Last night the members of Mars Hill Church broke their church-wide fast together. As one church in many locations, this breaking of the fast occurred across a variety of celebrations featuring worship, prayer, and of course, some fast-breaking feasting. Following are the reports and pictures that came in from our churches.
Bellevue
Everett
Olympia
Approximately 50 people attended Mars Hill Olympia to break their fast together. They brought so much food—including 12 crockpots full of soup—that extra tables had to be set up at the last minute to accommodate all the goodies.
Pastor Seth Winterhalter led the charge, talking about the upcoming re-launch of the Olympia church and their different ministries. He discussed each area of ministry and gave the congregation time to pray.
It was a great time of worship, as God’s people looked back at how far they had come in a year by Gods grace. It was also an awesome opportunity to pray, as a family, for big things to happen in 2014.
The atmosphere was fresh with excitement as everybody ended his or her fast together by sharing a meal.
Ballard
Downtown
About seventy adults and a handful of children came out to Mars Hill Church Downtown to break their fasts from food, media, and other things they felt lead to abstain from. Pastor Matthias Haeusel opened up the night, and then Pastor Cam Huxford and the band led the church in a few songs. Pastor Matthias then invited the people to share testimonies of what God was doing in their lives during the last 5 days of fasting and 40 days of prayer. Here are some highlights:
“I went into the fasting period very apprehensive. I like to eat, and I found that soon after it started that I spent more time this week in prayer than I ever have. And I really just cried out to God to change my heart, to change my desires, and my thoughts and my actions to His will, and to be filled with the spirit.” –Nate
“I’m a guest here. One week ago, I was a professed atheist. I had been brought up in the church, but kind of rejected it overall. The last few years of my life, I’ve actually made it a point to be very public about my rejection of God. Last Saturday, I picked up a Bible for no particular reason, found myself in a church at 8:30 in the morning on Sunday and just this last week has been crazy because all of my friends are atheists. But it’s incredible—just the people I’m running into, their words of encouragement. So to think one week ago that I’d be here is pretty incredible so I know God is doing big things.” –Ben
“God is always with us, at our side.” –A little girl who joined Pastor Matthias on stage to give her testimony
“I found myself finding sustenance by reading God’s word.” –An anonymous participant
After testimonies, people broke out into small groups to pray, and then rejoined for one more song with Pastor Cam. The church’s community groups then gathered together in various locations to break the fast.
U-District
Shoreline
After five days of corporate fasting, Mars Hill Shoreline celebrated together with a meaningful worship service to mark the end of the fast and share a potluck meal together.
Participants fasted in a variety of ways that included giving up food altogether, eliminating television, abstaining from sugar, skipping a meal a day or actively sacrificing some kind of comfort so they could focus on prayer.
When asked how her particular fast impacted her week, one participant said, “It made me feel that God would provide. We really do take in a lot of stuff we don’t need and spend time on things that aren’t important. This fast helped to clarify that for me.”
Another participant spent her time of fasting focused on prayer and said, “God put people on my heart that normally aren’t on my heart. This fast just felt more intentional for me.”
The evening started with just under 180 people arriving with crockpots filled with soup and chili, bowls of salad, fruit and vegetable trays, and desserts. The food was lined up in the foyer just begging to be enjoyed after the service.
After some brief comments by Pastor Mark via video, Pastor Steve Tompkins set the tone by encouraging the church to focus on adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication (ACTS). With music led by Pastor Joe Day, they had the opportunity to shout their praises to the Lord to demonstrate adoration. For confession, the church was encouraged to confess their sin corporately. With music as a backdrop, they huddled in small groups during the thanksgiving portion of the evening and shared with each other what they were thankful for.
Finally, for supplication, Shoreline prayed bold prayers for their church that included the desire for each person to disciple three people throughout the year, for every community group to grow, replicate, and plant more groups, for 100 baptisms in 2014, and for 1,500 people to attend the Easter service.
The end of the fast was celebrated with communion followed by the potluck.
When asked what this fast meant to him, one Shoreline man said, “It encouraged repentance and forgiveness.” And isn’t that what it’s all about?
Sammamish
The members of Sammamish collectively broke their fast by going to MOD Pizza.
Tacoma
Huntington Beach
People from around Huntington Beach gathered together at Mars Hill Church last night to break their fasts and share their stories. Here is a sampling of what God taught his people during the 5 days of fasting and 40 days of prayer:
“God showed me how task oriented I am. The fast went from a task I needed to accomplish in my own strength—just to say I accomplished it and then wear as a badge of self-righteousness—to moments of pure weakness and a realization that I’m lost and can’t do anything apart from Jesus’ grace.” –Bobby
“God gave me a new excitement for the mission in Huntington Beach. He gave me a passion for owning a specific city, for putting down roots. I can’t wait to glorify the name of Jesus here!” –Ryan
“God opened up my heart and revealed to me my addiction to ‘performancism.’ I’ve always found so much identity in my successes and He showed me how my accomplishments didn’t make a difference; the only accomplishment that matters was Jesus’ accomplishment on the cross.” –Melissa
“God gave me a renewed fervor for serving our church. He reminded me that he is in control and he showed me all the ways he has grown me so far at Mars Hill. I know he will be faithful to keep growing me here, and serving is part of that growth.” –Brandon
“I fasted for our church as well as for some situations at my work. Throughout the week, my situation didn’t get much better, but my heart was completely changed. He gave me peace and reminded me that he is in control. I have no need to worry.” –Enrique
“God really sustained us throughout this fast and it revealed to us how he will sustain our church here as we launch in Huntington Beach. He gave us tangible assurance of the Holy Spirit’s power.” –Ryan
Albuquerque
Phoenix
Portland
