God's Power in Your Weakness

God loves to use weak people.

Many years ago, I used to be a member of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.  Willow Creek was the first Mega Church that I had ever been part of.  It was started by a bunch of high school kids in a movie theatre on Northwest Highway.  Having come from a very conservative Baptist church, I was not even allowed to attend their meetings as they were held in a movie theatre that at night played R rated movies.  When my cousins Laurie and Randy invited me to join them for service, I snuck into the theatre to attend my first "seeker sensitive" service.  Laurie and Randy, both with amazing voices, were on the original vocal team.  The service had new songs, a skit, multi media and an incredible speaker named Bill Hybels.

One of the premises of this church was to find the spiritual gifts that each person has and use them for the glory of God.  This is a wonderful concept and yet it made me feel inferior and lacking.  As much as I love to sing, I would never be chosen to be on the worship team.  Being a theatre major, I auditioned for the drama team but was lovingly rejected.  Being single, I was cast off to the singles group.  For many, the single men fell in love with the single women and in a three year time frame after we had attended most of their weddings, the group disbanded.  The singles that remained were forced to start another group and start the three year cycle again.

During  a church conference, the guest speaker was Rick Warren from Saddleback Community Church in California and his topic was "Leading through Weakness".  What a foreign concept for a church and me that were finding the best of the best to glorify God.  Being a volunteer at the conference, I had a chance to meet Rick Warren.  It was so refreshing to hear "leading through weakness".  Rick is a wonderful, warm and loving man.  I am blessed to have met him.

Obviously, you can see the impact this man has had on me.  I am walking through The Purpose Driven Life for the third time.  It is now so clear to see how God is working through me having been homeless, jobless, struggling with same sex attractions, mental illness, and addictions.  God loves to use weak people and He has invited me to be on his team.

NOTE:  This is NOT a WCCC bashing.
1)  Using your spiritual gifts is a wonderful way to bring Glory to God.
2)  Working in a ministry with children going through their parents' divorce was incredible.
3)  Some of my best friends I treasure the most were from those single groups.
4)  Having a chance to serve on short term mission trips were "defining moments" for me.
5)  I always had a safe place to invite others to attend seeker sensitive services.