NOVI, Mich. – The audience of Oak Pointe Church (OPC) was overwhelmed with emotion as 14 high school students stood on stage holding a piece of cardboard with displaying one of their personal secrets for the congregation to see.

One side read, “I was two faced not living out my faith.” The other side said, “Boldly living for Jesus Christ.”

The next said, “Apathetic didn’t care about life” on one side and on the other, “Running after Christ.”

Followed by, “Sports were all that mattered,” and “Serving God is all that matters.”

Then, “4 surgeries had me discouraged about life,” and “Now I realize how much God has blessed me.”

After that, “Made bad decisions with a bad crowd,” and “Forgiven by God and pursuing Him.”

That was followed by, “Stuck in bed and hospitals waiting for answers,” and “Experiencing God like never before.”

The next said, “In December, I lost my house and school,” and “My security is in Jesus Christ.”

One side of the next one said, “My father died when I was young.” The other side read, “Resting in my heavenly Father.”

Followed by, “My family was torn apart last year,” and “God grew me like never before.”

Then, “Wasn’t interested in religion,” and “Pursuing a relationship with Christ.”

After that was, “I tried to take my life,” and “Boldly living for Christ.”

The next said, “Struggled with an eating disorder and self-mutilation,” and “Now I realize I am created in God’s image.”

The following one said, “Beaten and abused as a child,” and “Overwhelmed by the love of God.”

The final one said, “5 weeks ago I wanted nothing to do with God or church,” and “4 weeks ago I gave my life to Christ.”

As the students held up their signs, one side displaying their secret and the other saying how they were saved by God’s grace, another student played Chris Tomlin’s version of “Amazing Grace” on the piano.

Before the students began revealing their secrets, Jack Janigian, the high school pastor at OPC, spoke about God’s grace.

Oak Pointe holds three services over the course of the weekend. One is on Saturday night at 5:15 p.m. and there are two Sunday mornings, one at 9:15 a.m. and one at 11:15 a.m. All three services had the opportunity to watch the students share their secrets.

“I’ve seen them do it three times now, you think I would be okay,” said a crying Janigian before he closed the 11:15 service with prayer.

Oak Pointe has four other pastors beside head pastor, Bob Shirock, and Janigian had the privilege of speaking in front of the congregation as part of a four week series that would Shirock a break between Easter and Mother’s Day. Janigian also informed the congregation that he had lost his family card partner because his grandfather had died the night before. He used that as a transition into how he didn’t know whether or not his grandfather had been a Christian, but knew that he had heard about the love of Christ at family gatherings.

When Janigian speaks he normally includes anecdotes and jokes, especially about the Detroit Tigers, but this week was different. Also, in his opening, Janigian said that Shirock was hoping they could find a topic that Jack would be unable to relate to the Tigers. Janigian’s response to this was that any topic can be related to the Tigers. Janigian left out the stories and references in his sermon, but spoke with a serious tone of voice and his body language showed that he was unwavering about his words.

“He didn’t joke about the Tigers. It was a very serious message,” said Melissa Whelan, a regular attendee of OPC.

The card that talked about losing a house and school was very relatable to the congregation because with the way that the economy is going there are many people out there that are struggling to pay for their houses and people are losing their jobs.

“We talked about how this situation was always a God thing. It wasn’t in our control. When he flipped it over and it said, ‘my security is in Christ Jesus’ I broke down,” said Kelly Filipowski, the mother of the boy who held up that particular sign.

These 14 students had a lot of courage to get up in front of three crowds, which totaled around 2,000 people, and share an intimate secret. It reminds us to think about what our piece of cardboard might say on the front side, with our secret, and the reverse side with how we were saved by God’s grace.

The front of everyone’s piece of cardboard is different. It could say struggling with family, lost my job, only cares about monetary things, but no matter what the front says, every person’s back can say, “Saved by grace.”