68 :: Let Us Worship - Charlotte

Saturday evening, we worshipped at Let Us Worship in Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte. This is the second time that I have attended Let Us Worship. The first was in November in New Orleans [link to post #72]. We decided that since Charlotte is a very different venue than New Orleans, we could count it as a different church visit. 

This Let Us Worship event in Charlotte was hosted by Freedom House, our church. We would have gone to this event regardless of who sponsored it, but the fact that it was our church made the connection a really neat thing.

So, what are these Let Us Worship events all about? They are part protest, part revival, part praise concert. To get a sense of what these Let Us Worship events are like, give yourself some time with some videos of the event.

Here's a #LetUsWorship video from Sean Feucht's YouTube channel:

On Freedom House's Facebook page, there is a video showing some of the highlights from the event. It's powerful, have a look. Beth and Mariel Charlotte and I are in it, try to find us.

To watch that Facebook video, click here.

If you want to go even deeper, you can watch the entire video of the event, which takes well over two hours. Here is the [link] to the YouTube video of the entire event. It is also embedded right here:

Was there a difference between the New Orleans event and this one in Charlotte? In some ways, it was different. In other ways, it was very similar. 

One way in which the two events matched each other was in terms of scale. We believe that between two and three thousand people attended Let Us Worship Charlotte. The nature of the worship was also very similar, both musically and in how the crowd reacted to the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A difference between the two is the general sense of the what these two cities are. New Orleans is known for drinking and great food and Mardi Gras and as a place to indulge yourself. Charlotte is different, known more for banking and families and churches. 

Another difference was the different way that the Holy Spirit manifested itself. In New Orleans, I witnessed holy laughter settle on a small group of people in the crowd. The laughter rippled outward across dozens of people. As that happened, several people were slain spiritually such that they fell to the ground and spoke in tongues for over an hour. 

I did not see such a thing in the crowd in Charlotte.

So, back to it.... What is this thing?

To best understand the Let Us Worship movement is to know that it is a protest [link]. Let Us Worship is rooted in the idea that churches are essential and that we cannot be denied the freedom to congregate and worship. While laws and executive orders were implemented in some states that severely infringed on those freedoms, North Carolina was not excessive in its rulings. 

But there were troubling sounds from Raleigh in 2020, and protesting against that was important to many of us.

The first thing that happened as Let Us Worship spun up was a group of local Pastors praying over the crowd. The Pastors were unified in their calls for change. Change in Charlotte and change in North Carolina and change in the US.

Here are some of those pastors (Freedom House's Pastor Troy Maxwell is the third):

The prayers were for both change and unity. Change in the fabric of our society, as well as unity within the Body. There were prayers for the end of denominationalism and the spirit of division that accompanies them. There were prayers for the end of racial division. People in the diverse crowd were requested to turn to their neighbor and say, "We are one."

It was a powerful start. 

The crowd got quickly warmed up in a visible way. There was enthusiastic cheering and most people had their hands in the air. People continued to stream in as the crowd crossed over the two thousand mark and beyond. Then the music started up, a combination of new praise music that we knew, older music that we did not know... and a few gospel pieces that we did not know but absolutely loved.

Eddie James performed with Sean Feucht and the band, and lifted the crowd up with his words. Here's Eddie (now that is a voice!):

Then Sean Feucht played. Sean is a member of what is known as the Music Collective with Bethel Music, an extension of Bethel Church in California. 

If you are not into praise music, you have likely never heard of Bethel Music. On the other hand, if you do like praise music, Bethel will be very much of a known quantity to you. Bethel Music is really great, take a look at their YouTube page [link].

The below videos show the quality of the music and how much the crowd was enjoying it. In the second video, you can see Beth dancing with her friend Lyndsey, as well as Mariel Charlotte. She actually shows up at the end of the third video, too.

After a set of music, Sean Feucht started talking to people who had come out on their apartments to watch the revival from their balconies. One couple had held their hands high and was swaying back and forth. Another young couple was standing on their balcony and wiping their eyes as they cried. A group of people had congregated on the roof of another apartment building to watch Let Us Worship. 

We in the crowd were cheering and waving to them as Sean Feucht yelled, "Jesus loves you! Jesus died for you!"

Things got pretty deep when the crowd got to the inevitable altar call. People ran to the front of the stage in big numbers. Our friends Casey and Sarah were in the group that got saved, along with their children. Seeing a family do such a thing together was very moving. These are people who have been through some pretty tough trials in life.... but let's be honest, isn't that all of us?

