During the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend I had the opportunity to help in leading worship at an event in Panama City, Florida called “Gulf Coast Getaway”. This is a conference that it focused on the spiritual lives of College students from all across the United States. When the opportunity came to help in leading worship there I immediately agreed to going. I felt that God had this set aside as one of my many missions in ministry.

The conference took place at the Edgewater Beach Resort and it started on Friday and ended on Sunday night with a total of 5 Sessions. The Speaker was Don McLaughlin who is a dynamic Preacher and Senior Minister at North Atlanta Church of Christ. This particular weekend was the most powerful/intentional weekend that I’d experienced in a long time. There was a sweet spirit of oneness in the room every time we came together.

Usually when you attend a conference with teens, they are still in transition and have a lot going on with school, Sports and lots of other business. Unfortunately, these activities are of the upmost importance and Church is the furthest thing from their minds. Of course I’ve been that teenager that didn’t always want to attend Church services and activities. It just wasn’t cool enough at that point in my life, at least that’s what I thought. Sometimes, I as a child I felt like I was being forced to be involved in church and so my enthusiasm and level of energy grew very low. My attention span was just not there. Now that I think about it, I feel really bas for not getting with the many Worship Leaders and Preachers put before me as a child. Now there were times that I’d get into church, but it wasn’t consistent. So by now, I bet the question is what are you getting at Jabbarri?

This was not a conference that was forced on the attendees, but you could tell that those college students could have chosen and made their own decision to be elsewhere, but they were there with a purpose of going deeper in their walk with God, and so it was completely different from what I expected. There is an old Gospel classic called “I don’t know what you’ve come to do” and it’s a call and response song that goes:

I don’t know what you’ve come to do
I come to clap my hands
I come to stomp my feet
I come to give him praise
I come to jump for Joy
Lift him higher!

Now, some of you may not know, but I did not grow up attending the COC. I grew up in more of a Baptist, holiness, Pentecostal circle where the entire Worship was filled with Musical Instruments and Enthusiasm. Of course I sang the song while attending church, but it didn’t become my mentality until I grew as a Christian. It didn’t happened until I made up my mind that I was going to church as a praiser and that through my struggles and trials, my go to was radical Praise. Not for show, but simply because I had an assurance that God was going to bring me through whatever storm I’d been through. Attending COC event has been hard for me sometimes because in certain subgroups of Churches of Christ I feel confined and that enthusiastic worship was frowned upon. Then I attended this conference of 1,200 “I’ve made up my mind” college students who sang their heart out in worship, honour and reverence to the Lord. These students were calling out the name of Jesus and lifting their hands high. They were confessing, Crying and giving it their all. It was inspiring to the Worship leaders and we were able to go deeper ourselves and speak words of wisdom over the students and one another. There was an importance of leaving enough space for the spirit and for truth. Many times the worship team would have to drop our mics because the overwhelming feeling of watching 1,200 students lead us in worship verses us leading them is what it’s all about. It is very important for us to get out of our own way and for us to aim for God’s in the moment. He can touch our assembly more than what we can even anticipate.

Ephesians 3:20-21
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I love the theme “There is more”, because I truly believe that God is going to blow our minds here at SOCC and we just have to YES TO GOD in whatever he throws at us. There is more Church! Get ready! 2019.