revolution conference 2012
we hosted almost nine hundred youth & young adults at our annual youth conference on february 3 – 5. we were blessed to have three amazing speakers for the weekend, pastor james murray from san diego [originally australia], pastor rich wilkerson jr from miami and our own youth pastor justin reimer. the conference kicked off friday evening, went all day saturday & sunday — two and a half days full of worship by our incredible team, special music guests theroyalroyal and as mentioned, awesome speakers. this was my third time attending conference and i was more involved than i had been for the previous two years. one of my jobs was incorporating social media into conference: twitter, instagram, facebook and the other was photography [shooting, of course, but also coordinating the team who helped me.]
the Lord has always spoken specific things to me at conference. i remember the “words” and direction i received the first two years during services, and this year, it was spoken through serving. the amount of volunteers, interns & leaders needed to put on this event is overwhelming. the work leading up to the weekend, the work of the weekend, the work during tear-down at midnight when everybody is running on four hours of sleep and dead-exhausted: it’s a lot. [clarification: i didn't tear down. i was in bed. whoops. but there were more servant-hearted people who did.] i had a very small part to play and i stood amazed at how God has designed the church. i believe in the church. i believe the church has faults, the church will burn people, the church will make mistakes. none of this surprises me! because the church is full of people learning to love. learning to love is messy. but it’s also beautiful.
1 corinthians 12: For the body does not consist of one member but of many... If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
the girl that was in charge of shopping for pretty smelling soaps and bobby pins and hairspray and deodorant for the ladies’ bathroom is no less important than one of the pastors. the facility person who was up at 5am every morning to open the church doors for prep work has a valuable role to play. the cafe baristas who poured espresso all day long for conference attendees are cherished. [that one is obvious...] the interns who stood at the doors smiling and greeting are vital. God has a place to serve for every person — and church isn’t something we attend, it’s something we do. we serve, we lead, we grow. proverbs 11:25 says the one who waters will himself be refreshed. what a cool promise.
there you go, just a few of my thoughts. here’s a few photos of what went down. if you’d like to see more, check out the revolution fan page. some of these photos are by josh yong + ryan tam.






































