Heroes in Peoria

This past weekend I had the privilege of visiting Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, Illinois. Each week the arts team, under the leadership of Dawn Henderson, creates and produces four services – one mid-week service and three weekend services.

They were in the 5th week of their series, Real Heroes and I couldn’t wait for the service to start. As I walked into the auditorium I saw this great set. It immediately piqued my interest. All along the back of the stage, beautifully lit, were 'display cases' featuring super hero uniforms.

They started with an arrangement of Secret Agent Man and then moved into a worship run. Setting up the message about Secret Heroes, the team chose to show an inspiring video clip from Freedom Writers and then sang the song Here’s My Life by Anthony Evans. As I sang “take every part of me and use me as you please….make my life an offering”, that was my prayer…I want God to use me however He can.

Later when I was reflecting on my experience at Northwoods and my prayer that morning, I thought of all of you. You are my heroes! Each week you surrender yourselves and your gifts in the hope that God will use them.

I’m so grateful for the hours of praying, planning, preparing and performing that Dawn and her team put into the service last weekend …Thank you! They created space for me to connect with God during your service and gave me an opportunity to declare once again that I want my life to be an offering.

How were you able to connect with God this week?