Al Jennings II

Remembering 9/11

Today Al participated with his ROTC class in a special 9/11 ceremony. Carla and I were proud that he was involved.
Ironically, right around the corner was the college where the two pilots were trained that crashed the planes.
Today we remember 9/11.

Groovin' 4 Jesus @Summit Indy Theatre Venue

This is It: Indianapolis Campus Theatre Venue Update

Today will be our first Encounter in the theater at the Indianapolis campus and I'm so excited!Yesterday was a busy but very productive day. I left for Indianapolis at 5:44 AM to oversee our first theater setup for the Indianapolis campus. First of all, I would like to thank all of the volunteer staff of the Indianapolis campus for their dedication and diligence to make this move happen. And a very, very special thanks to Mary Monds for the seemingly endless hours you've been putting in to keep both campuses running smoothly.

We were in the theater yesterday at 7:30 AM. We were supposed to be out at 11 AM, but we got favor and were allowed to stay until 1:30 PM! We ran right up into 30 minutes before their first Showtime at 2 PM. It was a long setup, but we got 'er done! BTW, thanks also to Steve Grigdesby for his help with sound and Greg Carstens for his help with the lighting. Thanks to Camell also, for his help with putting together the items needed for the equipment.

We got a brand-new projector that I'm so excited about. As you can see, the image that it projects on the big screen is huge! We didn't get a chance to test the audio because Steve had to leave to go to another project and come back. I'm glad that we got to test the setup before today, because I knew that we would probably need some other miscellaneous items that we didn't have. But because we did our homework, the extra stuff we did have to get was minor. But will get there today at 7:30 AM to hook everything up and test the audio. Please pray that everything goes well with our sound today.

Also the Lord has given us tremendous favor with the theater. Initially, I planned to rent a U-Haul every Sunday and a storage facility to move our equipment in and out. But the theater general manager gave us enough storage in the theater to store all of our stuff! Praise God, that is a huge blessing; He is so good! 

One more thing before I get outta here. God gave me supernatural strength yesterday. I didn't get back to Fort Wayne until a little after 4:00 PM; cleaned myself up and headed over to the Fort Wayne Campus for the Saturday night Encounter at 6. The Lord strengthened me. I felt like I had been resting all day and we had a tremendous encounter! All right, this is it! Let's go Holy Spirit! Lets go Summit!

Tomorrow is promised to you! (Pt. IV)

Psa. 91:16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”

WITH LONG LIFE WILL I SATISFY HIM! That's good news! Receive it! I sense I need to speak up on this issue. Because what if the enemy’s plan is not to just snatch one of ours out, but several. If he has any further plans, we don’t need to be afraid, we just need to close the door on him, because he can’t come in without our permission. Say right now, “I walk and live in Divine health, and I’m satisfied with long life!”

It is the devil who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy; Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He cannot kill you if you claim God's promise of long life. We can't bring Nikki back; and I know that she's in a better place and my guess is that she wouldn't want to come back. But what we can do is share the word of God with people concerning God's promise of long life so that we can close the door to the devil and prevent him from taking more people out of here early. 

Prov. 26:2  “a curse without cause shall not alight.” I'll tell you what, one thing I'm not going to do is allow the devil to sweep through the church with a spirit of death and persuade people to be afraid and to start doubting the word of God and receiving his negative thoughts and speaking it out of our mouths. Saying that tomorrow is not promised to you is speaking contrary to the Word of God. The devil is a liar and he tries to be slick; trying to convince you to make statements that seem innocent, but are deadly and destructive.

Yes, the devil is defeated. However, we are not to be ignorant of his devices. He doesn’t play fair. He is mean and cruel. Don’t give a cause or reason through your lifestyle (living in sin) or negative words for the devil to come in and take your life. Don’t be afraid! God has not given you a spirit of fear (2Timothy 1.7)

Here’s something that I say in my prayer time to cover my family (you can do the same):

I plead the blood of Jesus over my family (I mention each of my immediate family members by name) and over all of our possessions; I draw a bloodline around my family that the devil can’t cross, in the Name of Jesus. Another thing you can do is confess that, “Jesus took my infirmities and bore my sicknesses and by Jesus stripes I was healed (Matthew 8.17; 1Peter 2.24). Then confess, “I am satisfied with long life.”

Go ahead and say it right now. Receive the promise of long life! Glory be to God forevermore! Thank you Father God for your promise of long life! 

