I can’t think of a better way to start out the new year than by seeing people walk into forgiveness and grace through Jesus, and that’s exactly what we saw happen at the first Skull Church event of 2012! The Mayan calendar may be signaling the end of days, but for those touched whose hearts were touched by the gospel last night, this year is the beginning of a brand new life. It was also nice to expose Montana to some hip hop; living sixty miles from Canada we don’t get a whole lot of that.

I am so excited to announce that on October 5th pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie will be speaking in Montana. Ever since God got a hold of his heart as a teenager Greg has sought to share the gospel with as many people as possible. As he has been faithful to proclaim the message God has opened doors for him to preach all over the place–from Madison Square Garden to Dodger Stadium–through the Harvest Crusades. It is an honor and a huge opportunity to have him come and speak at Skull Church.

I am not going to give any spoilers but we have also booked an incredible guest band for this event. It’s going to be quite a night! Pray about who you can invite and bring with you. If you live outside of Montana invite someone over and have a Skull Church viewing party. We stream in HD and have heard stories of people hooking laptops up to tv’s, beaming it from an iPad to an apple tv over airplay or watching thru their playstation. Whatever it takes! And please pray that God will move in power and that many will come to know Christ.

Take a moment and visit skullchurch.com where you can invite a friend to attend or watch the webcast by email, tweet about the event and get more info.

We just finished the first ever, out-of-town skull church event. It was two hours away in Missoula, Montana. Zoo-Town, as it is called, is a college city and has a bigger population than the greater Kalispell area. We have had a heart to come here and preach the gospel for years and I am so thankful that God has given us the opportunity.

This whole thing was a step out in faith for us. We have never done ministry here, my radio show isn’t on the air, and even though we have seen God do amazing things through skull church at home and online, we have never tried to take it on the road. I don’t have a problem telling you that it was a little scary. Would anyone come?

The venue was way rad. A super vibey old-school theatre. (we tend to be drawn to the phantom of the opera type of rock and roll clubs to do church in.) When our setup teams arrived the cleaning crew hadn’t yet arrived to mop up from the previous show and it was gnarly. Their was still the smell of freshly smoked pot in the air and a mixture of vomit and spilled alcohol on the floor. What better place could there be to preach the gospel?

Missoula is a city that needs the gospel. It has the feel and worldview of what you would find in any university town. Pastors that partnered with us in this outreach told me that it is a very unchurched city with very low numbers of the people attending any place of worship at all. We definitely encountered some very vocal and hostile opposition as we sought to shine the light of Christ but we also found many to be very open and interested as well.

Each night we had great crowds. We didn’t know what to expect and were blown away as hundreds poured in. In addition to those there in person we had several thousand joining in on the live webcast from all over the country and other parts of the world. Best of all, by the time the weekend ended we saw eighty-nine people make professions of faith in Christ!

I am overcome by God’s goodness for letting us be ambassadors of the gospel. I am thankful to freshlife for being a church that cares about the lost in other places. And I am blown away by the mighty men and women of my team that not only fought a giant this weekend–they ran to the battle.

Here is a lookbook to give you a feel of what we saw God do.

Last night 32,000 people gathered at Angels stadium and 3,045 people made public professions of faith in Christ! I am always in awe at these events as I stand there watching God move so powerfully in the hearts of so many and it is a massive honor to get to be apart of these events.

There was music from Kutless, Crystal Lewis, and David Crowder Band; Greg Laurie brought the heat in the pulpit with a message on the conversion of Levi the tax collector.

Legendary pro-surfer Bethany Hamilton also came and shared her story last night. She had her arm bit off by a shark and then went on to surf professionally. Amazing. If you haven’t seen Soul Surfer, the movie based on her life, you have got to check it out. Her faith in Christ and desire to be used by Him is all over it. It was a real joy to get to meet her.

Last night we kicked off the month of August with a bang! Exquisite weather, Gourmet burgers from the Flathead burger company, excellent music from the Skull Church band & Emery. Best of all we saw many people respond to the gospel, giving Jesus total control of their souls. A lot of things went wrong and we had to roll with crazy stuff like power surges and equipment failure on the fly, but hey, no one ever said it would be easy. The Uprising continues…