A Little “Behind the Scenes”

It all started around 1:00am this morning.  Rodney and I were wide awake and restless.

Rodney had just put his finishing touches on his sermon and printed his notes and I assumed it was finally time for bed.  But I was wrong.

Although he doesn’t do this very often, he told me that he was going to run through his message for today before going to bed.

I heard the back door to our deck open and close and just the light from the breakfast area was on and shining through the windows onto our deck;  just enough light for him to see.

And even though he had printed out his sermon notes and taken them with him outside, he walked back and forth on that deck last night, no notes in hand, and literally preached his heart out to the blackness of the night. It gave me chills to watch him through our bedroom window. He was full-blown preachin’ it to the trees, the stars, the sky, and our poor cat who had been locked out of the garage.  It was incredible to see his passion out there on our deck early this morning, giving it all he had.

And then the 10:00 Easter service rolled around. 

What. A. Day.

As I sat in my seat at OneLife this morning, I wished so badly that the people I have invited so many times, would just come.

It breaks my heart the excuses that I hear for not coming to church.  And trust me, I have had the same excuses.  I was not born yesterday, and I am not a naive church girl. I get it.

But what a lot of people, who I would love to be there, fail to realize, is that our church is designed to love everyone that steps foot in those doors every week.  We exist for people who have given up on religion, church, God…the whole thing. Church is not supposed to be a country-club, elite, uppity group of people with a bunch of judgmental values and standards.

But when I saw a raw passion in Rodney last night on the deck, it was a huge reminder to me that it is not about Rodney, or Harrison or a church.

Rodney does not get on stage every Sunday and hope that he makes himself or a bunch of <churchy> people feel warm and fuzzy inside.  His mission is to use the Gospel to help you grow in your relationship with God, and if you don’t have this relationship, to spark some interest in you that God just might care about you and love you more than you realize.  Because He does.

So people out there that hate church, God, and the whole shebang, just know that no matter how hard you fight it, you are being prayed for.  Every day.

We want you to know God. 

Our passion and mission is that you experience a new life, and that your new life lasts for eternity.