ONE STREAM: A night of Celebration, Worship & Hope

What would cause Concord, NC, a region of about 70,000 residents located 20 miles northeast of Charlotte, to close their downtown for an evening on August 8, 2010? Here is how they expressed it: “All would agree that we are living in interesting and uncertain times with a fragile economic structure, unemployment, foreclosures, earthquakes, war, the oil spill, and foiled terrorist attacks on American soil. There has never been a more opportune or important time for the Church to declare HOPE in the Lord and to come together as an expression of Christ’s heart for mankind.” For three hours on the evening of August 8th people from all churches, of all ages, from different backgrounds and denomination did just that.

DON'T MAKE DONUTS / H. Magness

A doughnut or donut is a manoeuvre performed while driving a vehicle. The term "donut" is used for motor vehicle drivers that do burnouts that result in the car doing circles (the shape of a donut ring). Performing this manoeuvre entails rotating the rear or front of the vehicle around the opposite set of wheels in a continuous motion, creating a circular skid-mark pattern of rubber on the road or muddy grooves in the grass.

MUD IN YOUR EYES / Paul Malinich

Too often in our cities’ (and our personal) lives, we want to look around and see what others are doing and then copy it. God is not a copy-cat; in fact, He is incredibly creative. And if you doubt that, just take a read through Genesis 1 or just glance out your window. It’s fine to look around to see what God has done and is doing in other places, but we still need to look to Him to see what He wants to do in “our place.” Don’t worry about whether it is mud in your eye or mud in your city – worry about meeting the risen Christ, and then follow Him as He heals and transforms your region.