serious business 2 - quest camp

I asked Mark Swayze for permission to blog this for you and he agreed.

Ryan S. and I were walking up to the auditorium a little late. There was already a big group of people gathered out on the loading dock to pray – more than just the band and leaders. I motioned to Ryan and pointed at a dead bird that was lying on the sidewalk just outside the building. It appeared to have crashed into a window pane.

We went inside and set up the room for worship – the cross wasn’t yet in place and the altar needed to be moved. Evidentially, we weren’t the only ones running behind. The kids came screaming into the auditorium full of energy. The band came in and began to play and I stood behind all the kids straight out in front of Mark.

My spirit was not well. I was in an agitated state. I was watching the kids singing and moving around. Suddenly, I was taken with the idea that this was all a show. There wasn’t anything real here for anyone – just a charismatic trick fueled by the kids’ energy and desire. Finally, I screwed my eyes up tight and focused in on the living Christ. In my quieted mind, God spoke familiar words and I relaxed.

I turned to Ryan and told him we were going back stage. When he asked why, I told him that I was tired and I wanted him to be behind me praying when I went up to preach in a few minutes. We got up behind Mark and the band and knelt down. I began to pray the sinner’s prayer, “God have mercy on me a sinner. God have mercy on us sinners gathered here.” Then I began to earnestly pray a prayer that was new for me. Only later did I remember with surprise that I had even prayed it at all. “Jesus bring everything under your authority. Jesus put everything here under your thumb.” I felt Ryan lay across my back issuing prayers of his own.

Mark stopped singing and began to weep and speak. Just as he started to talk the sound system died with a loud pop. Mark shared that he felt as though there was someone who was struggling to believe that God was real. With genuine tenderness, Mark shared how God saved his life. He finished speaking, set his guitar down and began praying over the kids.

In the silence filled only by the quiet crying of the kids, I whispered to Ryan: “Mark has just experienced the gift of mercy. In those moments he actually felt the heartbreak of God for the brokenness of these kids’ lives. God’s compassion broke loose through Mark.”

As Mark prayed over the kids he felt as though he could see each one standing there wearing a mask that just prevented them from seeing God. He prayed that each one would be pulled back and that God would be revealed. I didn’t see it happen, but just as I got up to preach Ryan watched as Mark collapsed to the floor. He said he had never felt so empty before – as though his life had poured out of him.

I stood before the kids and preached the Gospel from John’s Revelation. I shared with them a picture of a new heaven and a new earth. I spoke about Christ’s call to live passionately in the kingdom – admonishing them with the words to the church of Laodicea. I am not sure that I have ever spoken with such clarity or simple authority.

With the utterance of my first word, Mark was filled with an overwhelming desire to stand up and shout me down. He wanted to scream for me to shut up and stop talking. Uncharacteristically, his mind filled with obscenities that he wanted to shout at me to make me stop preaching. He was told that everything that was happening was a lie and just a trick. YOU ARE JUST TRICKING KIDS NONE OF IT IS REAL. .He began to shake and moved over to where Rusty was sitting and asked for help. Rusty began to pray. The Sinner’s Prayer.

As Rusty prayed the multitude of voices that crowded around the back of Mark’s head filling him with anger began to subside. In their wake he began to see his baby lying in the street repeatedly getting run over by a car. He was convinced that because of what he was doing everything would be taken away from him. His family, his wife, his child, everything he loved was in jeopardy.

Rusty and some of the other brothers and sisters continued to pray for Mark and soon the enemy withdrew from around him. I finished preaching and sat down while one of our high school students rose to sign “Voice of Truth” while it played off an ipod. (The sound system had been rebooted sometime during my sermon – though it was out the entire time I spoke.)

The music started to play, then it started to crack and hiss, then it started to drop in and out. Every time it failed, the kids filled in with their singing and our signer just carried on. That ipod worked before and after the service perfectly – we checked.

As that was drawing to a close I ran over to Mark. Not knowing what had happened, I grabbed his arm and said “come on, let’s worship.” No sooner was he up on stage that his wife came in holding the baby asking for the nurse. Mark’s daughter had fallen off the bed. Praise to God that the angels surrounded her and she checked out just fine.

That night we organized the servant staff team to anoint all the doors of the campers’ cabins and pray Christ’s protection. Just as we were getting started on one end of the building, a fist fight broke out in a room on the opposite end. One of the boys fled down Methodist Encampment Road where a deer stepped out in front of him. He moved left, it moved left. He moved right, it moved right. He advanced, it advanced. Rusty and I found the boy standing on the side of the road slowly turning in circles unsure of what to do now that God had sent this deer to block his path.

The next day we called for prayer and fasting from our staff. We blanketed the auditorium in prayer, anointed it with oil, and spoke scripture into every square foot. The enemy was thoroughly rebuked. That night’s worship began with shoes flying off of feet on the front porch because holy ground was being trod. Each person entered receiving communion and an anointing of oil. That night a call went out asking who would go for God – who would preach to the nations, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Student after student stood with arms stretched to heaven and declared “hinani” or “here am I.”

I have left very little out of this account though I am sure that there was more going on than I know. Rusty said afterwards, the angels and demons were warring in the rafters tonight. For sure, I believe that legion laid on a vicious attack and nothing but the name and blood of Jesus Christ and the prayers of the community of saints protected us.