WORSHIPCENTRAL
From Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB)
26 March 2009 - 1:40am
Have you encountered God powerfully during a time of worship that has either led you to become a Christian, or dramatically changed your life?
If so, we want to know. We’re doing a little research on the power of encountering God through times of worship, and we’d love your stories… Happy posting!
Steve Knott
From St John's Mansfield
26 March 2009 - 12:42pm
Me!
Brought up in a Christian house (dad is a vicar and attended loads of Christian events etc).
Didn't make my own decision until I felt the power of the Holy Spirit in a worship time at Soul Survivor 1995. I was amazed at the power and presence of God that I could feel, and suddenly all the theory in my head that I'd learnt in Sunday school and church up till then suddenly made sense. I haven't looked back since!
I guess with my Christian commitment being formed and solidified in a worship time this leading others in worship has been a natural thing for me, as I am desperate for others to come to faith in the same way which I did. I love guys like Tre Sheppherd (and Graham Kendrick in the 80's) taking our culture of musical worship onto the streets and into the clubs.
I once heard a well-known worship leader say (forgive me if I misquote - it's from memory, thus name omitted) that if pushed he'd be more concerned about the 98% of people not in church on a given Sunday when he planned a worship time than the 2% inside. Thoughtful stuff.
Hope that helps!
I became a Christian on November the 21st 2000. I was a resident of a Christian drug rehabilitation house where I was getting help for drug addiction.
One night I was packing my bags to leave when I asked “if God is there would He please help me?” I had not been brought up to believe in God but when I asked for help, I believed that He had heard me (or someone had?) I began to cry and I cried and I cried. The next morning I got up and began to tell everybody God was real. I must have looked quite strange because up until that point I had been very aggressive and antagonistic towards anything Christian.
I needed to know more. I needed to know God. So I went to church on the following Sunday. There was singing and people putting their hands in the air it was all a bit strange to me. I man stood up to talk and he started to say that “God could restore the years the locus have eaten.” It seemed like he was talking to me. A lady stood up and announced there was going to be an Alpha course starting for anyone who would like to find out more about Christianity, God and Jesus. I signed up.
By week four of the Alpha course I was convinced, and I even started to defend this guy called Jesus in the group times. I knew God wanted me to respond to the message of Jesus and during a worship song “I will offer up my life” I did.
As I sang, 'Lord, receive the sacrifice of a broken heart.' HE DID!!! I believed Jesus had died for my sin, I asked Him to forgive me and asked Him to come into my life and be my Lord and my Saviour. The Alpha away day was a significant time as I met God and His love in a very real way and was filled with His Holy Spirit. I was baptised in water in February 2001.
Since that time I have seen God at work in my life, healing and setting me free from the past. I have had the amazing privilege of witnessing God restoring my family. My mum and dad have become Christians and are helping lead at a church plant in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. My aunt and grandma have also become Christians.
I dropped out of school as a teenager but (with a lot of help) I have recently achieved a HND in Graphic Communication.
Bringing me from a place of brokenness God has given me a beautiful wife to share in this journey.
I am also very privileged to be apart of a loving, supportive church family who love me for who I am and spur me on to be all I can be for God.
I am so thankful to God for all He has done in my life and I am grateful to Him for restoring the wasted years. Each time I start to think He cannot do any more I sense Him saying that “I have not seen anything yet.” That gives me such an excitement and Hope for the future.
You deserve my every breath.
Thank You God.
mark
One moment that sticks with me was during a time of public worship on Pentecost Sunday for Global Day of Prayer. It was held in the grounds of Stormont, the seat of government in Northern Ireland, a few years ago. The singing and dancing and celebration was powerful as a multi-denominational crowd had assembled to offer repentance and seek God.
What struck me most was a piece of drumming...two men proceeded through the crowd (you could say they marched) - one banging a huge Lambeg drum (associated with loyalist Orangeism) and the other a large bodhran (associated with republican celtic music). They played different beats in opposition to each other, antagonising and competing for volume. As we were led in prayer, the beats suddenly joined together and became complimentary, a blend of rhythm that said much more than lyrics and intercessions could. It led into a most powerful time of lament, humbling and then true joy as we were aware of the unity and diversity there. At a difficult time for our community, I encountered God as being truly close to his people in their struggles and brokenness, seeking a real healing to take place in us.
Expecting Great Things
Pastor Chad DeGonia
Too many to count I think...
The first was probably at Soul Survivor 2002. I'd become a Christian a few months before in my first year at uni, and got invited to go to Soul Survivor with my friend's home church in Surrey. I'd gone through a lot of difficult times that had in essence lead me to start university a year early so I could leave home.
Anyway, I first remember being prayed for and just experiencing this time of screaming and crying in pain as God took me through each hurt, and spoke to me about the need for me to forgive. I did. And you can actually hear one of my screams at the end of 'Consuming Fire' on the Soul Survivor CD. I lay there for a while, and then I got up to pray for my friend...anyway, when I did, no English came out. I just started praying in tongues and couldn't stop. I knew what I was praying and so did she (and I guess God) but no one else around me did.
I spent a lot of time in the 24/7 Boiler Room that week, just processing all that I was learning and that God was speaking to me about in the seminars and worship times and I think praying for Matt and Beth Redman's baby, Noah??
The other thing I vividly remember was listening to the recording of 'Light of the World' from Soul Survivor 2001 in my friend's room in halls of residence. That was before I became a Christian, but somehow that recording, the sounds of the voices singing those words just comforted my heart in a way I couldn't possibly explain. That was strange, because at that time I was VERY anti-Christian.
Since then there have been many defining moments in those praise and prayer times.
Laura Anne
You can find my blog at http://gracenoteshowers.blogspot.com
At soul survivor 2007 during the worship was the first time i realised that being a christian wasn't just about recieving, there wasn't one defining moment, but i came home and realised that i had to do something for my church, or rather not for my church, but for my God. That was when i started playing guitar in the sunday morning services, and honestly, i hated it, and to an extent still do, but i know that God wants me to do that for him. It isn't easy and when i get the list of songs i often feel like replying saying i wont play, but i have every week because i remember back to that time and know that God wants me to.
During one of the ministry times at SS08 i can honestly say my life was changed. Me and some others were praying for one of the guys in our group, and I felt God was saying to me that i should start an evening service which would focus on modern worship and when i came out of the big top i spoke to the guy i was praying for, he had had the same calling at the same time, and so had one of the others praying for him, we went home and started a monthly evening service at my church which wasn't used to anything like that. Ever since the i have felt that i have grown hugely, The servie is slowly growing and my two best friends who are very anti-christian have been attending regurly. There have been lots of problems but i know that this is what God wants from me and i know that nothing else could have got these people coming to church, i feel honoured that God is using me and pray that he will use me to his glory so that more people in my village will know him as their saviour.
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