The Family Experience dancers

Hundreds of people gathered tight into the dark room, with only thunderous music with a driving beat between them and the lights about to turn on to begin the event.  An energy filled the room as I walked out on stage to introduce the focus of the coming event.  Lights, there was a camera, and plenty of action ensued as the Christmas Family Experience took its excellence to another level.

What’s better than children dancing up and down to a song about compassion, actors who made all the adults roar with laughter, and a spiritual energy bringing it all together?  Not too much apparently, I found out as many people came to me afterward, thanking our church for the amazing program they had just experienced.  In fact, that’s why we call it that, because we don’t want people to come to a program, so much as we want them to experience something with the kids, like they do when they go to the zoo or see a Disney movie.

So four times a year we put away the band and the preaching and the “adults only” environment, and we all worship together, but different.  And the lights, and the production teams, and the high energy music, and the outstanding acting all focuses us on building something more than Fellowship Church – the Kingdom of God.  Even before we gave away the Nintendo DSi, we were all getting slammed hard with the call to being more compassionate in our everyday lives, children AND adults.

One lady looked up to the ceiling while sharing with me what she thought about the message conveyed during the environment, and she said almost with a whisper, “I hope they get it.  The Kids.  I hope they get it, because our generation sure hasn’t.”  Her husband looked at us both and said with a smile coming from the corner of his mouth, “I hope we get it.”

No, I stopped believing the Family Experiences we do at Fellowship Church were for the kids a long time ago.  They are for you, and they are for me.

Next Family Experience:  March 7, 2010