Tomorrow is promised to you! (Pt. III)

Psa. 91:16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” 

Don’t bring the Word of God down to the level of human experience. Don't change your belief system because of the tragedy that happened to somebody else. The promise of long life is not true because people live long; people live long because the promise of long life is true. For example, if someone preaches the gospel and gives an altar call; then unsaved people leave without receiving their salvation, does that mean that salvation is not true? Does that mean that Romans 10:9,10 is not true? Certainly not. You see, just because those individuals left unsaved, doesn't mean that salvation is not true. Salvation is not true because people get saved; people get saved because salvation is true. If people leave unsaved, that does not negate the word of God. You feel me? Let’s examine why those who heard the gospel left unsaved. Well, it’s because they didn’t receive the promise of salvation personally for themselves. And let me tell you something else. Whether a person didn’t receive salvation because they were ignorant of the promise or didn’t receive the promise; it still results in the same consequences - they don’t get saved. They have to believe and receive their salvation. The same is true concerning the promise of long life. You have to believe it and receive it; but you can’t believe and receive it if you don’t know the promise exists in the first place. The promise of long life is available to you. Ignorance of the Word is no excuse. God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). And all the promises of God in Him are yes (2Corinthians 1.20)! But you’ve got to receive the promise of long life for yourself. Do it today!

Take your responsibility as a believer and claim every promise of God that you know. Learn every promise available to you in the Word of God and receive them wholeheartedly. Taken seriously. Claim victory over every circumstance; claim prosperity; claim peace; claim joy; claim divine health; plead the blood of Jesus over yourself and your family; claim long life!

Tomorrow is promised to you! (Pt. II)

Psa. 91:16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” 

James 3:5 A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. 6 A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. (Message)

James 3:5 So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself. (NLT)

Yes, what you say is important. Your mouth can set your whole life on fire. Making statements like, "tomorrow is not promised to you", you are condemning yourself by your words and giving place or opportunity for the devil to come in and try to snuff you out of this life. Whether you realize it our not, those are careless words. Proverbs 6:2 says you are snared and taken by the words of your mouth (snared means trapped). Proverbs 18:21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. I think we need to contemplate and meditate on that closely. But With your tongue you can either speak death to your life or life to your life. By saying, tomorrow is a not promised to you, you are speaking death to your life. On the other hand, saying: "I will be satisfied with long life", you are speaking life to your life.

Let's take a stand on the Word of God. Take the promises of God that are available to you -- seriously. Take the word of God seriously and renew your mind to the promise of long life. It is absolutely available to you, claim it for yourself. It doesn't matter what happened to anybody else. If people leave this earth before their time, that doesn't change God's promise of long life. You never know why things happen to people. Just do what you're supposed to do, live according to the word of God and claim the promises of God. And be sure not to open the door to the devil by the words of your mouth. 

Tomorrow is promised to you!

Psa. 91:16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” 

Lately, in the light of the recent homegoing of MeLena (Nikki) Barnett I've heard people make the statement that "tomorrow is not promised to you." But as a child of God, we have exceedingly, great and precious promises (2Peter 1.4). We have promises available to us that's not available to the world at large (those who don’t know God). There are things that accompany salvation (Heb 6.9); wonderful benefits that belong to us as children of God (Psalm 103.2). And it pays for us to know these benefits. One of those benefits is the fact that long life is promised to us. Psalm 91:16 says that with long life God will satisfy us. So tomorrow is promised to you!

Don't make the mistake of bringing the word of God down to the level of human experience. While we regret the unfortunate experience of Nikki leaving this earth too soon, as Pastor I want to address some statements that I've been hearing lately that are contrary to the Word of God. Your words are important, and it's important to make sure that your words line up with the Word of God. The devil cannot defeat us by himself, so he tries to get people to cooperate with him. One way that he defeats Christians is by getting them to agree with him rather than God. He cannot access your spirit, the only way they can get to you is through your mind, through your thought life; by getting you to receive his thoughts. Remember that God's ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts (Isaiah 55.9). We should not lean to our own understanding. The scripture says that by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12.37).  It’s the devil who wants to train our thought life with the concept that tomorrow is not promised to us. Then he wants to get us to say it out of our mouth to give him ammunition to attack us. Those are not God’s thoughts. We need to realize the importance of how we think and the importance of our words. 

That’s all for today, but I’m not done. Check out tomorrow’s blog for more insight from God’s Word on this subject.  

