As I said yesterday…I had the chance to fly to Los Angeles last week and speak at the Dream Center. Here are several thoughts from that trip…
- There are two types of churches in the world…those who talk about doing ministry and those that actually DO ministry…my prayer is that we are always the latter.
- Tommy Barnett is 71 years old and ON FIRE for Jesus. I sat next to him at supper on Thursday night and just asked him questions. He had a smile on his face the entire time…I could seriously see the joy of the Lord in him. I WANT THAT!
- He was telling me about some stuff coming up in his church and was about to come out of his skin because they were getting ready to try some “new” and “innovative” things that they had never tried before…did I mention he was 71? I WANT THAT!
- I am not sure that I’ve EVER met ANYONE with as much passion as Matthew Barnett. He got on stage before the surface and did the windmill…I would break every bone in my body if I attempted that!
- What God is doing at the Dream Center is amazing…I talked with a young lady (18 years old) who had been a prostitute for two years…and then someone from the Dream Center rescued her off the streets…she stood near me during the worship time and worshiped Jesus with passion like I’ve never seen…and I was a mess.
- There were also former gang members, drug dealers, kids that no one wanted, pimps, prostitutes…I could go on and on. It MOVED me, once again, to see a church stepping up in their own community and meeting needs in Jesus’ name.
- Seeing what they were doing in LA made me want us here at NewSpring to step it up even more and continue to make a serious impact in the upstate.
There were a few non-ministry highlights on the trip…
- We stopped at NBC studios so that I could speak to some of the writers that were on strike. (AND beg them to end it!) I wound up talking to the screen writer of “Mortal Combat” for around 30 minutes. (He also wrote for “The Highlander” and “Hunter.”)
- I met “Norman the Doorman” from the suite life with Zack and Cody!
- I had supper on Thursday night with the guy who is going to be playing Batman in a movie entitled “League of Justice” about the comic book heroes that is due to come out in 2009…he’s a solid Christian and actually played guitar in the band for the Dream Center.
- It was 60 degrees on Friday morning…I walked out of my hotel and was heading to Starbucks when I passed a man who was wearing a suit, a heavy coat on top of that—AND…a scarf. I wanted to yell, “Dude, it’s SIXTY FLIPPIN DEGREES,” but…I didn’t!
- I really missed ‘Cretia and Charisse! REALLY!