I wish you could have been at Skull Church last night. It was over the top. Having Pastor Greg Laurie come and preach in the skulpit was such an honor. God has used him to communicate the gospel to over 4 million people in person through out the years at Harvest Crusades. There is no other person who has so helped shape and mold my evangelistic calling as him and everything we are trying to do to reach those stranded in sin is fruit to his account.

Leeland was our musical guest and they were so great. We have never had one of these events in the rain but we still had a great turnout and saw people respond to the gospel. That never gets old.

Just a few hours before the party started I got a breaking news alert (on my iPhone) about Steve Jobs dying. It was sobering. I am a card-carrying apple fanboy and I have read several biographies on this prolific luminary. As we thought of this sad news it caused our hearts to burn brighter as we prepared to preach the gospel. Life is short. Eternity is near.

Later in the night we used many different apple products to produce and send out the Skull Church webcast that went out to apple devices (and others) all over the place. Even though we have never had such difficulties streaming our HD video stream, probably because of the whole world rushing to read about and tweet about the news (we heard that many servers were overwhelmed by it all), after the invitation was given I took great joy in seeing commitments to follow Christ made online. It was technologically possible for us to reach out this way because of Steve Jobs.

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.

There will be music from the skull church band and Blindside. I will be giving a message straight from skull hill, on the conversion of the thief on the cross. We are praying for God to fill all the seats of the Wilma theatre and the overflow facility. It all starts at 7pm MST and will be streaming live online in HD at skullchurch.com Invite someone to watch or post a link through whatever social media you use!

and please PRAY!!

Before I say anything about last night’s skull church event first I want to say happy birthday to my amazing four year old daughter Lenya! She is a sweet, funny and wonderful girl and I am so thankful for her. I took the day off today so we could spend celebrate as a family and she gave me permission to shoot off this little blog and share what great things we saw God do last night.

Every time we gather on the first Wednesday of the month for the explicit purpose of evangelism it is awesome to watch hearts respond to the gospel, but as September’s event approached there there seemed to be an extraordinary sense of excitement. This makes sense because in just over a week we will be taking skull church on the road for the first time! (details hereAnd we couldn’t possibly be any more fired up about bringing the good news to Missoula, Montana.

The skull church band sang all original songs that they have never performed before. I can’t wait for their forthcoming album to drop! And we had special guest music from Bellarive. They are a newer band from Florida that you need to give a listen if you haven’t yet. Their sound is very creative, and dynamic. Kind of a melodic-rock approach to worship. They were even better in person than I expected, and that’s saying a lot because I really dig their EP.
I gave a message called RSVP from Matthew 22 about how Jesus has given us all an invitation to go to heaven but we have to respond. We saw 32 people do just that, making professions of faith in Christ!

Amazing. Please keep the Missoula event in prayer as it is upon us in just 8 days. And pray for the LA Harvest Crusade at Dodger Stadium that is this Saturday. (it will be streaming live online here and broadcasting on fresh life radio as well) I will be hosting the event and then speaking for Pastor Greg Laurie on Sunday morning at Harvest. Pastor Don McClure will be coming to speak at fresh life while I am away. He is such a rock star and a man of God. I am so thankful for him and can’t wait to hear the podcast!

Here is a little photo look book to give you a glimpse of what we saw God do last night.