Paul Karanick and his wife, Christina, experienced what it means to have the faith of a mustard seed. The term is used by Christ to explain the power that one can have if we just have a little faith. Paul looks back on his life and ministry to reveal ho

FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED

By PAUL KARANICK

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Paul Karanick
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-0347-7

Chapter One

The Grande Finale

On July 7, 2007, the gates at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California opened for a free evangelistic concert. Over 9,000 people gathered to hear music from Skillet, Leeland, The Afters, KJ-52, Warren Barfield, Decyfer Down and worship by the Xclaimed Ministries Band. After years of praying, planning and waiting it finally all came together. After Leeland performed their last song, it was time for me to take the stage.

God had called me several years ago to begin this outreach and now it was time to deliver the Good News of Jesus Christ. The amusing thing about God calling me is that I have never preached to such a large crowd. Until now, the largest crowd to which I have ever preached was 400 people. I stepped onto the stage and began to speak. I quickly realized that no one could hear me because my headset microphone did not work. Not part of the plan! The stage manager handed me a hand held microphone and I continued to speak. As a very animated preacher, having to hold a microphone was a bit of a handicap. I can't recall ever holding a microphone in past events. I suppose there is no better time to get out of your comfort zone than in front of 9,000 people. As I am doing a personal introduction for the audience, the stage helpers are setting up the screen that displays my sermon notes. After they were completely off the stage I realized that the screen was working but my notes were not there. No one, besides me, can see the screen is blank. Here I stand before 9,000 people with a handheld microphone and no notes.

Amazingly Relaxed

Through the last few years of putting this event together, my faith in God has strengthened tremendously. As I was standing on that stage, even with the technical issues, I had so much comfort knowing God was in control. I can truly say God had prepared me for such a time as this. I spoke on how God has a plan for each of us and how Satan will try to steal that plan away by enticing us with other things. The Scripture was from Genesis regarding Adam and Eve. God had given them everything. They had the perfect life. They only had one commandment which was to not eat off of one tree; everything else was fine. However, Satan steps in with lies and convinces them that they can be like God if they eat from that one tree. Once they disobeyed

God by eating the fruit of that tree, they forfeited God's original plan (the perfect plan) and opened the door for sin, corruption and death. God has a plan for each of us and it is an amazing and wonderful plan. Don't allow Satan to steal it from you! Seek God's will in your life and do it; don't settle for anything that Satan has to offer.

At the end of the sermon, I gave an opportunity for people who would like to accept Jesus into their lives to come down to the field so that our counselors could pray with them. We had hundreds of pastors waiting on the field to pray with anyone who responded to the call. This was my first large event and I wasn't sure what to expect. I looked up to the thousands of people in the stands and it seemed that not even one person was moving.

The two learning highlights of my journey over the previous few years were: To trust in Him and to wait on Him. He is always in control!

Be Patient and Wait

I knelt down on the stage and I began to pray a silent prayer—one on one with God. I couldn't believe that I had sold our apartment, spent all of our money and put my family through two years of trials and tribulations to not even have one person come to accept Christ in their life. After that moment with God, I looked up and to my surprise hundreds of people had responded and come down to the field. It's like God was reconfirming to be patient and wait. I had just learned one powerful lesson in mass evangelism; it takes time for people to come down to the field! I did not realize the amount of time it took for people to get out of their seats and make it down to the field. Over 500 came down to the field and we had at least 265 commitments to Christ. We know that there could have been many more that accepted Christ, but we only counted the ones who acknowledged it to one of the pastors or completed an information card. We did not want to assume someone merely coming down to the field meant that they would ask Christ into their life. Each pastor on the field had the responsibility to pray with the individuals in their small group, get basic contact information, then help each person get connected to a Christian Bible-teaching church. The pastors played a very important role in the success of these new believers. It is an awesome experience to become a new Christian and accept Jesus into your life; however, without being discipled and encouraged by mature Christian brothers and sisters it is too easy to lose that new found life.

Now for the final event of the night, I went into the audience to watch the band Skillet bring this night to a close. As I was waiting for the band to take the stage, I was approached by a church youth group that came from Arizona to attend this event. They introduced me to several who had rededicated their life to Christ and a teenage girl who had accepted Christ for the first time. A father sitting nearby introduced me to his son (about eight years old) and said he wanted me to know that he had accepted Jesus into his life at the invitation.

As I walked outside the stadium, many people stopped me to share stories of how the Holy Spirit had touched them through the Lord's Message. After putting so much of our lives into this event, it was encouraging to hear the confessions of faith. I would have done it for ONE saved soul, but the blessing that I received by witnessing so many changed lives made my heart leap!

It is very interesting how God works in our lives. When God called me to begin this ministry I thought I was going to put on an evangelistic concert to reach the lost. God, however, had much more in mind. During the few years of planning and preparing for this event, God broke me down and rebuilt all that I understood about faith. God took this occasion and strengthened my relationship with Him. Now, I could see that in God's eyes it wasn't all about the event; it was also about our relationship and teaching me how to have faith in Him completely.

Will the Small Church Please Stand Up?

I grew up as a preacher's kid. For many years I could not figure out why our churches never seemed to have many people in them. I always asked myself, "Why doesn't anyone do anything to get more youth in the church?" Our church youth group normally consisted of me, my brother and one, maybe two of our friends. I remember attending Avondale Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama. My friends that attended other churches seemed to always be involved in something with their churches and they always seemed to have lots of youth in their churches. I can remember standing at the windows in the classroom talking to my friends about what we did over the weekend. They seemed to always be doing something fun with their church youth group. Things like camping, biking, concerts and other remarkable activities. I spent time at church but my weekend was nothing like their experience. I went to church Sunday morning with about 30 people (total) and later that night with even less people. The church had some activities but very few people would show up.

God, You Want Me To Do What?...