Feel The Earth Move

I gotta tell ya, I feel a little cheated today.

On Tuesday the East Coast experienced its first earthquake in decades. It was the talk of the town, the trending topic on Twitter, the leading story on the evening news…

…and I missed it.

Twenty of us from the Summit’s staff were in a meeting on campus when we started getting messages from people in the next building over. Our phones lit up exactly like that scene in that movie where something big happened somewhere else and everybody’s phones lit up while they were in a meeting. (Or at least that’s how I like to replay it in my head.) We were 100 yards from a building that shook and people that freaked out, and we didn’t feel a thing.

That night, I pacified myself with replays of captured video from the moment of the quake. “LOOK AT THAT, KIDS!” I screamed. “THAT LAMP IS DEFINITELY SWAYING!” I sat in abject horror as film crews from around the world flocked to the home of a southern Virginia woman who had a picture frame fall off the wall. (I still get choked up just thinking about it.)

If there’s going to be an earthquake that close to me, I don’t want to read about it, I want to experience it. Not the barricade-yourself-under-your-desk and write-your-Social-Security-number-on-your-arm-so-they-can-identify-you-when-they-find-you kind of experience, but the experience where years later you can tell your grandkids about the ‘Quake of ’11 and how you definitely remember seeing the ripples in your water glass.

Here’s my point (yes, I have one). I fear that the same thing happens in our church every single weekend. There are people who are inches away from the epicenter of the movement, but they never get swept up in it. I’m talking about those who are simple spectators but not participants. Those who take a seat but never take an opportunity to serve.

It takes hundreds of volunteers to pull off a weekend worship service at the Summit. And what we’ve found is that it’s about so much more than pouring coffee or holding babies (or doing both at the same time because we’re that good). It’s about paving the way for the Gospel.

This Saturday you have an opportunity to put yourself at the epicenter. We’re hosting Frontline at all of our campuses where you can find out more about our Production, Summit Kids, Worship, and First Impressions teams. You’ll move from someone who hears the stories to someone who participates in the stories.

Be a part of the movement. Feel the earth move.

It’ll be something to tell your grandkids about.