Wednesday Night General Session Highlights

“It’s your move” intro was really cool.  Pretty cool also watching the center rock to “Dynamite” together.  I wish I could have taken a picture of everyone moving from the suite but it wouldn’t do justice to the energy in the rom.  So awesome to see it from above.

Stories that were shared to encourage us to think what move will we take?

• Jordan from Texas, met with his student director and wanted to do something significant in the lives of homeless people in his area.  He needs some help just like many other people who want to make a difference.
• Jen is one of the 70% of people who no longer go to Church because they are judgmental.  But, she works at Cheesecake factory and is very nice.  So, if you are nice (and a good tipper) she might just be interested in talking to you about God
• Julio wants to start a church in San Jose, Costa Rica.  But he needs help to become a student of the culture so He can start the church and make a difference in that community.
• Rick is a Student Pastor.  He just had his 1st child who happened to have Down Syndrome.  He struggling to provide while also learning how to raise this very special child.

What will you do when you encounter one of these people?  It’s your move.

30 different denominations from 46 different states representing at Orange tonight.  There are also leaders from 13 different countries here tonight.

Worship was really cool tonight as they had a few different singers lead each song – no single worship leader leading each song.  Great teamwork together.

Reggie Joiner then came up on stage and introduced the book “Move”.  Each person attending the conference gets one tonight.  That’s really cool.

Reggie then introduced Ron Hall to talk about his book “Same kind of different as me”.  It talks about a man in Ft. Worth, TX named Denver who was very poor (25 years on the street) and he never finished school.  He eventually became very rich, not just in a materialistic way, but in a spiritual way as well.  It’s a very touching story about a relationship that developed over time.  Three thoughts from the book:

1. Everyone needs a friend who will love others enough not to give up on them.
2. You don’t need government or policies to solve a problem that only Christ can solve.
3. God has transformed trash into treasure.

Andy Stanley was the main speaker for tonight.  Here are some key thoughts/points:

• When Jesus rose, that is when the Church began.  The Church was born from a movement.  It’s a movement – Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.
• How did this movement survive the 1st century when all the eye-witnesses died off?  How did it grow and multiply?
• It was all about compassion, all about dignity when pagan religions did not teach those things.  Christianity taught that every person you come into contact with is made in the image of God.  In paganism there was no love.  They didn’t love humanity.  Now, a new message who invited you to call him Father and it was a stagering idea back then.  And HE LOVES YOU!  Everyone is loved by God.
• In the Christian community we were taught to love.  We were to love our families.  Men were taught to love their wives as Christ loved the Church.  This was new idea.
• The ethic and compassion of Christianity is so unique and that is what gained traction in the 1st century.  This was unheard of in the pagan world and it overcame any persecution that they faced.
• We are stewards of a message of eternal life AND a better life and lifestyle.  If it weren’t for the Church it would go away.
• The church is more important than you can ever imagine and we are part of that.  We think that being nice is just human nature.  It is not.  It is not nature to love your enemies, to forgive, to give 10%.
• One of the most overlooked phrase in the NT – “against such things there is no law” – Galatians 5:23 referring to the fruit of the spirit
• God values every person who was ever born and we need to treat them like that.
• All men will know that you are Christ’s disciples if you love.

Session ended with great worship!   Great start to the conference!