Winter Ramp: Day 3

The first service started at 10am. We didn’t reserve a very large floor section and so our group was really cramped. But hey, the manifest presence of God is worth it.

The second set started with another worship set lead by Catherine Mullins (Who is now my second or third favorite female worship leader). She lasted a whole song before taking her boots off and dancing in her sock feet. She’s really expressive and leads her team very well. The setlist for this morning was:

When You Speak No One Else Everything (Lifehouse)

Also during the worship set Catherine Mullins and Karen Wheaton lead people through a prayer for deliverance from the fear of man. Karen’s daughter came up and had a testimony about how God has set her free from fear.

After worship, Dutch Sheets talked about dreams. His focus was that God is a dreamer, and He has breathed His nature into us, and called us to dream with Him. Our calling is simply to live our his dreams, plans and visions for our lives. The service ended with Jeremy, the electric guitarist from yesterday, leading a song that perfectly echoed the word that went out. Calling the body of Christ into the dreams that God has given them. Rick Peno joined in after a few minutes and they ended up dismissing half the crowd and continued worship for whoever wanted to stay.

The second worship service was lead by Rick Peno, who demonstrated the huge span of musical and spiritual backgrounds that were represented. They started with a song that sounded like an old Petra track, talking about how Johnny and Suzie Q got their lives transformed by being filled with Holy Ghost fire.

Their second song was a song that I remember from my elementary school days. They played “When I think of His goodness” with such freedom and jubilee that I knew that they had to be in touch with the party that’s going on in heaven. And the musical proficiency in the group was absolutely top-notch. Rick brought out his bluesy harmonica to crank things up a little bit towards the end.

After that he went into his popular “We’ve got the best dad in the whole world” song, as well as bringing back “Abba” from the first night. The last song was titled (I believe) “Pioneer.” It called church leaders and revivalists to not give up even though its hard getting the trail blazed and the ball rolling. One of the members of chosen was asked by Karen Wheaton to lead a prayer for those feeling discouraged by being the ones having to do all of the hard work to bring fire and passion to their church or school.

A large chunk of the afternoon service was dedicated to the ministry team “Chosen.” They performed four drama/dances, and gave short words of encouragement and prayers in between. I was really inspired by their format. They made sure that everything they did had a specific purpose. I cannot over-emphasize the impact the dramas had on the crowd and myself individually. The team is so unified and on fire that their ministry radiates God’s own word and heart.

Casey Doss finished out the service with a call to not slide back once you get home. He laid out multiple strategies for what to do when you come up against opposition when trying to bring back the revival. These included starting a weekly, purposeful, prayer group, and submitting to spiritual leadership.

Damon Thompson ended with a charge to pray as a youth group that the focused intensity would not go out. He had the youth groups circle up and pray with each other, about what they were going to do when they returned to their city.

The final worship service was like all the others in that everyone was giving their best, but it seemed like God was increasing what their best could be. For four hours they stayed in joy, passion and fervor. The setlist was:

You are Holy Heaven on Earth Light of Your Face (I think this is the title) Shekinah Glory

Damon Thompson brought the word of God to us tonight. He prophesied that we are stuck between two gates. We’re stuck between the encounter with God and the fulfilling of our destiny. He preaches from Acts 12, where Peter is miraculously released from prison, and the iron gate to the jail opens automatically. But when he reaches the gate to the house with the intercessors, he has to knock repeatedly in order to get in.

He said 2012 was a year that gates will be opened. That destinies would be fulfilled and encounters would become lifestyles. He called the church to step into it's proper role, as the ecclesia, the governing body of the spiritual realm.

The worship team came up and we interceded for the new year. We prayed that God would open up gates granting authority and dominion. Once the worship team came up they played a lot of short stanzas from a bunch of different songs, most of which I didn’t recognize, but I could tell others in the room did. (I appreciate that about the ramp. Their music and teaching styles vary, but they’re very true to the Word of God and to living out the truth inside.)

