Winter Ramp: Day 2

It’s day two of Winter Ramp and it’s gotten better and better!!

In the 10 am service Catherine Mullins lead an explosive worship set. We got a front row position! They played:

Made for Love

24 elders (WOW)

People get ready

How I Love You

How He Loves

Hero

Freedom

The push for this morning was deliverance. During worship there were four or five testimonies and prophesies about freedom from sin, addictions, and other bondage.

Tori and I got prayer and are feeling the affects of God’s delivering power!

The entire worship service was taken up by worship, testimonies and the alter call. The musicians played the whole time, which was neat to see their communication and leadership structure.

The song leader communicates to the bass player who has a microphone that is only piped through the band’s headphones. There’s no line of sight problems and it cuts down on miscommunication. Once WorshipArts gets an in-ear system I think we’ll set this system up.

The service ended with a joyful song that everyone jumped wildly to. One of the “Chosen” team members added a stanza to get everybody to get excited about what God had done. “I’m going to dance my crazy dance!”

We ate some sandwiches and checked out the bookstore. They have some really creative ideas for selling things. Big canvas-covered boxes used as signs, as well as creative cracker-barrel-like antiques scattered around the pristine event center. 

At 2pm the second service started. Rick Peno lead the worship. There was a bluesy electric guitarist that Rick asked to prophesy with his guitar. Very neat. 

You Are Holy

To Him That Sits On The Throne

"Singing, Making Melody In Our Hearts"

During that last song there was a moment where the lyrics stopped and the screen said "Make Your Own Song!"

To end the set, Karen Wheaton lead a 6-8 minute long shout of praise.

Chosen performed 2 of their dances, War Cry and My Beloved. Absolutely amazing group of Christians. My Beloved was done with all males, in a rotating/spotlight type of style. Very sweet. We ended up picking up their third dvd that's got 9 of their skits on it. Pretty excited to pull that out once we're back in Kalamazoo. 

There were two 15-minute short sermons given by two of the chosen team members. Very similar to what I want the WorshipArts message team to do at youth events. The first was a guy's story about using the spotlights God gave him in his high school to preach to his entire school about Christ. It ended with an encouragement to change schools for Christ. 

The second was a call to prayer, as well as practical instructions for how to pray. Prayer and getting into the Word of God were portrayed as vehicles to connect us with the Spirit of God. It was very encouraging, and ended with a time of prayer. The crowd gathered in youth groups to pray for their churches and cities. Our RooTs group prayed in a circle for an hour before breaking for dinner. 

After dinner Bryn Waddell was back. (yes!) They played: 

You Are Good (Bethel Church)

Happy Day

Freedom

Great I Am

The whole set was powerful, and didn't relent once. Damon Thompson came up and lead a prayer for healings during the last song.

Afterwards Chosen came up and performed "Behold the Lamb" which Karen Wheaton said they had been performing for over ten years! I first saw it when the Break the Grey interns did it at the Gathering Place Church at a RooTs gathering.

Perry Stone was the final speaker tonight and he blew everyone's socks off! He talked about offenses and how they are the devil's strategy for making christians give up. He said there are three strategies the devil uses to make the body of Christ quit:

1) Isolation - Elijah performed a dozen miracles and the very next thing that happens is he gets scared of Jezabel and goes off into the wilderness alone. This causes depression and eventually thoughts of his own death being desirable. Had God granted his fatal requests he would have never riden the chariot of fire up into heaven and fulfilled his destiny to be one of the two witnesses to the remnant of Israel in the final days. 

2) Shame - Perry Stone listed off dozens of instances in the Bible where great men were put to shame. But in every circumstance, God raised them up above their shame and saw to the finishing of the good work he began in each of their lives. 

3) Disappointment - When our idea of God's will doesn't turn out the way we thought it would go. We end up taking things back into our own hands and remove ourselves from God's perfect plan. We can get offended when we aren't given the big picture all at once, though if we got it all it would probably scare the pants off us. 

The service ended with a call to baptism in the Holy Ghost. The entire room was putting out more energy than any rock show I've ever seen. The people of God are so much better equipped to give exuberant praise than the world is. Even though the world tries its hardest to praise it's idols. 

Anyways, stay tuned for the final chapter tomorrow night! The service goes past midnight, so the update will probably be posted on the first of January. Have a great New Year! Be intentional about where your life is going! Don't let another year slip into mediocrity!

Please leave a comment!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 3