaken :: While we do not turn Movies in the Park into a preaching crusade, we do want to leverage the opportunity to serve and connect with the people that come. There are many people who are connected and involved at Awaken now who first came to Movies in the Park.
4. To build partnerships :: Movies in the Park could not happen without sponsors and partners from the community. This year, Verizon Wireless, Chick-fil-a, EdVenture Children’s Museum, Coca-Cola, Richland County Recreation Commission, and Gary Patterson State Farm Insurance are stepping up big time to make the event happen. We value these partnerships not just for Movies in the Park, but for other opportunities to serve our city.

We thank God for the platform and favor He has given us in the city through Movies in the Park! We’re excited about this years events on May 13 and June 17. If you haven’t signed up to serve, email our event director Misti Bailey (misti@awakencolumbia.com) and join the team putting on this great event! And of course, invite everyone you know to join us on Friday night. It could very well lead to them taking that next step to follow Jesus!

Easter Highlights

We had an incredible Easter Sunday at Awaken as we celebrated our Triumphant King Jesus! God graced us with beautiful weather, record attendance, and a powerful move of His spirit as we saw lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ!

I’m so proud of our partners and volunteers. Easter was our first Sunday doing two services and they pulled it off like they’ve been doing it for years! Everything from set-up to tear-down ran smoothly. And, all that with a record number of adults and children in attendance and baptism after both services. Awesome job!

Over 30 people indicated they trusted Jesus as Savior! 5 of those immediately took the next step and were baptized on the spot. There were a couple of incredible stories:

• During the first service, a mom and her two kids all trusted Jesus as Savior and were baptized following the service. The family was invited by one of our Partners who stayed with them the entire time and was absolutely overjoyed at what God did in their lives!
• In the second service, a lady trusted Jesus as Savior and took the step to be baptized. Her husband and parents were with her and all were totally overjoyed. After the baptism, her parents told me with tears in their eyes how they have prayed for years for their daughter to trust Jesus as Savior and God answered their prayer on Sunday!
• Between services, a man told me he trusted Jesus as Savior and wanted to be baptized after the second service. The cool thing about that is on Monday, he and his wife had their second child! A new Christian, baptized, and a dad again all in the span of a few hours – amazing!
• Later on Easter afternoon, I talked with one of our AwakenKids elementary students and her parents. She trusted Jesus as Savior and after talking with her parents, she wanted to let me know. She kept saying over and over how the gospel became real to her on Sunday! Way to go parents and AwakenKids team!

All this week, we have heard story after story of people who were at Awaken on Sunday who have not been to church in years, if at all. With almost all of them, we’re hearing those same people say they can’t wait to come back this week. And, thanks to the initiative of some of our Community Group leaders, some of those who were with us for the first time on Easter have been invited to and are attending various Community Group gatherings over the next week or so. Win, win, win win!

I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that Easter was a game-changing day for Awaken Church. We saw our mission to make God’s name great through lives changed by the gospel of Jesus come to life. I can’t wait to see what’s next. I know this much already – the best is yet to come!

Somebody Invite Somebody

Anticipating is building for Easter at Awaken Church! I absolutely cannot wait to see how God moves as we gather to celebrate the Risen Jesus.

If studies are correct, then over 80% of your friends who are not Christians or do not attend church are at least open to and likely to respond favorably to your invitation to church for Easter Sunday. In anticipation of what God is going to do and to create more room to invite more people, Awaken will have two identical Easter services at 9:30 am and 11:00 am. It’s going to be a huge day!

A lot of you grabbed a stack of invite cards on Sunday and by the time you got home, the fear had already begun to set-in. What if they say no, what is they punch me in the face, what if they cuss me out, what if inviting them hurts our friendship…all these thoughts may have run through your head.

Let me encourage you to push out of your comfort zones and fight through the doubts to invite your friends to hear the gospel and worship Jesus on Sunday.

If you had free tickets for choice seats to see your favorite sports team, you would have no problem inviting people to join you. This is really no different…but it is because what Jesus has done for us is WAY more important than anything teenagers or grown men/women have ever done with a ball or a puck!

Here are some practical ways you can invite friends to Easter at Awaken:

1. Pray for people by name  each day. Trust that God is already at work in their lives. Ask Him to soften their heart.
2. Share a meal with your friend and invite them over the meal. Pick up the tab and invite them to church. Or, you could invite their family over for a meal in your home. Serve them well.
3. If you go out for a meal, ask how you can pray for your server before you bless your food, tip them well, and hand them an invite card before you leave.
4. Offer to eat lunch together after church on Sunday. Offer to pick them up or caravan with them on Sunday morning.
5. Talk about Easter at Awaken on Facebook and Twitter. Aim for at least one status update per day that would include an invite to Easter at Awaken.
6. Point people to our website. They can listen to previous sermons, get all the info they need for AwakenKids, etc.
7. Prayerwalk through your neighborhood and invite people who are out working in the yard, playing outside, out for a walk, etc.
8. Put some invite cards on your desk, your coffee table, your car console, etc. where people will see them and ask you about them.
9. Keep invite cards with you all the time and be ready to step up when the opportunity pops up!
10. There are literally a zillion ways to invite people…these are just a few.

The point is this – God can use your invitation to radically transform a life. Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to invite your friends to hear and respond to the gospel on Easter Sunday.

AC’ers…I’m praying for you as you invite your friends and people you cross paths with this week. I am praying for and expecting a move of God on Sunday – that God would make His name great through lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ!