WILD

Back in January, Sioned felt a prompting from God to push into the idea of a worship event for the youth of Torbay…

On Friday 19th of September, the WILD dream became a reality. Over 80 young people (as well as youth leaders) from different churches across Torbay, gathered in Bay Church with one purpose; to worship God. They started coming in from 6.45pm and there was an instant buzz of excitement in the air. Young people started recognizing their friends from school and sports clubs, who they had no idea were Christians. One of the youth from Bay ran across the room as she recognized a girl from her tutor group at school.

At the beginning of the evening, we talked about how fear can hold us back from whole-hearted worship, and how the Holy Spirit wants to set us free to be WILD; to be bold and brave in the way we worship, without concern of what others think. The first set of worship was upbeat and one of the highlights was seeing most of the room jumping to the song “This is Living” by Hillsong Young and Free (you can see a video clip of this on Instagram @wild.worship.torbay). Gabe, the youth pastor at home church, then shared a talk on worship, and we went back into a time of praise.

During this time, we encouraged anyone with prophetic words to come and share them. I was so encouraged that several young people had words to share, and one young man (who looked around 13), was even willing to share a word on the mic. He boldly talked about the world getting darker and darker, but this being our opportunity to shine more brightly for Jesus. Other words were shared, and young people came forward for prayer.

 A youth leader from Together church, shared a word about a tsunami wave hitting Torbay; a move of God that was beginning to build. We asked young people to kneel if they wanted to be part of this, as a sign of their hearts saying “Here I am, send me.” The entire room knelt down to pray. For some of these young people, they were probably following the crowd (and didn’t want to be left standing up in a sea of people on their knees!) But for others, it seems God is commissioning them to take their mustard seed of faith and put it to work.

The evening ended with hot chocolate and prayer and debrief in church groups. Many young people and youth leaders said how much they enjoyed the evening, and asked “When is the next one?!” One church leader, had been praying for such an event to take place, and had received the email invite to WILD, the day after their team had been praying for something like it to rise up!

There is something so blessed about gathering together in unity, across different denominations, to worship the one and only living God!

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1