Community: On Tap

If you have been coming to the Awakening, you should by now be catching a sense of what we are trying to do.  We want to help young adults join community and in so do, be disciples. (Plug In. Wake UP.)  We have had several new faces that aren’t even church members showing up and I had to share this story with you. One of our CORE Team members, Michael DeGroat shared this story with me from our last gathering of The Awakening:

Last night I met (we’ll call him John on the blog). He had never been to The Awakening before, but I thought he might be the guest of someone else because they seemed to be friends and had spent lots of timing talking. When I asked John how he heard about The Awakening I heard an amazing story of God making a divine appointment!

John told me that just two hours earlier he had been sitting at home alone overwhelmed with a sense of loneliness. There was a craving deep inside him to be around or with other people. He was craving community. Anything would do.
"I was headed out to find a bar or something… people. I stopped by the church because I thought I might find my friend here. I didn't know anything about The Awakening. But it’s crazy, just like the guy (Phil) said, I didn't like being alone and was just going in search of people. I needed to be here tonight." 

"So you just stumbled into The Awakening without knowing about it?" I asked a bit confused.

"Yeah. I was just tired of being alone, and I ended up here."
I was still confused. The dots didn't seem to line up. It felt like some information was missing. How does someone just randomly stumble into The Awakening without having a clue what it is, where it meets, or when. And how does that person find exactly what their soul has been searching for even though they didn't know it? 

Then it struck me. I have been saying this prayer for months: "Lord, orchestrate the events of people's lives to develop a strong awareness of their craving for community. God begin, even now, drawing them to this ministry and to your heart. Amen"