Every runner has experienced this phenomenon. You’re running a race and you feel as if you can barely survive the pace and then, unexplainably, you get a burst of energy. It’s what is known as your “second wind”. You’re endorphines kick in and your adrenaline level rises and you feel like you can fly. My “second wind” never lasts as long as I’d like but it sure is fun when it happens. The thing is you have to be running at almost full tilt before you get to experience this thrill.

Thursday night the MBSF caught our “second wind”. We met in the Green Room of the University Center at 9pm. We had around 150 students there. There were all kinds of technical difficulties but my tech guys hung in there and we had a wonderful praise and worship time. Jamie Ferguson shared an incredible testimony of how she’s allowing God to use her life. Jamie is dying of Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s is similar to ALS. It is medically incurable and effects the brain cells in such a way that the patient is rendered a vegetable before they die. Jamie encouraged our guys to open their hearts and let God use them like He is useing her so that we might reach more people with the truth of how Jesus can change their lives.

After Jamie’s testimony we showed the YouTube video “cardboard testimonies”. You have to Google this up and take a look so that you can fully understand what happened next. The video shows people at a worship time holding up cardboard signs. One young woman walked to the front of the stage and held up a sign that said “Addicted to Meth” and then she flipped it over to reveal the words “Addicted to Jesus”. A thirty something couple stepped up and held two signs. His read “Three miscarriages” and hers read “Diagnosed with no hope of pregnancy”. They turned them over to show “Adopted child this fall” and “We’re pregnant”. You get the idea. The video lasted about seven minutes.

When the video was finished, Jamie stood up and turned to the crowd and held a sign, “Fighting Huntington’s Disease”, and then turned it over to show “Living Abundanat Life Thru Christ”. The room erupted. Then I told the students that each chair had a piece of cardboard and a marker underneath and they could respond if they wished. We gave them about three minutes to prepare and then I stepped up and help up my sign, flipped it, and sat down to see what would happen. What happened next astounded us all. Over 100 of the students rose and began filing toward the front of the room. They each took turns silently walking to the middle of the stage area and holding up their cards. What was revealed made us all weep. One said “shot several times in gang related violence” and “saved and healed by the power of Christ”. There was “Dad died of heartattack – hated God” and “Talk to my Heavenly Father every day – can’t wait to see dad in heaven”. The students lives were being unfolded before my very eyes. “Atheist” to “Full-time Minister”, “Alcohol and drug abuse” to “Training for the mission field”, “Homeless for three months” to “Adopted by a loving family”, “Living drunk and high” to “Drunk on Jesus”. It was inspiring and humbling and uplifting. These students were showing the power of the cross in full view of all their friends. You just had to be there.

The crowd was so diverse with athletes and scholars and black students and white students. There were administrators and grounds crew workers. It was wonderful. The power of God was obviously on display. The last student to step up was a Nepalese Forestry student who is finishing his masters at UAM. He played intramural soccer with us and started coming to Renown because he enjoyed being around us and he’s stayed because he loves the atmosphere and the music. He is a Hindu, or at least he was. He was the last student in line to show his card. He held it up and noone could read it. He had written the front in yellow and it was too light to see so I stepped up and read it out loud. It said “Had many problems” and then he flipped it and the room turned over. The back of the card said “God solved them all”. The place exploded.

We don’t have a building. We don’t need a building. We have a campus. I don’t have an office. I don’t need an office. We’ve been running around trying to solicite money and find vision and create growth. The book has the ultimate growth plan, “and I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me”.

We hang bed sheets around campus that advertise our meetings each week. I was looking at one on Thursday afternoon that said “Renown in the green room – 9pm” and I thought to myself, “is that true, will there be glory that never fades in the green room tonight at 9pm?” There was this past Thursday and there may be again.