Newbies’ Night 2008

I would have to say that last night was my favorite Newbies’ Night out of all eight we’ve hosted since we’ve been pastors at Elevate.

We started at 4:00 PM at Robbinsdale Lanes with a couple of rounds of bowling action – lots of hilarity ensued. Then, we gathered everyone together — all 36 of us — and made our way back to the youth room for yummy barbecue pork sandwiches. After the meal, we challenged students to some crazy trivia and games and gave away tons of great prizes (DVDs, movie tickets, a stack of CDs).

The best part of the evening, though, was the worship and ministry. I wish we had footage to show you… we had the chairs off to the side to make room for the food table and other goodies. That gave us the space to gather together in a big, close group near the front of the staging area and worship. I could hardly contain myself as I saw our newbies (around 10 of them) join in as they were surrounded by our upper-classmen lost in worship. At one point, the older students all gathered around the newbies and laid hands on them in prayer. As we were finishing the evening, several students came up front, one by one, and were sharing things on the mic that God laid on their hearts. I was in tears by this point and barely had the presence to close out the evening. God is so good.

Anyhow, here’s some video from the evening… most of it from the bowling alley…

As a bonus, here’s a thank you note from one of the Newbie’s parents that I received this morning. I’m leaving out the name to avoid any undue embarrassment:

“_________” talked about the newbie night all the way home last night. And he’s still talking about it this morning. Thanks for giving him such a great time… He said he REALLY enjoyed the worship.