Today at The Gathering far exceeded my expectations. Almost every seat was taken in the early service, and every seat was taken with people standing in the aisles in the second service. Plus, when I came in, all the hallways were full of people talking and serving, loving kids and doing great things. Just the chatter should be recorded, just the happiness, just the being in this moment, this divine place where God meets man in a moment of divine exchange!

For the first time since the existence of The Gathering, today we actually had video. We have been working hard and faithful to be able to plug into the theatre’s digital video systems and now that’s been accomplished. And it was great to see all the cool stuff, which really brightened up the room and made it an exciting experience – from the words, to all the pictures, to the countdown videos.

It was also exciting today to see the choir. And the music was really high quality and moving – not just something that you watch other people do, but that you joined in, too. There was that feeling of great participation.

It’s exciting to be around something that is just being born, with so many possibilities, so many happy people. People are doing things that matter; things that mean something. There’s less time to worry about the system and more time to focus on just serving one another in the love of Jesus Christ.

Unless I’m mistaken, we’re going to look back on today, not at the amazing attendance of so many people sitting and standing, but at what God has done in the hearts of the people who were sitting and standing in the room and outside; to see the reality that a risen Christ makes in everyday life. Because, let’s face it; if all Christianity is, is a bunch of historical stories about people that we’ve learned in our childhood, it’s really failed us in the world.

Christianity is the only enduring, prevailing rumor of hope the world really can hang onto. It’s the hope that life not only will get better, but the belief that God will help us. He’ll not leave us to ourselves. He is here to rescue, to redeem. And though very few times do you see in the news the God factor put in, we all know it’s there. And we trust it.

Today at The Gathering truly was a time to gather to worship, to get fired up to go worship wherever we go. Yea God! I can’t wait until next weekend when we go back to our series, “Loving God,” and we talk about savoring the sacred now. It’s probably my favorite chapter of the entire book. It’s about how we often get robbed in our lives from not being where we should be – not physically, but emotionally and spiritually.