"We are breathing the breath that You gave us to breathe"
Like Paul, I don't think I've truly absorbed everything that we experienced in Nashville this past week. But I think writing about it will help me process a bit.
So I knew that Passion 06 was going to be amazing, but I don't think I really knew what to expect. I've been telling people all day at school how awesome it was, and that it was so much awesomeness in one place. Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, Tim Hughes, (and Shane & Shane somewhere in the vicinity of our presence although we never got to see them, haha) all there continuously for 4 days in a row. I mean going to a David Crowder concert one night and then a Chris Tomlin the other--that's already amazing. But then you have the 18,000 college students in a hockey arena with every seat filled, with people waiting in line outside the doors an hour before each large worship session started, yet everyone waited patiently and respectfully. And when we sung with the worship leaders, and I always looked around the enormous stadium and felt so encouraged that there were so many young people out there who want to believe in and live for God.
So you have all of that awesomeness, and then you have the awesomeness of God.
When we sung "Our God Reigns, Forever His Kingdom Reigns" and we just repeated those two lines, I believed it. I felt God. I felt Him moving in my heart and in all of the other 18,000 hearts. I heard it in the harmonies, I saw it in the hands raised and the eyes closed, the look of determination and emotion in the people's faces. I believed that God will forever reign and that His kingdom will forever reign because I saw and heard and felt it all around me.
I know I would have regretted it so much if I hadn't gone because I know we had a snow day this week and everyone said that we did absolutely nothing in school. If every day this past week had been like today, I would not have pulled out a notebook and pencil until my last period and would have gone out to lunch with my friends.
When we got there, there were two lines for registration that wrapped around the building. That was the first glimpse I had at how many people were coming to Nashville for this conference. How the rest of the week worked was that we went to a large worship session at the arena where all 18,000 of us worshiped together and heard Louie Giglio, John Piper, or Beth Moore speak. Then there were also 16 community groups that met in areas all across downtown Nashville in hotels and the Nashville Convention Center. Ben, Caitlin, and I were all a part of the group with 800 high-school seniors while Suzy and Paul were with 3,000 mentors (and they got Tim Hughes as their worship leader...)
And within those community groups, I thought they split us up very well-- our community group leader, Clay, told us to mill around and then stop and find the closest person of the same sex, then find another pair of the opposite sex, then find another quadruple. We ended up being a group of 4 girls and 2 guys, and then one girl stopped coming after the 2nd session, which was sort of sad, but we got along great anyway. During the third session, when we split into our gender groups, Clay had told us that this was our opportunity to be real, to not be a fake Christian because we already did that for most of our life anyway, and since it's likely we'll never see any of these people ever again, he wanted to prompt us to be completely open. Which caused me to tell the girls something I had never told anyone before, and I know they shared with me intimate parts of their lives as well. I have never in such a short period of time discussed such personal and tangible things with people I felt were understanding and I could call a family.
Emily, Dave, John, and Jess gave me hope. They made me feel encouraged. I think they were mostly evangelical Protestants, and when I shared with them my discomfort during John Piper's Calvanistic talk on Tuesday, they were so understanding and did not look at me like I had horns growing out of my head when I said that I was Episcopalian. They embodied "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism" because what we discussed was relative to all of our lives, even though we lived in Indiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, New York, and Massachusetts, even though we lived different lives in different schools (home-school, Christian school, small school, large school..)
We were real.
All the workers from the convention center and the hockey arena and policemen in Tennessee were saying that we were the best group they have worked with. That there's someone who wants to go to Atlanta next year just so that they can work with us. I mean, we flooded the streets. But it was so safe. Everyone was so obedient, there were no injuries or chaos. We were Christian.
I still cannot believe that on the last night we were there, after Louie gave his incredible Indescribable talk and asked us, when we returned to the arena after our community groups, to do it in silence, that it actually happened. Like, after his talk when we walked to our community groups, people were already much more quieter (and Paul told us that before Caitlin, Ben, and I were able to get out, there was a spontaneous offering of 'How Great Is Our God' which sounded like it was amazing) but when we walked back, I didn't even see a single person whisper or make a single peep. And when we got into the stadium, the silence continued.
I just love the hunger for Jesus I was able to share with 18,000 people. And if you want to see some pictures of what I'm describing, they put some pictures up on the Passion site:
http://www.268generation.com/passion06/www/gallery/
Here are my favorite worship moments/songs from Passion:
- Both "Our God Reigns" moments (Matt Redman)
- "Here Is Our King" in community group (Logan..something) after Louie's Indescribable talk
- "Salvation Is Here" (Kristian Stanfill or as I called him all week, Christian Smith)
- "Center" (Charlie Hall) when I just couldn't stop thinking about my family group
- "You Are My Joy" (Crowder)
- "On Our Side" (Tomlin during the late night concert)
Oooo and my predictions for the Passion 06 CD:
(most of which I have no idea what the real titles are so I made them up. I especially like the first title. haha)
- "Oh No" Matt Redman
- "Glorious" Chris Tomlin/Christy Nockels
- "You Are My Joy" David Crowder
- "All We Need" Charlie Hall
- "Center" Charlie Hall
- "We Win!" David Crowder
- "Salvation Is Here" Kristian Stanfill
- "Paaaaaaaaaarty!" Chris Tomlin
- "You and I Were Made For Worship" Chris Tomlin
- "Thank You For The Cross" Matt Redman
- "Come And Listen" David Crowder
- "O Praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead" Matt Redman, except I don't know if this was another one, or if it was a part of "Thank You For The Cross"
So I hope you have enjoyed reading my brain think. I think what I've been writing for almost the last hour has helped me put to words the extraordinary feelings I felt this past week... yet I know that I am nowhere near done processing. Perhaps the remedy for that would be continued conversations with God.
