Tag: awakening

It’s hard to believe it’s been a week since Awakening Conference. It was a historical moment for our region. It wasn’t something I could have ever thought up; it was truly a God dream. We have been reading so many stories about what God did, and the lives impacted by this movement [keep them coming]! It has been truly miraculous. In this time of darkness surrounding our nation I thought it would be right to share a few of the stories that exemplify what happens when the Church rises up in unity and blesses a city…

• We learned that it’s unheard of that a 3-day event with 6,000 people did not bring about any incidents that required police assistance. We defied all odds! The Sergeant was blown away by the Conference. 3 days with 5,000+ people/teenagers each day, and no incidents. In fact, he said he never even heard a swear word. He has to answer to his Captain, and so naturally, his Captain was also blown away. For some concerts they can have up to 30 incidents per night, but despite thousands of attendees throughout 3 days not one incident report was filed.

• We heard of an off-duty police officer who followed someone who stormed out of the conference angry, and the officer invited him to come back into the event. This person told the officer that he was a Latin Kings member, but the policeman told him that he was welcome here. This man was blown away at what the policeman said, came back into the event, got saved, stayed all 3 days. When he was leaving on the final day they bumped into each other somehow, and the gang member asked the officer if he could call him, told him he needed to go home and get rid of some things, and couldn’t thank the officer enough for letting him stay.

• Another gang member who attended the conference became overwhelmed in one of the sessions and started leaving in a hurry. One of our security team members stopped him and the man proceeded to tell him that he had done some terrible things in his life. The young man came back the following day and with tearful eyes, thanked our security team member for taking the time to share his testimony and told him, “I accepted HIM today.”

• A police officer was on duty and decided to take a brief break to step inside to hear John Gray. He said he was amazed by John and impacted by his short time hearing him. In fact we heard of several police officers who ended up attending the conference and even visited our campuses for service on Sunday because of the Awakening Conference.

• It wasn’t just the police but the hospital too. A nurse heard there was a huge gathering and waited all night for people to start rolling in. She said usually when that amount of people get together there are many people with injuries that come to the emergency room. She said she was shocked because there was not even one all weekend! Praise God!

One of the leaders in our church sent me this: “My mom is a police officer and the police department was my second home. A few of the officers knew I am a part of Awakening because of my mom. They told her a couple of days after conference that Awakening Conference was the best thing to ever happen in the City of Providence.” Before conference began we adamantly prayed that that Gods presence would be felt throughout the whole city, and that His protection would be over the entire conference- He ensured both! Thank you to everyone who showed a city what it looks like to follow Jesus Christ.

God still loves our nation and He is still moving. These amazing stories are glimpses of hope that look like a revival, sound like a revival, feel like a revival… just maybe we are beginning to experience a revival. May Awakening continue to permeate our country. We pray protection over our cities, the residents, and officers – all colors, all races, and all backgrounds. May the prayer of His people, heal His land.

God Bless,
Jordan Boyce

If you haven’t sent in your story yet, click here: http://awakeningconference.com/mystory. We would love what God has done.

The voice of a father to a hurting nation. Watch this message and share it with someone who needs to hear it. We’re praying it helps bring healing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDM8TdXtgMg

We are in the midst of exciting times in our church. In just the past year we launched a quarterly Awakening event in the heart of Providence, we have gone to two services at our Smithfield Campus, and we are gearing up to bring Awakening Conference to the Dunkin Donuts Center in June 2016. Also, the past few weeks have been powerful at Awakening where one of the nights we saw kids staying at the altar not wanting to leave, and another night where we ran out chairs because they brought so many friends! We are seeing young people stepping into ministry, and excited about the church.

As we enter this next season of ministry for New Life we have been hard at work considering what we can do to make our youth ministry more connected to a genuine walk with the Lord. It is our goal to plug young people into the work of the ministry that happens every week. We want them serving in our children’s ministry, cafe, greeting, media and so much more! I’m personally grateful that we have a church culture that invites young people into active roles in the church.

It is also our desire to see every single young person in an “Awakening Crew” which are the weekly small groups of Awakening. This is where discipleship happens, friendships are created, and accountability takes place in the life of a teenager. I’ve said many times that I would rather a young person attend an Awakening crew than an Awakening service if they had to choose one. The most important aspects of Awakening are found in getting young people connected to Sunday, and getting them in a crew. Right now, we have 40 crews meeting across RI & MA and close to 70% of young people are attending- so we are succeeding in that goal, and desire to make our crews even better.

Beginning in January, we are going to move to more of a weekly crew-based approach to reflect what we believe is the foundation of Awakening. Our main services will now be on Sunday morning along with the rest of the body of believers. We will all gather together once a month for “Awakening Night” on the fourth Wednesday of the month, and “Elevate Night” on the first Wednesday- so they will still have two mid-week services a month to attend along with special Team Nights and special quarterly services.

This chart can help break down the new approach:

I believe that God anoints the mission more than the model, and we are certainly not married to our methods. We will continue to tweak and improve how we do things as Awakening has done for many years. We have not grown to one of the largest ministries in the nation by being afraid to take bold steps with big faith.

Our last weekly service will be on December 16, 2015 and our 1st “Awakening Night” will be on January 27, 2016. I truly believe this model will help the young people in New Life grow deeper in discipleship, grow wider as servants, and grow upward  in evangelism. I’m thankful to serve such amazing young people, and deeply grateful for the parents who are invested in the spiritual formation of their teenagers. I want to continue to come alongside you and help raise your youth into men and women that love Jesus, and His bride more than this present age.

See you Sunday,
Pastor Jordan Boyce
awakeningyouth.com