Revival NOW! Conference :) [Part II]

I hesitated going to the 2nd part of this conference because Regina fell ill and I had no one to go with. HAHA. So, I decided if I could pull at least one friend along, I'd go for the last night of the conference :D

After calling all of my closer friends who hail from busy Singapore, none of them would join me. So I decided I'd join them to catch the movie "public enemies" :D

Just as I was about to leave to catch the movie, Abigail called me back and said she was free and could go for the conference :D

So I scrapped the movie plan for something eternally meaningful. (Apparently not meaningful enough for me to go alone for. Haha)

So yup, we had a nice chat over dinner and the last night of the conference was...good, but not as good as the first day. Dr. Jonathan David still joked well and preached well but the ministry time was a bit...how should I say it?...It's a bit different.

Only those who paid for the full conference would be personally ministered to by him. Fair enough. So all those with conference tags (excluding myself & Abi) went forward for prayer.

The church was super small so they didn't have much space for people to remained slained and wallowing in the presence of God. So Dr. Jonathan just went around pushing heads and the moment they fell, the catcher would catch them and the next thing, they would wake/pull them up to clear the stage for the next batch of paying conference delegates to get ministered to.

To me, that was a bit like...just going forward to get your head pushed and next thing, you're escorted back to your seat. Haha. When I get ministered to, it takes time to just sit and relish God's presence. But as for this church, well, they had a different style I guess. How effective, I don't know.

So yeah, the main message of his sermon is that we must claim the authority we have as Christians.

I've read a better version of such a sermon by Dutch Sheets. So this was like, a reminder. Haha.

And I really must say the people in the church are really fired up. When you step into the premises, the people will just welcome you cordially, greet you wholeheartedly and engage you genuinely.

And during worship sessions, they really worship. As much as volume doesn't dictate the level of worship, but it is somewhat an indicator. The people there were singing and worshipping so freely and lifting their hands that the worship leader's voice is drowned in the congregational worship.

As the pastor preaches all the members will also verbally affirm him so readily with shouts of "Amen!" and "Yes!".

I've learnt that atmosphere is so important in retaining new comers and making people feel welcomed. It is the culture in that church setting that really makes it so vibrant.

And the thing is, that church consists predominantly of adults! Haha. You'd expect adults to be the fold-arms, frowning, skeptical breed of mean humans, but they did not live up to that stereotype. They lived out the love and warmth of Christ.

The next question I always ask my closer leader friends, God and myself is: How do we change our church culture then?

The answer seems tough but entirely possible if the leaders see the weight of its implication in establishing the kingdom of Christ and start working on it. :)