Teenage Mega Conference
I was recently at the DCLA2006 conference held in Washington D.C. In fact, I just got back yesterday. This is a teenage mega conference hosted by Youth Specialties and sponsored most notably by Youth For Christ. The purpose of the conference was to walk through the book of John to experience a story of God in the large group gatherings and how to share your faith during the small group gatherings.
The most notable event that happened during this conference was during the last large group session. This Christian rapper who had translated the book of John into a rap got to the point of the gospel in which Pilot asks Jesus about truth. This rapper interprets Jesus response as saying, "You are only a king on paper". This segment of the service was preceded by a reading of scripture in which the reader exploded into several expressions stating that Jesus had conquered death and that Jesus is alive.
As I exited the conference room I was bombarded with a Christian mall. I could buy T shirts with the words love on them or a multitude of CD's or dating books. There were hats, buttons, and even hemp cross necklaces that I could buy. I mean, my money could go anywhere in this mass uncontrollable atmosphere of Christian consumerism. This one booth was even selling pro life clothes with harsh statements that minus well have said congratulations on killing a fetus, like they didn't already know that. If the Christian mall wasn’t enough for me to rethink my presence I couldn't help but notice the lack of ethnicity in 12,000 teenagers. Was it the cost of the event, irrelevance of the message, or the unwelcome presence of multi ethnicity that kept certain ethnic groups away from hearing a very prophetic message like: Pilot, you are only a King on paper or paraphrased President Bush: you are only a President on paper.
It seemed to me that this message was not only not heard among other ethnic groups outside Korean and Caucasian but also washed to the side by the blatant attack of consumerism. What would have happened if I would have stood to my feet and yelled that clothes are only cotton, or cd's are only electronic, or these conferences are only for rich white suburban people. Would of my voice been heard if I continued the prophetic message of Pilot is only a king on paper to include flashy youth productions featuring flashy bands and flashy speakers with flashy evangelistic messages?
The thought that has come to me over this week is don't scream at people to practice ideas that you can't at least imagine. If one can't imagine God's kingdom to be bigger than the ever attack of consumerism, America, white flight, torture, etc… then why would one scream God's kingdom at people?
`Jake
The most notable event that happened during this conference was during the last large group session. This Christian rapper who had translated the book of John into a rap got to the point of the gospel in which Pilot asks Jesus about truth. This rapper interprets Jesus response as saying, "You are only a king on paper". This segment of the service was preceded by a reading of scripture in which the reader exploded into several expressions stating that Jesus had conquered death and that Jesus is alive.
As I exited the conference room I was bombarded with a Christian mall. I could buy T shirts with the words love on them or a multitude of CD's or dating books. There were hats, buttons, and even hemp cross necklaces that I could buy. I mean, my money could go anywhere in this mass uncontrollable atmosphere of Christian consumerism. This one booth was even selling pro life clothes with harsh statements that minus well have said congratulations on killing a fetus, like they didn't already know that. If the Christian mall wasn’t enough for me to rethink my presence I couldn't help but notice the lack of ethnicity in 12,000 teenagers. Was it the cost of the event, irrelevance of the message, or the unwelcome presence of multi ethnicity that kept certain ethnic groups away from hearing a very prophetic message like: Pilot, you are only a King on paper or paraphrased President Bush: you are only a President on paper.
It seemed to me that this message was not only not heard among other ethnic groups outside Korean and Caucasian but also washed to the side by the blatant attack of consumerism. What would have happened if I would have stood to my feet and yelled that clothes are only cotton, or cd's are only electronic, or these conferences are only for rich white suburban people. Would of my voice been heard if I continued the prophetic message of Pilot is only a king on paper to include flashy youth productions featuring flashy bands and flashy speakers with flashy evangelistic messages?
The thought that has come to me over this week is don't scream at people to practice ideas that you can't at least imagine. If one can't imagine God's kingdom to be bigger than the ever attack of consumerism, America, white flight, torture, etc… then why would one scream God's kingdom at people?
`Jake
posted by CSRevolution at 4:04 PM
1 Comments:
Word, homie. Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts down...
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