JESUS LIFEHOUSE CONFERENCE WAS OFF THE CHAIN!!!

Part 1

Picture, if you will, a large meeting hall in the heart of Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. There are heaps of young men and women in pink shirts directing people where to go, how to get things, shooting pictures and video, and many more behind the scenes getting ready to start this awesome event that is about to take place! People who aren’t in pink shirts or participating in the program are showing tickets and e-ticket numbers to the people at the front doors. Walk through the main lobby area and through two sets of double doors, and you will enter a large, two-story hall, with about half of the seats on the main floor already full and more people still pouring in!



For those of you who were there, I’m sure you recognize the description. For those who weren’t there, this is what I walked into when I first arrived at the evening session of Jesus Lifehouse Conference 2009, about 30 minutes before it started. The feeling surrounding the entire venue was excitement and anticipation, and I could hardly wait to get started! Other than wanting to see people get saved, my biggest excitement about the conference was getting to hear my senior pastor from Wave Church, Pastor Steve Kelly, for the first time in person since 2007. Seeing him in the audience got me even more excited, if that’s possible!

There was an awesome program for the icebreaker! Jeff and Yuji came out as lights flashed, loud crashes came from the speakers, and fireworks exploded on the screen, screaming “WELCOME TO THE NEXT LEVEL!!!” Afterwards, they called up some volunteers and since I raised my hand, I got to go up on stage. There was a competition between me and three guys, including the awesome Lewis Rice, as we tried our hands (and voices) at welcoming the crowd to the next level! I think I did okay, but since then I’ve thought of a few ways that I could’ve done better than I did.

After the icebreaker, the room exploded for five minutes of clapping to “Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster” by Daft Punk, which is what we use for the countdown every week at church. For the first minute or so, the clapping was loud and excited, then it kind of died off a bit until about the last thirty seconds, which is when it got louder than it had been before.

When the counter finally got to zero, a video came on and was an introduction to the next level in the conference, with videos from all over Japan, mostly from around the Tokyo area. As the band and dancers came on the stage, so did Jared and another guy (someone drop me a name, please?!), each with a “virtual suit” and helmet, running across the stage a few times in sync with what was going on in the video. When they took off their helmets, they realized they had just run (and ridden the train) from the church venue in Tameike-sanno to Shibuya, and one of them was kissing the Hurachiko dog statue (and getting a lot of odd looks in the process), with the other trying to pull him off the statue. He must’ve been imagining he was Mario kissing the princess.

The next half hour was dedicated to praise and worship time, with the band singing some awesome songs, including “Run,” “Break Free,” and “You Are Here (The Same Power),” which are very familiar songs to everyone who attends JLH. Emi Shirasaya, an awesome jazz singer in our church who translated our songs was the lead singer, and she has just got an amazing voice! After the main music time, Schanita and some of her friends sang some Gospel music (I don’t remember the name of the song, sorry), but people were dancing like crazy, some of us coming out into the aisles, myself included.

Finally, Pastor Steve came out and gave his message about the three people groups that are mentioned in 1 Samuel 13.

1 Samuel 13:6-7 (Message): When the Israelites saw that they were way outnumbered and in deep trouble, they ran for cover, hiding in caves and pits, ravines and brambles and cisterns -- whatever. They retreated across the Jordan River, refugees fleeing to the country of Gad and Gilead [basically joining the enemy]. But Saul held his ground in Gilead, his soldiers still with him but scared to death.

The first two people groups were those who hid or joined the enemy, and those who stayed with Saul and “followed trembling.” Ps. Steve talked about both groups as cowards. If something bad happens to the rest of them, the people who hid would be “safe,” and the ones who joined the enemy would be on the “winning side.” If the battle happened to turn in their favor, the ones who were hiding would be able to take credit for the victory and say “I WAS THERE!” The ones who stayed with Saul were just as bad off because they didn’t have the faith in the promise God had made that He would keep them from losing.

The third people group was basically only two people: Saul’s son Jonathan and his armor bearer. Seeing his father relaxing, Jonathan didn’t want to just stand by and do nothing while the enemy got stronger! So, he told his armor bearer to join him as he attacked the enemy, just the two of them! The armor bearer, who was a good man, said he was with Jonathan all the way! So, without telling his father what he was doing, he and the armor bearer went out to the hill where there was a Philistine Garrison stationed, and…

This is where things get interesting, and where I come in. At this point, Ps. Steve asked for volunteers to come up and help him with a demonstration. The entire front row was called up to play Philistines, and he asked for one more volunteer to be the armor bearer, and wanting the chance to be on the same stage as Ps. Steve, I raised my hand. Well, he told more of the story, that Jonathan handed the armor bearer his sword and charged up the hill. Well, I didn’t know the story past this point, other than Jonathan defeats them. Well, when Ps. Steve charged toward the group, I charged with him.

Needless to say, I got called back, having basically changed history. OOPS! Basically, the way the rest of the story actually went was that after Jonathan charged up the hill and knocked out the enemy with his bare hands, the armor bearer walked through and “stuck ‘em” with the sword. I don’t think I will ever forget about that part of the story now!

Following the end of his message, Pastor Steve made the normal alter call, and it was absolutely awesome to see twenty people raise their hands! I’m used to having four or five people at the most raise their hands at church, so seeing that number quadruple was so cool! This was followed my more great songs by the JLH band, and then the first session of conference was over!

Before I left the venue, I went up to Ps. Steve and he immediately said “There’s my armor bearer!” We laughed about the mix-up, and I asked him if he recognized me. He said no, but when I mentioned that I’d been stationed at NAS Oceana, he told me that he knew me by my name more than my face, as he and Ps. Rod had exchanged e-mails about me since I’d started going to JLH. I was fortunate enough to get Junya-san to take a photo of us. It will probably be a great while before I get to see Ps. Steve in person again, so I will treasure that photo and that first session of conference for the rest of my life.

Wow, already 2.5 pages (according to my Microsoft Works Word Processor). There is still so much to talk about, but I will continue later! Once I get done with my conference report and talking about my trip to Osaka, I will probably write little mini-sermons, as I am currently trying to work on learning how to write and deliver Bible-based messages. I know that actually preaching in a meetings is a LONG way off, but it has to start somewhere, right?