PASSION 2006 CONFERENCE Nashville, Tennessee

Transcription

1 PASSION 2006 CONFERENCE Nashville, Tennessee Day 1 (January 1, 2006) Woke up to sauerkraut at Oma's, followed by some packing for Nashville. Around 7, Anne came over, we checked out the conference website for schedules / bands / speakers, then left for Applebee's before rendezvousing for the trip. [insert pounding chest] We get there, order, and finally meet clarity. The terms of the relationship were laid out on the table, and there was brutal honesty and many emotions. Anne and I are not together, and there is no confusion as to that now. A very important talk, Anne eventually pulled herself together enough to register for the trip after several hours on the verge of breakdown. [wait 4 hours for departure]

2 We leave Akron, OH, for Nashville, TN. I take sleeping pills and have an excellent (and refreshing) 8-hour coma. Day 2 I wake up downtown, and I'm soon in a room with Joe Tucker and Mike Smith, unpacking. We head out for the Gaylord Arena (Nashville's Gund) and join 10,000+ people packed on a single city block to register and get tickets. [standing in lines until 7pm] Enter Gaylord Arena. Occupancy at 18,000.

3 So much energy. This night was one of the best nights of my life. Maybe I should say that again. Basically, you put 18,000 college students who all love Jesus into a room, and sparks start to fly. So loud. So excited. So energized. Later on, despite extreme tiredness and feeling like I was going to pass out, I headed down to the Municipal Auditorium to see David Crowder perform. I didn t want to do anything but sleep. I didn t want to stand in line with another 6,000+ pack. But I did. And it was the best time of the entire trip. David Crowder is a used-to-be-stoner, then he started a relationship with Jesus, started making music professionally, and became one of the biggest artists in his genre. Actually, I don t know if that s accurate, but I am damn near positive he used to smoke, or something. He talks about being in love with Jesus like buzzing really high. One of his songs is called Intoxicating. In another, he ends the song repeating, I am so high. I am so high. I am so high. Anyway, he has an incredible amount of energy and put on an awesome show. I had many moments when I connected with my God. Very powerful. Very up. Check out codicil to hear a song by him about reckless abandon and joy.

4 So that was the best night of the trip, Day 2. Completely moving. Completely overwhelming. I was ready to go home, but there was more. Day 3 Wake up way too early (8am), and go to our Community Group meeting, of which I was elected leader of the last night. Oh yeah, I forgot that. I was elected leader of a smaller group that meets twice daily. The purpose of Community Groups was to downsize the massive conference to a manageable and personable group where learning, support, and growth could realistically occur over the course of the week. Responsibilities of being a leader basically involved showing up 15 minutes early to Community Groups and making sure that conversation with our 8-person group stayed on track. No problem. So we do Community Group, I really like my group, and we leave for the Arena. [awesome time of learning and worship, but nothing compared to last night] [lunch, listen to afternoon speaker talk about some deep stuff, wade through the crowds to get tickets for concerts that night, eat dinner] 7pm: second Arena meeting. A woman speaker (a nice change) and worship 10pm: Community Group meeting 11pm: Go to two concerts, decide that I would really rather sleep than anything else, though both were good. Sing It Is Well With My Soul very loudly before doing so. Day 4 9am: Community Group 10:30am: Arena 12pm: lunch 2pm: Afternoon speaker, Tim Hughes, talks about leading worship. Favorite talk of the trip, hands down. Very funny style, likeable guy, thick British accent, lots of stories, practical advice, and a good time. Not serious at all, but definitely my favorite speaker. Definitely applicable to my life and what I do. 7pm: Arena. Off the hook. Passion conference president spoke, and he used an amazing multimedia demonstration about the wonder and vastness of the

