~ Lake Adorn 2011 ~
We came back from Lake Adorn last night—a term someone coined to refer to our ownership of this particular lake—after a unique weekend together. Our theme, Sacred, is from Acts 2:41-47 which speaks about a community that was birthed by the Holy Spirit soon after Christ’s departure. We wanted to look at the ordinary things Jesus uses in the life of a believer, when he invests the ordinary with the Spirit of power.
From the beginning, we noticed strange things begin to occur over the weekend…we began to taste a little bit of Acts 2 for ourselves. Below are some highlights of the trip, which for us, beautifully paralleled the lives of the first disciples of Jesus Christ.
Baptism. “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day” (Acts 2:41)
- 38 PEOPLE WERE BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!
Scriptures. “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42a)
- We studied the Scriptures together, and the story of Jesus breathed life into our gathering.
Community. “…and to fellowship” (Acts 2:42b)
- We spent, at some points, 20 hours
, enjoying one another in Christ’s presence.
Prayer. “…and to prayer” (Acts 2:42d).
- We prayed for one another, sometimes with tears, others with laughter.
Awe. “A deep sense of awe came over them all” (Acts 2:43a).
- It often seemed as if the tangible presence of Jesus was present in the places where we were. Sometimes you could hear people sobbing, yet others were praising, still others were on their faces under what C.S. Lewis called, “The weight of glory!”
Miracles. “…and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders” (Acts 2:43b).
- Several near fatal events on the trip were averted, one, in such a way that no one doubted the gracious hand of God present in our midst. As if that weren’t enough, we received a phone call from a girl we prayed for at Adorn who was given a short time to live by doctors…she called us on our way home to tell us that her condition had improved to such an extent that those same doctors were now baffled by her sudden health.
Togetherness. “And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had” (Acts 2:44).
- 120 people shared 4 homes with one another, and out from that flowed repentance, testimonies, and new friendships.
Worship. “They worshiped together at the Temple each day…” (Acts 2:45a).
- We worshipped every night, from 9pm to midnight. In the mornings, houses were often filled with the sound of singing. It was not uncommon for strangers and locals to be attracted by the singing, then invited in by our hospitality.
Breaking bread. “…met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.” (Acts 2:46b).
- We joyfully ate meals together in each other’s cabins, and we broke bread together. During corporate worship times, groups of people would gather at stations with juice and bread, breaking it for each other, to remember the broken body and flowing blood of Jesus for them.
Favor. “…all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people (Acts 2:27a).
- The staff of the worship area loves us and wants us to come back a fourth time. The homeowners who may have been skeptical of college students renting their vacation homes are NOW opening up even more homes to us next year. Passersby would walk into the clubhouse where we met to eat and even worship with us! We quite literally had “favor with all the people.”
Salvation. “And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
- Yes, four of those who were baptized this weekend also gave their lives to the Lord right in the water.
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Posted on August 16, 2011, in personal and tagged Acts of the Apostles, Baptism, college group, college summer, college trip, lake trip. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE IT!
I just wanted to say, that I was very nervous about going this weekend and was cautious almost in meeting people, because in the past I have had rough experiences with meeting new people, and unfortunately, that doesn’t exclude the church sometimes. I didn’t know most of you and part of me didn’t wanna try to meet new people. But I have never met a more spirit led and filled group of people in my life. I had people coming up and talking to me just because they wanted too. I met so many great people and started so many new friendships that you guys have made it clear to me that no matter how far adorn is from my house, that this is where God wants me to be, so he can mold me and grow me in Him. So for that, Thank You.
Micah Lease
That. is. awesome.
God. is.
LOVE IT!!! thank you Jesus. you are so good.
Could you provide chapter and verse that supports your hypothesis that age divisions are necessary? Acts 2, which you provide as one of your verses, says “And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common”. You are forgetting the most important word…ALL. “All” meant “all” who were believers, meaning, all races, all social stratus (albeit, the young “cool and relevant” or everyone else), all genders, and, horror of horrors, all ages. What the Word refers to as “having in common”, was their love of Jesus and all their earthly possessions which scripture says they basically pooled. You can cross reference this with Acts 32: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”. This was decidedly not referring to “age divisions” as what was “in common” as you infer. It was their corporate love of Christ, their love of each other, and their unity of faith and pooling of possessions. You also quote many other verses stating “They”..met in homes, prayed together, worshipped, and awe came over “them all”… etc…. Scripture shows the “they” was referring to “believers”, with no indication of division of ages. You are being quite misleading and bending scripture, as if trying to bestow generational importance and relevance on your successful retreat, rather than simply thanking God for faithfully showing up and blessing your college group. Yup, Jesus moved greatly on your college retreat but it had nothing to do with your age group. It does have everything to do with Jesus who inhabits the praises of His people…all of them. When believers gather, He is among them, college age or not. It may sound good and be a cool ministry sound bite to entitle this post with, but it doesn’t accurately reflect scripture. Gathering with your own kind is easy, comfortable, and fun…esteeming ALL believers as being greater than yourself, and living in one accord with them, especially those unlike you, is decidedly not.
Dear “Anonymous,”
I have already facilitated an extremely long discussion answering your question in a prior blog post, and don’t need to repeat it here: http://christopherlazo.com/2011/07/30/youth-and-college-ministry-is-it-biblical/
Second, your comment has nothing to do with this particular blog post, which is a simple report of how God met us at the Lake. You may be referring to my tweet this morning which pointed to this post for reasons why I advocate youth ministry. If that’s the case, I would appreciate it if you would address the tweet (or any particular medium that stirred up the question), instead of dumping an agenda and secondary theological issues on our testimony. In the meantime, I will clarify my tweets.
Thank you.
Hi Anon,
This is a great message on the issue: http://tiny.cc/3j07l
During this message Dr. Voddie Baucham (major advocate of your perceived stance) was in attendance.
You will be greatly informed and blessed should you take the time to listen to it.
Your other tweets link to the corresponding and correct pages. Your tweet “11 reasons why I think some age divisions in church is necessary” linked to this page exactly, where you proceed to make 11 reasons. Hard to see how it doesn’t correspond. Your post on youth ministry did not included 11 reasons. M. Johnston, that is a good message and, yes, I listened to it.
I have since clarified myself on Twitter. Thanks.