They put a countdown on the screen, worshipped until zero, and blew the shofar. They played songs of rejoicing, someone sprayed silly string on our bags, and 2012 began! They continued the service for about 15 minutes afterwards and then Karen Wheaton blessed everyone, and sent them out. I’ve never seen the majority of people this excited to leave a conference before. Usually its Bwah!! It’s ovvvvver!!! But these people are genuinely excited about going back to their cities and starting their prayer groups, secret devotional lives and subsequent revivals!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 2

Winter Ramp: Day 2

It’s day two of Winter Ramp and it’s gotten better and better!!

In the 10 am service Catherine Mullins lead an explosive worship set. We got a front row position! They played:

Made for Love

24 elders (WOW)

People get ready

How I Love You

How He Loves

Hero

Freedom

The push for this morning was deliverance. During worship there were four or five testimonies and prophesies about freedom from sin, addictions, and other bondage.

Tori and I got prayer and are feeling the affects of God’s delivering power!

The entire worship service was taken up by worship, testimonies and the alter call. The musicians played the whole time, which was neat to see their communication and leadership structure.

The song leader communicates to the bass player who has a microphone that is only piped through the band’s headphones. There’s no line of sight problems and it cuts down on miscommunication. Once WorshipArts gets an in-ear system I think we’ll set this system up.

The service ended with a joyful song that everyone jumped wildly to. One of the “Chosen” team members added a stanza to get everybody to get excited about what God had done. “I’m going to dance my crazy dance!”

We ate some sandwiches and checked out the bookstore. They have some really creative ideas for selling things. Big canvas-covered boxes used as signs, as well as creative cracker-barrel-like antiques scattered around the pristine event center. 

At 2pm the second service started. Rick Peno lead the worship. There was a bluesy electric guitarist that Rick asked to prophesy with his guitar. Very neat. 

You Are Holy

To Him That Sits On The Throne

"Singing, Making Melody In Our Hearts"

During that last song there was a moment where the lyrics stopped and the screen said "Make Your Own Song!"

To end the set, Karen Wheaton lead a 6-8 minute long shout of praise.

Chosen performed 2 of their dances, War Cry and My Beloved. Absolutely amazing group of Christians. My Beloved was done with all males, in a rotating/spotlight type of style. Very sweet. We ended up picking up their third dvd that's got 9 of their skits on it. Pretty excited to pull that out once we're back in Kalamazoo. 

There were two 15-minute short sermons given by two of the chosen team members. Very similar to what I want the WorshipArts message team to do at youth events. The first was a guy's story about using the spotlights God gave him in his high school to preach to his entire school about Christ. It ended with an encouragement to change schools for Christ. 

The second was a call to prayer, as well as practical instructions for how to pray. Prayer and getting into the Word of God were portrayed as vehicles to connect us with the Spirit of God. It was very encouraging, and ended with a time of prayer. The crowd gathered in youth groups to pray for their churches and cities. Our RooTs group prayed in a circle for an hour before breaking for dinner. 

After dinner Bryn Waddell was back. (yes!) They played: 

You Are Good (Bethel Church)

Happy Day

Freedom

Great I Am

The whole set was powerful, and didn't relent once. Damon Thompson came up and lead a prayer for healings during the last song.

Afterwards Chosen came up and performed "Behold the Lamb" which Karen Wheaton said they had been performing for over ten years! I first saw it when the Break the Grey interns did it at the Gathering Place Church at a RooTs gathering.

Perry Stone was the final speaker tonight and he blew everyone's socks off! He talked about offenses and how they are the devil's strategy for making christians give up. He said there are three strategies the devil uses to make the body of Christ quit:

1) Isolation - Elijah performed a dozen miracles and the very next thing that happens is he gets scared of Jezabel and goes off into the wilderness alone. This causes depression and eventually thoughts of his own death being desirable. Had God granted his fatal requests he would have never riden the chariot of fire up into heaven and fulfilled his destiny to be one of the two witnesses to the remnant of Israel in the final days. 