Perhaps!
So I knew that Passion 06 was going to be amazing, but I don't think I really knew what to expect. I've been telling people all day at school how awesome it was, and that it was so much awesomeness in one place. Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, Tim Hughes, (and Shane & Shane somewhere in the vicinity of our presence although we never got to see them, haha) all there continuously for 4 days in a row. I mean going to a David Crowder concert one night and then a Chris Tomlin the other--that's already amazing. But then you have the 18,000 college students in a hockey arena with every seat filled, with people waiting in line outside the doors an hour before each large worship session started, yet everyone waited patiently and respectfully. And when we sung with the worship leaders, and I always looked around the enormous stadium and felt so encouraged that there were so many young people out there who want to believe in and live for God.
So you have all of that awesomeness, and then you have the awesomeness of God.
When we sung "Our God Reigns, Forever His Kingdom Reigns" and we just repeated those two lines, I believed it. I felt God. I felt Him moving in my heart and in all of the other 18,000 hearts. I heard it in the harmonies, I saw it in the hands raised and the eyes closed, the look of determination and emotion in the people's faces. I believed that God will forever reign and that His kingdom will forever reign because I saw and heard and felt it all around me.
I know I would have regretted it so much if I hadn't gone because I know we had a snow day this week and everyone said that we did absolutely nothing in school. If every day this past week had been like today, I would not have pulled out a notebook and pencil until my last period and would have gone out to lunch with my friends.
When we got there, there were two lines for registration that wrapped around the building. That was the first glimpse I had at how many people were coming to Nashville for this conference. How the rest of the week worked was that we went to a large worship session at the arena where all 18,000 of us worshiped together and heard Louie Giglio, John Piper, or Beth Moore speak. Then there were also 16 community groups that met in areas all across downtown Nashville in hotels and the Nashville Convention Center. Ben, Caitlin, and I were all a part of the group with 800 high-school seniors while Suzy and Paul were with 3,000 mentors (and they got Tim Hughes as their worship leader...)
And within those community groups, I thought they split us up very well-- our community group leader, Clay, told us to mill around and then stop and find the closest person of the same sex, then find another pair of the opposite sex, then find another quadruple. We ended up being a group of 4 girls and 2 guys, and then one girl stopped coming after the 2nd session, which was sort of sad, but we got along great anyway. During the third session, when we split into our gender groups, Clay had told us that this was our opportunity to be real, to not be a fake Christian because we already did that for most of our life anyway, and since it's likely we'll never see any of these people ever again, he wanted to prompt us to be completely open. Which caused me to tell the girls something I had never told anyone before, and I know they shared with me intimate parts of their lives as well. I have never in such a short period of time discussed such personal and tangible things with people I felt were understanding and I could call a family.
Emily, Dave, John, and Jess gave me hope. They made me feel encouraged. I think they were mostly evangelical Protestants, and when I shared with them my discomfort during John Piper's Calvanistic talk on Tuesday, they were so understanding and did not look at me like I had horns growing out of my head when I said that I was Episcopalian. They embodied "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism" because what we discussed was relative to all of our lives, even though we lived in Indiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, New York, and Massachusetts, even though we lived different lives in different schools (home-school, Christian school, small school, large school..)
We were real.
All the workers from the convention center and the hockey arena and policemen in Tennessee were saying that we were the best group they have worked with. That there's someone who wants to go to Atlanta next year just so that they can work with us. I mean, we flooded the streets. But it was so safe. Everyone was so obedient, there were no injuries or chaos. We were Christian.
I still cannot believe that on the last night we were there, after Louie gave his incredible Indescribable talk and asked us, when we returned to the arena after our community groups, to do it in silence, that it actually happened. Like, after his talk when we walked to our community groups, people were already much more quieter (and Paul told us that before Caitlin, Ben, and I were able to get out, there was a spontaneous offering of 'How Great Is Our God' which sounded like it was amazing) but when we walked back, I didn't even see a single person whisper or make a single peep. And when we got into the stadium, the silence continued.
I just love the hunger for Jesus I was able to share with 18,000 people. And if you want to see some pictures of what I'm describing, they put some pictures up on the Passion site:
http://www.268generation.com/passion06/www/gallery/
Here are my favorite worship moments/songs from Passion:
- Both "Our God Reigns" moments (Matt Redman)
- "Here Is Our King" in community group (Logan..something) after Louie's Indescribable talk
- "Salvation Is Here" (Kristian Stanfill or as I called him all week, Christian Smith)
- "Center" (Charlie Hall) when I just couldn't stop thinking about my family group
- "You Are My Joy" (Crowder)
- "On Our Side" (Tomlin during the late night concert)
Oooo and my predictions for the Passion 06 CD:
(most of which I have no idea what the real titles are so I made them up. I especially like the first title. haha)
- "Oh No" Matt Redman
- "Glorious" Chris Tomlin/Christy Nockels
- "You Are My Joy" David Crowder
- "All We Need" Charlie Hall
- "Center" Charlie Hall
- "We Win!" David Crowder
- "Salvation Is Here" Kristian Stanfill
- "Paaaaaaaaaarty!" Chris Tomlin
- "You and I Were Made For Worship" Chris Tomlin
- "Thank You For The Cross" Matt Redman
- "Come And Listen" David Crowder
- "O Praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead" Matt Redman, except I don't know if this was another one, or if it was a part of "Thank You For The Cross"
So I hope you have enjoyed reading my brain think. I think what I've been writing for almost the last hour has helped me put to words the extraordinary feelings I felt this past week... yet I know that I am nowhere near done processing. Perhaps the remedy for that would be continued conversations with God.
Perhaps!