NIkki & 100 Things You've Never Dreamed of

Saturday evening Summit Church had a Super Spotlight. We were having a wonderful time, and had a full house with several guests. Then all of a sudden, I got word that MeLena Barnett (Controller of Summit Ministries Intl.) who was up in the sound booth, had stopped breathing and the paramedics were there trying to resuscitate her and asked us to stop the music so they can listen for her breathing. Even now as I am writing this, I'm so angry at the devil. And I look forward to some holy retribution and doing some serious damage to his kingdom. Anyway, after the music stopped, I led the Church in prayer, going before the Lord on behalf of MeLena and believing God for healing. In fact, I remember speaking to her at a Starbucks on Friday and something had been wrong with her leg. We discussed her condition briefly and she stated how she was standing on the Word and believing God. Then on Saturday she drove to Indianapolis to help with the setup for the first membership class of Summit Church-Indianapolis Campus. Well, MeLena had slipped out of her body that evening and went to be with Jesus.

That was Saturday night. On Sunday morning I woke up thinking about a song by Phil Driscoll. It was an old song and I wondered if it was still available somewhere. So I started looking for it in iTunes. I couldn't find it there so I went to Phil's website. When I got there, a couple of songs were playing on the site. One of them was particularly comforting to me for some reason but I had no idea what the song was about; he was singing about 100 things you've never dreamed of. I continued to surf his site to see if I could find the song I was looking for. And then, I began to pay closer attention to the lyrics of the song and to my amazement, I realized he was talking about heaven. I'm still trying to sort out all the lyrics but he was ministering about slipping the early bonds of earth, going to the highest sanctity of space, and beholding the face of God. 

Link to hear the song

Now, I realized that the Lord had put Phil Driscoll in my spirit. and led me to this site. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the song I was looking for. There was a song playing on that site that the Lord wanted me to hear to share with the family and comfort the Church. It was a specific word to let us know MeLena’s present state and what she is currently doing right now in heaven. And it is this-doing 100 things that we never dreamed of!!! And WOW did that bless me. Such a comfort, such an encouragement during a very difficult time. 

And I needed that because MeLena left us way too early. I watched her grow up at Summit Church. She was a blessing to me, my family, and the church body. And I find great comfort in knowing that she is presently doing 100 things we've never dreamed of.

As I reflect on this weekend’s events, at the end of the day, I’m proud what Nikki was doing when she left. She spent her final day on earth doing the Lord's work and the service of God. 

And now, MeLena has reached out her hand and touched the face of God! Good morning Nikki, I’ll CU later. 

Super Spotlight Goes Down 2Nite!

Where can you find rock, hip-hop, jazz, funk, and R&B all in one place. At the SUMMIT CHURCH SUPER SPOTLIGHT! it’s going down TONITE at 6pm at the Summit - Fort Wayne Campus! You want to be there early because we are expecting a packed house and you don’t want to miss the beginning - it’s going to start off hot with a special music presentation (bloggers secret; don’t tell :). It’s going to be a Spotlight like we’ve never had before. Featured artists have been rehearsing all week and one group even streamed their rehearsal live over the internet.

It will be a great opportunity for you to invite your unchurched friends to a fun and power packed evening of music. 

It’s going to special; so come on out, turn your cell phones on, and txt your next of kin, cause it’s gonna be funky up in there!  

Tonight's Spotlight

Tonight's spotlight is an excellent opportunity to invite someone who doesn't know the Lord or someone who is unchurched. Consider making a phone call or text somebody right now and invite them. Evangelism is not hard. You can do some very simple things with the tools that you now have in your possession to make a dramatic positive influence in someone's life.

Tonight's band features a unique group called, "Pure Star Movement". Here's their bio: "Pure Star Movement is a musical force like no other. Can you imagine a band that has an alternative rock guitar driven sound, spread out over hard hitting, "in your face" urban chopped drumming? This can only be complemented with smooth, soulful, powerhouse vocals, along with unforgettable epic string arrangements you could ONLY hear in movie film scores! This band makes music to cross all boundaries and to reach all people. No matter the circumstances, Pure Star Movement is for the non believer and the believer alike. They bring a message of hope, freedom, creativity, and prosperity using the gifts given to them from above. Pure Star Movement’s music is designed to captivate your senses and take your mind to the stars. A star is a pure source of light in which we, the human race, are created to mimic. When you look into the heavens at night searching for a star to show you the way, remember that Pure Star Movement will guide you home."

I can't wait. Come on out and invite a friend to tonight's spotlight. Why not pick up that cell phone and call or txt someone right now. And oh yeah, don't forget about the SUPER SPOTLIGHT next Saturday! Wooooh! The next 2 weeks are gonna be exciting!