2) Shame - Perry Stone listed off dozens of instances in the Bible where great men were put to shame. But in every circumstance, God raised them up above their shame and saw to the finishing of the good work he began in each of their lives. 

3) Disappointment - When our idea of God's will doesn't turn out the way we thought it would go. We end up taking things back into our own hands and remove ourselves from God's perfect plan. We can get offended when we aren't given the big picture all at once, though if we got it all it would probably scare the pants off us. 

The service ended with a call to baptism in the Holy Ghost. The entire room was putting out more energy than any rock show I've ever seen. The people of God are so much better equipped to give exuberant praise than the world is. Even though the world tries its hardest to praise it's idols. 

Anyways, stay tuned for the final chapter tomorrow night! The service goes past midnight, so the update will probably be posted on the first of January. Have a great New Year! Be intentional about where your life is going! Don't let another year slip into mediocrity!

Please leave a comment!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 3

Winter Ramp: Day 1

We're with 37 people from RooTs for The Ramp's big youth conference in Delton, Georgia at the Northwest Georgia Convention Center! So many people enjoyed my Jesus Culture Awakening recaps that I'm writing a recap for this event too.

This event was completely free for anyone that wanted to come! They had 5000 free tickets that they gave away. Registration had a deadline, and after that deadline, if you backed out, they charged you 50 dollars for every ticket you didn't use. They also collected a love offering to cover the cost of the ministry, and they have partners that give monthly as well. (We found out they get the good parking, and quick day-of registration as well)

There were about 500 seats available, and a football field's worth of standing room for the other 4500 people. (My brother won a bet with my grandpa who thought there would have to be seats for everybody.) Duct tape on the floor marked where the aisles were supposed to be, but the crowd was told to ignore them during the worship parts of the service.

Before the service, my brother recognized Bear, the drummer from World Harvest Church, and we got to meet him. (By charging up to him and asking, "Hey! Are you Bear? Can we take your picture?" Classy.)

Worship started with Bryn Waddell, one of the Ramp's primary worship leaders, singing these songs:

You Are Holy
You Could Never Be Praised Enough
Heaven On Earth

The solid hour of worship was intense, let me tell you! They have their entire "Chosen" ministry team of 25-30 college-age interns on stage with them, lifting up exuberant and expressive worship. They had about ten people come up to the microphone and speak out impassioned, Biblical, faith-filled prayers.

After worship Chosen performed a drama/dance, similar to the human videos that WorshipArts has done. They had much more dance involved though, but it was the same idea: telling a story with drama to a recorded track.

Afterwards Rick Peno came up and sang "Abba, I belong to You" and prayed against the orphan spirit by asking God to show Himself to individuals as the Father.

Damon Thompson brought a word calling for repentance on the first night. "You'll never go a day in dominion without going through the process of repentance." He portrayed repentance as the key to everything else they were going to do this weekend.

He told to story in John 8 of the adulterous woman that was caught by the Pharisees. He said that the point of the story wasn't what Jesus was writing in the sand, but that he kneeled down, ignored the religious leaders, and caught the woman's eye. He stooped down into the sin and the situation that the woman was in to give her forgiveness. "He who knew no sin became sin."

He says that all the stories centering around women in the Bible represent the church as the bride of Christ. This story represents the church giving it's affections to lesser lovers, and that God plans on forgiving and redeeming her. He says that God will continue to put His finger in your dirt, no matter how deep you've gone in your sin, no matter how low your eyes are due to your shame.

Apparently this story was taken out of many early church manuscripts because it was thought that it would encourage people to continue to sin. Damon said that it's the church's recurring mistake to think that the threat of eternal torment in hell is the biggest motivator for holiness. The kindness of God draws men to repentance. Extravagant undeserved mercy will always trump the fear of eternal torment.

