more of the kingdom in charlotte - fire church

they had the monthly senior citizen dance @ the Levine Center last night, so we couldn't meet there. Crystal and I have thought about dropping in on that thing - it would probably be fun. But since we haven't been able to meet the last Sunday of every month, we get to see what God is doing in Charlotte to spread His kingdom through other churches. I've written about some of them here & here.

Yesterday we were blessed to see what God is doing at Fire Church which is actually in Concord, NC. They meet at the Cabarrus YMCA & blow that place out every week.
I knew about the parent ministry when me and Crystal were down in Pensacola - these were actually the guys who began the school out of the Brownsville Revival - which everyone knew of around Pensacola... & a lot of peeps from the rest of the world. Well, they moved along with the school of ministry here to Concord, NC. A lot of the people moved up here along with a few of the pastors and they began another church here - Fire Church. 
At my last job there were a couple of girls who worked in the office that I got to be friends with and they were members of Fire Church. They told me about the connections with Brownsville, etc... and invited me to come out some time.

So, Crystal and I went yesterday morning & got to see some old friends as well as what God is doing up there in Concord through Fire. Pretty cool stuff. Definitely not your "average, boring" church service. The worship was pretty awesome, very God-centered, and lasted about an hour and a half. (Reminded me of the length of some of those late nights at Passion Conferences back in the day.) Not that hard when 1 song lasts around 30 minutes. Seriously, you know that song In Christ Alone, it's kind of long anyway... and pretty powerful... we just kept singing it. Kind of old now & you hardly ever hear anyone do it anymore, but it was really powerful yesterday.<"There in the ground His body lay Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day Up from the grave He rose again [and at this point there was always spontaneous shouts, which brought a smile to my face]
And as He stands in victory Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am His and He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ">

The whole gathering had a spontaneous edge to it. It was kind of nice. In the middle of that song a group of people came up to the front and anyone could go talk to them and have them pray for whatever was going on in their life. Several people came to the front to share what God had been teaching them, speaking to them, & doing in their lives. And then back to worshipping God some more through song... pretty cool.

The lead pastor, Scott Volk (who was extremely gracious and nice to Crystal and I) delivered a great talk from one of my all-time favorite passages. 2 Chronicles 20... you gotta read it right now. Seriously. You can even read it by clicking here. [whooo! don't you just LOVE that!?]
We met Scott and his wife and they were really awesome to us. We talked about the Pensacola/Brownsville days a little bit (sorry we never made it out to the revival guys!) & Scott offered help to our church in any way he could. Pretty cool that they've got the same heart and attitude as us = we're all in it for the kingdom... not our church's name, just JESUS' name. That's how Fire rolls.

They really take this Kingdom of God thing seriously at Fire & I love it. When they pray "Let Your kingdom come" from Jesus' model prayer, they really mean it. They want to see it here on earth just like it is in heaven. At the end of the service the Pastor told everyone that one of their members who is a missionary was recently diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and the doctors didn't give them long to live. They all prayed passionately for healing. They believed God could and would do it as healing the sick lines up with His kingdom coming here on earth. They had confidence that God would heal this missionary. Their confidence inspired confidence within me in God. He's a healing God. It was cool to be a part of.

There was a really cool mix of people there too. No ethnic group seemed to have a big majority. I was diggin' that. oh yeah, and I should mention that everybody was crazy nice!

One more thing. They commissioned one of their school of ministry grads who is leaving for Harvard. She's got a heart for the Middle East and is going to study their culture there at Harvard. She got a FULL SCHOLARSHIP. you don't see that everyday at church!

So, thanks Fire Church for letting us worship with you guys. And if any of you live up in Concord or anywhere near exit 54 off I85, check out what's going on at Fire Church.