Here's a brief glimpse from the altar call:

Hundreds of people had the course of their lives changed as they ran forward. Many people actually sprinted forward to the edge of the stage. There were people weeping in racking sobs that dominated their bodies. Other people had their hands in the air while their mouths prayed fervently, some aloud and some silent. Groups of people put their hands on the individuals who had come forward, pouring Spirit into them.

One part of the altar call involved people throwing things on the stage that had some level of bondage over them. Vapes, drugs, alcohol, strip club memberships are among the things that people put on the stage at the various Let Us Worship events.

Beth was part of a small group of people praying for a nine-year-old boy that had come forward. He was lying with his face to the ground and crying in full body sobs. He had some profoundly emotional stuff being released. 

At that point, I started walking through the crowd of thousands of people and yelling out that if anyone needed prayer, to call on me. Three people did ask me to pray for and with them.

One woman told me that her daughter was in Virginia dealing with mental illness and spiritual oppression. They were alienated from each other and she asked me to pray for their reconciliation. She was carrying her daughter's childhood pillow case as a reminder of what her daughter was like as a little girl. She also asked me to pray for her mother who was suffering from the onset of dementia.

Another young woman had been assaulted at work by a co-worker. I verified that she had dealt with it through her employer, as a first step. She said she had, which allowed me to pray for her.

A woman came forward and asked me to pray for her husband. He had a pain in his left side that was new as of today. I did so, holding his left rib cage as I did so.

Honestly, I prayed with a strength that was new. Prayer is like everything else, one develops a stronger competency the more that you do it.

My prayers for each went something like this - "...and the sovereign God of the universe left His throne of glory to come down to live in a perishable human body, a body that could bleed and be broken! And He was placed on a Cross because you are beautiful to Him. You aren't worthy of His sacrifice, but you are loved and you are saved and you are redeemed by His finished work. When He said the words 'It is finished,' He was talking about you. He knew your exact name..."

That kind of prayer.

I was glad to pray into their lives, it was humbling to do so.

One of the Pastors was a man from Africa who has been doing street preaching on the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis since the day that George Floyd was killed there in 2020. He called people forth who needed healing of any sort:

People came forward in response to this call for the sick and infirm. A few people were in wheelchairs. The crowd's prayers reached its zenith at this point. Beth joined a small group of people who laid their hands on a woman with cancer. Beth prayed into the woman through one of her favorite verses, which happens to be in Aramaic (this phrase is tattooed onto Beth's forearm). 

It's "talitha koum," which means "little girl, I say to you arise." This is from Mark 5:41, where Yeshua brings a recently deceased girl back to life.

The woman looked at Beth and said, "Why wouldn't I? You're absolutely right, why wouldn't I get up?"

By this time, about two and a half hours had passed. This was the first time that Beth and I had worshipped together for this long. We did all of it with Mariel Charlotte in tow, who ends up being an amazing little worshipper. She's great fun and we're glad that her earliest childhood memories will include evenings like Let Us Worship.

The evening ended as people were offered the ability to get baptized. Many made that choice, right next to Knights Stadium as the sun was setting.

Water baptism is important, as I have come to understand.

A full three hours of worship and healing and evangelism and music and fun and protest. Plus, this was my second time around, this time with my love Beth and Mariel Charlotte. 

Whence such lavish and extravagant love?

Simply amazing.

As I reflect back on both Let Us Worship events, I recall how spectacularly God is moving in my life now. 

The single greatest year in my spiritual evolution happened during a global pandemic, during which I got Covid-19 and cancer. The same year I fell in love with Beth. And my spiritual life has taken a quantum leap forward. 

Why has there been such a great leap forward, spiritually?

Because it was always there for me. All I had to do was turn fully toward Him. And when I made that full pivot toward God, He put favor on those things that I offered up. 

I made that initial pivot when I was eleven years old, as recounted in other sections of this blog. But I had never really offered myself as a sacrifice in the way that I have now. 

It may make sense to recount it like this...

First, when you offer your thoughts, God will honor that and show favor. When you offer your actions, God will celebrate that and show abundant favor. Then when you offer your very mortality itself, God will take you as a Son or Daughter and give you that joy that passes all understanding.

Because of this, I count cancer as a blessing. From it, I understood that my very mortality was truly God's. I suppose it may seem funny to spend five decades to learn something that seems so self-evident. But there is a difference between knowing something conceptually and knowing something experientially.

I asked God a few months back for more time, if it was His will.

Today I have zero cancer and will soon marry the woman He brought me, as I reclaim my rib. I will have a chance to be a father again, too! And no matter what suffering is ahead, I know it can and will be infused with joy.

Really, how good a God do we serve? 

We serve a very, very, very good and perfectly gracious God who loves us extravagantly. There's no question about that, in my mind.

Sean Feucht and Let Us Worship - may you keep going!