5 universe [insert one hour of dropped jaw] and ended with a heart-stopping turn to the ultimate sacrifice that same God made for us by dying in our place. Eyeopening. Made me want to thank God to ridiculous levels. Wanted to hang on that cross instead of him, but knew I wouldn t even be good enough to pay the consequences of my own fuckups, let alone those of the world. Don t understand why he did what he did. So glad he did. Dumfounded by true love. 10pm: Community Group 11pm: Arena for latenight. So exciting- they did night worship! Ok, backtrack: on the way to the Arena, everyone was asked to walk silently from across downtown Nashville into the Arena. So I kid you not, thousands of college students walked silently into the Arena at 11 o clock at night. Silently. It was the weirdest and most unique thing I had seen in a long time. 5 th Avenue was completely packed, including sidewalks and all traffic lanes, full of college students who didn t make a sound except walking noises. Everyone entered the Arena silently, and eventually the presentation started, except this time- without a sound. A typewriter typed words across the screen and led the entire auditorium for more than a half-hour without a single sound. After that, intermittently, an artist would play a song, or someone would act something out, but the screen-led night worship continued for another hour. Finally, tension was released and after an explanation of the salvation message, we partied. Quite literally, I mean, the song we sang was called, Party. And we sang it. and partied. and screamed. and probably maxed out at 140 decibels, which basically is like standing next to a shuttle launch. and we kept singing. and there were lots of lights. and lots of motion. and lots of dancing. and we screamed our heads off until way into the morning, when we finally went to bed. What an incredible night.

6 Day 5 Pack up hotel room, go to Community Group, and head off for the final meeting at the Arena. I wasn t expecting much, perhaps a kind thanks for coming and some farewell tidings. Complete surprise. Louie Giglio, leader of Passion, spoke again, but in a much different way than ever before. He talked about jeans. A little bit about architecture, too. He said that no matter what we do in life, whether we re serving bowls of soup to starving refugees or making designer pants for boutiques, we can serve God with integrity, sincerity, purpose, and passion. Whatever the call of the 18,000 college students, there are people to be served, a world in need, and the power of God to help us along the way, however we lived out our specific lives. Very uncharacteristic of many speakers who don t understand how you can love God and people but do accounting for a living. It s possible, and completely awesome. Then came worship. But this time, it wasn t just the biggest names performing on stage. There was a new element. Throughout the week, students had been drawing on white canvases with highlighters in a graffiti gallery. This was part of the Passion hub in the basement of the Nashville Convention Center. So they had taken these canvases, sewn them together, and hoisted them onto gigantic cranes that could raise them up in synchrony from the ceiling of the Arnea. So, as they were when we entered, they were folded on the stage, not visible. During a climactic moment in the music, however, the cranes started lifting, and the canvases became a huge cube, rising from the four sides of the square, omni-directional stage in the center of the Arena. With only white lights hitting the canvases, the audience could eventually read what was never legible before: the canvases spelled out the word GLORIOUS. Funny, we happened to be singing a song with the same title at the time this all was happening. [amazed at the awesome size of the canvas cube rising nearly 100 feet] Then, the lights switched to blacklight, and the highlighter marks were revealed. Thousands of inscriptions about life, God, Jesus, emotions, jokes, pictures, poems, verses they all became visible and were projected onto the screens. An incredible moment. Maybe a picture would help

7 [prayed, loaded vans, came home] What did I learn? God is awesome, whether or not we feel it. God is the same (i.e. perfect) always. He never changes. He doesn t move, or become more distant. It s me. It s us. He is great and glorious. He is beyond anything we could ever imagine. He puts meaning back into that phrase. Someone died for me. I deserve to die, stay dead, and pay the consequences of my actions here on earth. But over 2,000 years ago, God became man and was murdered for no just cause- only to pay the penalty I should have paid. This is the free gift- someone else jumped in front of the oncoming car and pushed you out of the way. Except in this case, he didn t stay dead. He returned to life, and I will be with him forever in paradise some day; not because I deserve to be there, but because he offers it to me freely, illogically, and wonderfully. This gift is for all people. I wish they understood this. I should talk to this God more. I should read his book more. I should stop fucking up so much. I need passion. I need wonder and excitement. I want my other friends to be friends with Jesus and understand what it means to be unconditionally loved. God is completely amazing. I love him so much. He loves me more. And you.