One Holy Fire by Nicky Cruz

Author:Nicky Cruz [Cruz, Nicky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-55311-9
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2010-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

EVEN IN A HARDENED PLACE

Also in New York, in one of the most hardened neighborhoods in Queens, God is unleashing his power on the young people of the community through the ministry of Christ Tabernacle, a dynamic congregation that has consistently made an impact for Christ in their community.

This church is pastored by my good friend Michael Durso. Under his leadership, the congregation daily spends itself on behalf of the poor and helpless, ministering to the needs of the neighborhood.

Four years ago, Michael’s son, Adam, was called by God to oversee the church’s youth department. At the time they had eighteen young people attending regularly. The Holy Spirit planted a fire of evangelism into this small group of kids, and they envisioned reaching their entire community for Christ. They began meeting every Friday night to pray and plead with God to release his Spirit through them. They committed to fasting and praying on a weekly basis in an effort to hear God’s leading. Each one began inviting friends from their schools and neighborhoods to this Friday night gathering that they called Aftershock. Every week the attendance grew and more kids were getting saved. By the end of their first year they had more than 250 kids attending their Friday night services. They named their ministry Youth Explosion, which is entirely appropriate. Their success is extremely unusual for the New York area. Most church youth groups there are doing well to get 30 or 40 young people involved.

I’ve been privileged to spend a lot of time with Adam’s group through the years, speaking and ministering at every opportunity. Their enthusiasm and devotion to the Lord never ceases to move and inspire me. It’s exhilarating to see so many kids on fire for Jesus. I’ve met with Adam often to express my support and admiration for his commitment to these kids and their neighborhood.

Several years ago I encouraged him to begin integrating the youth group into the church body. I felt that the kids were becoming too much of a church unto themselves, separate from the older members. And I knew that in order to feel united as a church body they needed to meet together weekly. Adam took my advice and began bringing the kids into the services every Sunday, where the group sits front and center. The older members began mentoring the younger ones, helping them grow and mature in the Lord, the way God intended.

The group met each Friday night for prayer and worship, and the kids continued to reach out to their schools and neighborhoods. Many of the kids they were bringing in were gang members, prostitutes, and homeless teens from the area. But every week saw more kids turning away from sin and making a commitment to Christ. The kids built a large Plexiglas box and placed it in the corner of their meeting room in the church basement; newcomers were encouraged to use it to discard those evil reminders of their old life. The box began

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.