Nolan and his mother arrived at the church almost an hour before the service was set to begin. She was excited as were several people at the church. Because of her own excitement, Nolan’s mom thought the place was going to be packed! She wanted to get in early and get a seat near the front. Nolan’s dad and sister didn’t rearrange their schedules for this, they were a bit skeptical and as it turned out so was much of the church. The people who did show up were early and excited but there were only about 60 people from the whole church who took the time to show up. It was smaller than a Sunday night crowd or even a home group potluck.
The prophet wasn’t bothered by the small crowd. He was one of a handful of pioneers, spearheading the return of widespread prophetic ministry to the church. It was an uphill climb for the Missouri prophets, most churches would never let them come speak. These prophets would travel the world in search of anyone who was actually willing to accept that they knew God and had something valuable to offer. Most of the church thought they were charlatans, tricking people for their own gain. The second most popular opinion in the church was that these people were demon possessed. After that was the crowd who just didn’t care. But once you sifted through all of that, a church of over 1,200 people would have the 60 that showed up early and excited!
Nolan didn’t know what to expect but it was all pretty underwhelming. In the midst of the small crowd there was a feeling that he wasn’t used to. Nolan recognized everyone that showed up and they were all the most awesome people in the church. They were kind and loving and helpful no matter when or where you saw them. It wasn’t a big group but there was a lot of love in that room and Nolan was glad his mother had brought him.
After holding on to those 2 front row seats for an hour, Nolan realized that only about 3 rows even had people in them. The prophet didn’t even speak on the main stage, he just got down in front of where everyone was sitting and walked around down on the floor talking. He didn’t seem like a prophet to Nolan, he was talking about how to live close to God and just seemed like another preacher. All of the adults seemed to be soaking it all in like a breathe of fresh air for them but Nolan was pretty board. Then it started.
After he finished talking the prophet told everyone it was time to do some ‘prophetic ministry’. Nolan didn’t know much about prophetic ministry but he was about to see something that most of the church in his generation had never seen. It was another one of those nights that he couldn’t tell just anyone about. When things get weird at church, it scares people pretty bad. Nolan hated scaring people but he loved being in the room where the crazy was happening.
Practice Outlaw 