Though the weekend services at Granger are very important to how God is impacting people’s lives, it’s just a slice of the ministry that’s taking place around here. Most of what God’s doing, of course, happens outside the services. It’s happening in people’s personal time with God. It’s happening in relational connections. It’s happening in serving opportunities both inside and outside our campus.

The services are very visible and incredibly innovative, so they get a lot of attention. And, I don’t want to downplay the impact of hearing someone teach from God’s Word and participating in corporate worship, but God moves in people’s lives beyond just the one hour they’re at a service on Sunday morning. That’s why we try to gather the biggest crowd we can for the weekend services, and then encourage people in those services to take their next step toward Christ. We don’t want them to just play church. We want them to experience life change.

A good example of that at Granger is our camp for middle school students. This summer, we had to expand the camp to two weeks to accommodate all our students. Like the weekend services, they do some fun stuff at camp to attract students. There’s a high ropes course, a climbing wall, archery, swimming, games, singing, etc. In the middle of all that fun, there’s an opportunity for a next step to embrace God’s love and plan for their lives. This year 22 students asked Jesus into their hearts for the first time and 160 students recommitted their lives to Christ. Incredible!

On a personal level, I’d like to thank my friends and teammates–Judy, Corey, John, Rob and Mark. You all are heroes in my book. Thank you for investing your lives to help students take their next steps toward Christ. I guess I’m more cognizant of it now…especially since my little girl was one of those numbers.