Steps Ministries

What an incredible message tonight at Family Table! Jeremy Mccool brought a powerful reminder that our salvation is not built on our works, our performance, or our ability, it is entirely on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our Monday night Bible study was nothing short of excellent. Hearts were encouraged, faith was strengthened, and the gospel was proclaimed with clarity and power. In a world constantly telling us to earn our worth, tonight we were reminded that Jesus already paid the price. The cross still saves. The blood still cleanses.

God is so good!

Tonight at Youth Group was powerful, man.

We had one of our frolic nights, where the kids are free to engage in different activities throughout the church, pool table, basketball, games, conversations, laughter, and moments of genuine connection, all with lessons and intentional discipleship woven into the atmosphere. These nights are always special because while the kids think they are simply having fun, God is quietly creating space for ministry to happen organically.

And tonight, that ministry happened.

I had a one on one conversation with one of the young people tonight, and during that conversation, he began opening up about things he felt he could not speak about publicly. Even deeper than that, he expressed that there were things he did not even feel safe communicating within his own family. But tonight, in the middle of a simple youth group, he found a safe place to speak. That alone was a blessing.

But one of the greatest moments of the entire night came unexpectedly.

One of our neighbors from the community came into the youth group tonight. He sat with us, ate with us, talked with us, and allowed himself to be loved. He is an older gentleman who has been battling homelessness, instability in employment, emotional abuse from a relationship he was in, rejection, and the feeling of being cast aside by life. He has been around our church for quite some time, and I have personally been walking alongside him through discipleship, prayer, encouragement, and honest conversations.

But tonight, something shifted.

Tonight, he made the decision to enter Adult and Teen Challenge after one of our leaders mentioned it to him. Aleia Vega , fresh out of graduated bible school, was led by the spirit to assist this man and anointed him for the process he has begun at Adult and Teen Challenge.
We were able to pray over him, anoint him, encourage him, and send him off with love and expectation. He is now stepping into a completely new chapter of his life, one where God is going to cultivate him, heal him, restore him, and transform him into the man he was created to be.

And what moved me deeply was what he said during the drive there.

As I was taking him to the program, he looked at me and said he could literally feel spirits leaving his body. He said he felt chains breaking off of him, the very things that had been holding him back from obeying what God had been calling him to do.

That moment reminded me of something powerful.

Sometimes deliverance does not begin on a church stage. Sometimes it begins in the passenger seat of a car after somebody finally says yes to God.

Tonight was supposed to be youth group. But God had bigger plans.

Yes, the kids were impacted. Yes, seeds were planted into the next generation. But God also reached into the streets tonight and pulled a man toward purpose.

This is why we do ministry.

Not for platforms.
Not for recognition.
Not for numbers.

We do this because Jesus still transforms lives.

Tonight, a man made a decision that could completely alter the trajectory of his future. And I truly believe we are going to watch him graduate this program and walk boldly into the calling God has placed on his life.

What looked like just another youth group became a rescue mission orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.

God is faithful.

Yesterday during our very first Adopt-A-Block outreach this year, we went into the neighborhood carrying more than flowers, we carried the heart of God. We knocked on the doors of mothers in our community, both from our church and outside of it, just to remind them that Jesus still sees them, Jesus still values them, and Jesus still loves them. We prayed with them, sat with them on their porches, wept with those who wept, and spoke life over hearts that have been carrying silent burdens. Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Yesterday, ministry looked like tears on porches, prayers in the streets, and flowers in tired hands. Sometimes the greatest sermon is not preached behind a pulpit, but lived out on a sidewalk. The gospel was never meant to stay inside four walls. Christ touched people in streets, homes, and villages, and yesterday, by His Spirit, we did the same. God, we give You all the glory for allowing us to be vessels that reflect the image of Your Son to our neighborhood. We don’t just want to talk about the Kingdom, we want to live it in front of people. Because real ministry is not just preached, it is practiced.