Awakening: Jesus Culture and Hillsong - Part 2

Day two of the Jesus Culture Awakening conference went amazing. Absolutely incredible time with God and fellow Christians.

Upon waking up we were greeted by wonderful vegan blueberry pancakes with a side of strawberries mixed with kiwi prepared by our gracious host. After devouring a few helpings, we made our way to the conference. There was a group of about 100 people in the lobby worshipping sans-music. I have to say that the people here are the real deal. They really want God to change their lives, cities and nations.

Hillsong United must have read my terribly criticizing blog post yesterday, because today was a black and white difference. I'm not talking about the black-white-black-white-black of the still heavily employed strobe lights. I'm talking about the connection they made with their audience, the real worship leading they did. Their setlist was a little more on the well-known side, which helped, but they also brought an awesome energy coupled with an invitation to celebrate God.

United has seven guys and one girl in their team. 2 of the male singers are collected acoustic guitar types, and the other two are jump-around-with-the-microphone types. I appreciated how well they complimented each other when they alternated songs. Wonderful job Hillsong United!

Here was their setlist if you're interested:

Freedom Is Here
Shout Unto God (Using a 4 - 1 - 5 - 2m progression)
Break Free
Take It All
Mighty To Save
The Lost Are Found
All I Need Is You (Just the Chorus and Bridge)
Like An Avalanche
To You Alone
The Stand (Just the Chorus)

Lou Engle gave an awesome message about living the culture of the Kingdom of God. He preached from the sermon on the mount, (Matt 5-6) and it was incredible.

After the lunch break (Cheddar Bacon Burger from IHOP) Jake Hamilton got up and lead worship. And if you haven't heard his music he is about two things: prophecy and rock music. Absolutely amazing time of worship. I don't think he played a single song that didn't have a full octave jump at the big choruses.

Here's the list, the ones in quotation marks don't exist on any website online (at least not on one indexed by google) Possibly on his new CD that's he just released?

The Times They Are A Changin' (He changed the lyrics a little bit)
New Song - Worshipping Warriors Arise (Doesn't that sound like a prophetic rock song?)
Supernatural Revolution

"This Love Looks Like Something"

Breakout

The Anthem
The Great I AM
"You Love Me For Me"
"Sing a Song Church"
Holy and Anointed One

Very awesome time. After Jake came a rapper (sort of) that performed two songs. I parenthetically say "sort of" because the rhythm wasn't really there. It was more talking over music. But he was a solid guy.

And then came Sean Smith, who is an awesome storyteller, and a great public speaker. He talked about revival, what it is, what it's not, when it starts etc. He said revival doesn't start when God pours out Himself onto people, it starts days, weeks, months before, when people are desperate for His touch. He said that desperation is revival kicking in the womb. Pretty neat stuff.

After dinner break (pop tarts and a nap) Jesus Culture got back up on the stage. While they have about a tenth of the musical complexity of Hillsong United, they blow them out of the water as far as leading these 15,000 people. Now, granted, it's their 15,000. Here's their set:

Rooftops
Awakening (Brand new song)
Burning Ones
Show Me Your Glory

Yup, just four songs. Still over an hour. So great. After the message they got up and quickly played:

Holding Nothing Back

Afterwards Reinhard Bonnke got up and spoke. He showed a video showing a sea of african people that had a caption of a certain African city and it said "1.9 Million Total Decision Cards." And then it would change to another sea of people in another city and it would say "2.6 Million Total Decision Cards." It went through at least a dozen seas, citing millions and millions of conversions and at the end it read "55 Million Conversions in ten years." Wow. His ministry has changed that many lives. Absolutely amazing.

He spoke to the church about the Holy Spirit and about signs and wonders. About how the Holy Spirit is the hand in the glove of the preached gospel. How He uses men and women to accelerate the gospel. Awesome stuff.

So day two was incredible. I came to this conference asking God for a specific vision on this next season of WorshipArts and I'm so happy to say that I got what I've prayed for! God is faithful. Can't wait for tomorrow to come!!