One of the coolest things we do at The Life Church is our Wide Open Leadership Nights. Its one of my favorite worship experiences because its all the passionate, radical, sold-out core leaders of our church gathering together to get into some pumped up worship, vision and prayer for the upcoming season in church life. We always meet in the Axis Auditorium - our middle school/high school venue. Coolest thing about last night was the updated/renovated look of room. And it was our largest Wide Open…it was jam packed.
I shared from my heart out of 1 Samuel - the story of that awesome woman of God, Hannah. I really believe that Hannah is a type and picture of the church - we’re called to birth and raise up the Samuels who will be dedicated to the things of God, dedicated to the House of God - from their youth, set apart to make a difference. I talked about some key catalysts that can help us fulfill this calling. It was an “off the chain” night!
It’s really hard to put the “spirit” of this conference and this church into words. I’ve probably already overused awesome, fantastic, incredible. Let me throw life changing in the mix too. Probably sounds a little cheesy, but its true – my life has been impacted in a huge way. Some final thoughts.
- So incredibly thankful for Nick and Chris Caine’s commitment to serve local churches around the world, including our church. No doubt it would be much easier (and cheaper) to just stay in a beautiful city like Sydney and work day in and day out with their church, Hillsong Church. Instead, they’re out in the world, bringing the message of Jesus and the spirit of Hillsong to impact and lift local churches around the world.
- We’ve got to be even more creative - as creative as possible in bringing Jesus to this generation and expanding His church. No price is too high. No commitment too great.
- We have to stay ruthlessly committed and focused on serving the unfortunate and bringing love, justice, grace and the basic essentials of life to the poor in our own city and around the world.
- It’s all about people. I had such a great time with some amazing people. Observing, listening, being served, hanging out…Andrew Denton, Phil (The Dane), Steve, Rich and Cass, Marty, Reuben, Robert, Paul, Mark and Darlene, etc. The time spent together was awesome.
Thanks to Brian and Bobbie Houston for the vision to champion the cause of the local church.
It all kicked off on Monday night. This conference has got to be the largest gathering of pastors and leaders. Massive. I would guess 30-40K people. The amazing thing is it’s hosted by a local church. Twenty-two years ago Hillsong Church started the Hillsong Conference in response to all the people who wanted to learn from them how to do church. Pretty amazing. Now, twenty-two years later, people are still coming to learn from this incredible church. The worship is unbelievable. The speakers are awesome, but I think the most incredible thing is the volunteer spirit. Over 4500 volunteers from Hillsong Church running around in “I Love My Church” black t-shirts is incredibly inspiring.
One of their theme verses is Psalm 100:2 – “Serve the Lord with gladness…” It’s totally lived out through all of these incredible volunteers.
Went to church Sunday at the Hillsong City campus. Pretty amazing campus. Seats about 1200 and they run 8 weekend services! Dino preached and it was awesome and like Joe Champion’s 11 year-old son said, “Hilarious!” Dino said, “Man if the 11 year-olds are impressed, I’m doing good.” It was an awesome word on “Extreme Generosity.”
Great to be with some great friends - Dino and his posse - Lance, Jason, and Big Mike. Also Joe and Lori Champion (Austin, TX), Casey and Stacy Henagan (Bentonville, AR), Chris and Tammy Hodges (Birmingham, AL), Randy and Amy Bezet (Bradenton, FL). Also good hanging out with Joel and Julia A’ bell who look after the Hillsong City Campus, and to connect with our friends Gary and Cathy Clarke who pastor Hillsong London, and Zhenya and Vera Kasevich who pastor Hillsong Kiev. I think I remembered everyone. That’s the greatest thing about coming over here - the relationships.
But of course the worship is amazing. Each year at the conference they release their new worship CD. This is #17 and its awesome - This is Our God. It’s another fantastic CD. The whole spirit of the church is phenomenal.
Hillsong Conference starts on Monday night!
OK. So, this week will be updates from my trip to the Hillsong Conference. Pretty amazing to go hang with Nick and Chris Caine and all the incredible people at Hillsong Church. Stopped through Japan and this was the view from my room.
Stayed at a hotel in the top floor of the tallest building in Tokyo. Pretty amazing skyline. The Tokyo metro area is the most populous metro area in the world with, catch this, over 35 million people. They call it a megacity. I walked around for a couple of hours and saw mega amounts of young people. Another ripe city for the Kingdom. More from Sydney later.