The service ended with an alter call facilitated by Bryn Waddell, who played Seventh Day Slumber's version of "Nothing but the Blood" and "Hallelujah" by Planetshakers.

Super excited for tomorrow's three services! Stay tuned and I'll give you a recap tomorrow night! My brother took some video as well: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150464144589563

WINTER RAMP DAY 2
WINTER RAMP DAY 3

Awakening: Jesus Culture and Hillsong - Part 3

Last day of the Awakening: Jesus Culture conference went amazing. Here's the rundown:

We woke up, ate, and dashed out the door! Our alarm didn't go off again (technology...) but we made it before the first song started! Jesus Culture was back (yes!) and they played:

Sing My Love
Father of Lights
We Are Hungry
I Will Not Be Silent
"You Are My Everything"
I Want To Know You (Just the Bridge)
What Can Wash Away My Sin

After the amazing worship time Cindy Jacobs got up and spoke on standing on the shoulders of giants. She said that it's possible for a generation to set a precedent that becomes a promise for the next generation. Building on the lives of others so that the ceiling of the Christian fathers and mothers becomes our floor.

Lunchtime came and went and then came the Jesus Culture Band with three guest worship leaders: Bryan and Katie Torwalt and Kristene Dimarco. Fabulous time, they played:

Holding Nothing Back
"You Are Glorious"
Faithful
Break Every Chain (One of my new favorite songs)


After their set was through Banning, the director of Jesus Culture, comes up and asks them to play "You Are Glorious again, (which was a great decision) and they ended the set with a big shout.

Following worship was two testimonies about miraculous healings that happened today at the conference. People who had scoliosis doing cartwheels and carpal tunnels getting healed. Awesome stuff.

Mr. Reinhard Bonnke came up again and gave a word about signs and wonders. He used the story of Jesus miraculously healing the 5000 men and their families.

After our Chipotle dinner we walked back to the arena. On our way back we noticed a large group in the parking lot. Probably about 150-200 people in a tight group, all raising their hands and making a ruckus. We get a little closer and realize that they aren't just worshipping. They're praying for a man who just got out of a wheelchair, and is slowly, with help, walking into the stadium. As he walked the 50 yards or so, we got his story from the people there. He was injured in a car accident and has been in a wheelchair for 6 years. He's not walked this far and this long since. He ended up walking around the lobby for an hour after that.

When he scan his ticket to get into the arena, some people passed another guy in a wheelchair. He said he was paralyzed from the waist-down. They asked to pray for Him. (I was about 10 feet away when this happened.) They prayed and drew another large crowd of intercessors. After about 15 more minutes of prayer he said that he started to feel in one of his legs!

Neither of these people were dancing or doing cartwheels, but we're called to celebrate the little miracles too. Bill Johnson said later that night that you have to celebrate the first indication of God's presence. Don't wait for the entire room to erupt before you rejoice. Zach 4:10 says to not despise the day of small beginnings!

Jesus Culture lead worship next. Everyone was expecting "You Won't Relent" or "How He Loves" but they ended up rocking the house with other songs. They said later that they were recording for another live CD so that makes sense. Here's the setlist:

The Chorus of I Will Worship - "I will give You all my worship, I will give You all my praise for You alone I long to worship, You alone are worthy of my praise"
Your Love Never Fails
Awakening
Father of Lights
Fill Me Up
One Thing Remains

After the song ended, Banning got up and encouraged everyone to give one more shout to God. At that one little phrase the entire crowd of 15000 people shouted and kept shouting for 10 minutes (minimum). Amazing shouts full of intense thankfulness and praise. After those long minutes of a capella worship, someone, somewhere started the "oh oh ohhh ohohohoh" of Hillsong's "Your Name High" and it spread to everyone in the building. After a dozen choruses of that the band got on board and backed it up for another couple dozen measures. Awesome time of obviously spontaneous worship. Also, the lights people did an awesome job rolling with it. Fantastic spur of the moment, perfectly synced light show.

Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California, spoke on starting a revolution fueled by honor. He said that honor is recognizing people for who they are without getting distracted by who they're not. He shared that giving honor to someone releases their reward into your life. Matthew 10:41 says "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward." Whatever honor you give someone releases into your life the reward that person gets for being who they are.

And of course they ended with worship. They played a new song, "Dance" which is pretty much a sock in the face to people who think you can't make good Christian upbeat dance music.

The Jesus Culture Awakening Conference gets 10/10 stars from me. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. I've been to a lot of conferences and I've never been to a conference with this many spiritual leaders, this much musical talent, and this much hunger for God in every person in attendance.

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!!

Awakening: Jesus Culture and Hillsong - Part 1

I'm writing from the great city of Chicago right now! Whoo hoo! Travel blog! Anyways, Tori and I are staying with some very hospitable friends here so that we can attend the three-day Jesus Culture "Awakening" conference. We've had our tickets since February, and we have been super excited to see no only the Jesus Culture Band, but also Hillsong United (yeah, I know) and a long list of anointed speakers.

The arena is humungous and full of 15,000 Christians. Absolutely amazing. The very first thing that happens is they switch around the schedule and do the message first. Kim Walker(Smith) gets on the mic and delivers an amazing encouragement and challenge to worshippers. She talks about not having an offended heart and guarding your connection with God. About avoiding distractions and entering into worship. Wonderful stuff.

Jesus Culture started with a declaration of their intent to seek God and not put on a show. They gave verses about how one of the most powerful promises of God is that if you seek Him, He will be found. Then they started their set, and oh man, was it amazing. For those that missed it, they played:

Stir It Up In Our Hearts - (The bridge to Consuming Fire)
We Are Hungry
I Will Not Be Silent
Break Every Chain (Wow.)
I Surrender (Jesus Culture)
Revelation Song (Of Course)

Absolutely amazing.

Then we skip some unimportant things like a Potbelly's Grilled Chicken and Cheddar Sandwich...

And then we get to the pre-worship worship service that took place in a smaller room. Standing room only, about 250 people crowded in to worship with an awesome band that reminded me of two of my very favorite worship leaders, Henry Krell and Megan McElhenney. Everybody was jumping and laughing and rejoicing because of the goodness of God. Awesome time. And the drummer looked like he was about 12. But he played like he had been playing for every single one of those 12 years.

After about 45 minutes of that joy, we headed back into the arena right before Hillsong started their set. This is what they played:

Your Name High
Go (We're giving it all away, away)
Search My Heart
Hosanna
Chains Be Broken
Awakening (To be expected)
From The Inside Out
With Everything
In My Life (The bridge to Came To My Rescue)

So after all was said and done, I was somewhat disappointed by Hillsong. My guess is they were going for some feel, some purpose that I didn't quite get or understand. Most of their set felt exactly like their "Aftermath" CD, which I have said before sounds like Christian background music. It's hard to sing along with and the lyrics don't go with the music very well.

But I'm not trying to be critical, it's honestly just because Jesus Culture went first. JC went up there and used amazing lighting and music to create a worship experience that everyone could relate with. They didn't even scale it down. They simply went deep into worship with everything they had. Hillsong felt like a very calculated concert. The lights weren't helpful to worship, they simply just strobed a lot. (Not to mention the very strange images on the backdrop that Tori and I couldn't understand. It must be an Australian thing.) I know this isn't their heart or intention, it's just how it came across in the light of the astounding job the other team did.

If Jesus Culture was epic, Hillsong was action-packed. Lord of the Rings versus Mission Impossible.

All in all though, it was the most amazing light setup and show that I have ever seen. There are about 100 rotating intelligent lights above the stage and about another 100 above the crowd. And a few dozen mounted on the stage for good measure.

Can't wait to go back tomorrow. And the next day. It's going to be amazing again.