Text by Jonah Sng

Where do we go from here?

That was the question weighing on my heart after leaving the EXPO Pavilion yesterday evening. With all the good that God has wrought in my life — the privilege and honour of serving, to be able to walk out the grace that has been poured so lavishly upon me, to witness the mighty ways He is moving in this generation — how do I walk away from the Zone Conference without squandering what He has put in me through it?

I can’t imagine what the conference has been like for you. I can talk about the workshops, the concert, or the sermon, but I can’t possibly put down what each of you has taken home from it. What impacted you? What struck right at your heart?  How did God move you to tears? What do you see now that you didn’t before, with new eyes?

As brilliant and funny as Pastor Judah Smith is…as electrifying and groundbreaking as Hillsong United can be at defining what praise and worship should be…as much fun as an event like this can be to spend an entire Saturday on…what I’ve discovered for myself from the Zone Conference is this possibly earth-shattering revelation:

It’s about people.

It’s about the brother or sister beside you. Maybe even the stranger sitting next to you during a workshop, whom you have no name for, but are curiously called a brother or sister in Christ. Maybe it’s someone you’ve seen during service.

But unfamiliarity is no barrier. Even the seeming disparity between each of our lives is no hindrance. It’s because we’re all connected – believers or not – through Jesus’ act of love at the cross, that perfect embodiment of the grace of God gifted to man.  It’s His love that binds us together – strangers, friends or family – young and old alike.

There was this boy who sat near me during the evening programme. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Strangely enough, he didn’t have any of his friends with him, and would talk to himself intermittently. His version of dancing during praise songs was jumping up and down without paying any heed to beat or melody; I ended up getting kicked not just once, but several times. Also, when he saw people throwing light sticks during the concert, he decided to have a go himself.

Truth be told — I was more than a bit irritated and bewildered at his behaviour. And to be completely honest here, the first thought that came to my mind was: this: ‘What a weirdo’.

But the story doesn’t just end there. When Pastor Judah called for ministering after his sermon, this boy raised his hand. And then to my dismay, Pastor Judah then called for the nearest brother or sister to lay hands and pray together with those who had raised their hands. That meant me having to pray with the boy who had been unwittingly kicking me during all the praise songs in the concert.

But despite all that – despite all the reluctance I felt – I listened. I simply reached out and put my hand on his shoulder.

And then the most amazing thing happened.

Under all the anointing and the presence of God in the hall – as brother prayed with brother and sister with sister – I felt all my disdain vanish. Just like that. Gone.

And in its place was love, an overflowing, vast, immense love for this youth which I had no doubt was God’s heart for him working through me. The same heart of love that God has for you and I.

God was telling me something.  Because then I realised, who was I kidding? How was I any different or better than this boy? If we chose to really see how God sees each of us… I wasn’t.

I believe that most of us in this ministry just want to fit in. We all want to connect. We all want to retain our uniqueness and individuality, but not be too different. Being too different could mean having no friends. It could mean getting uncomfortable looks from the people around you. Or even receiving irritated stares from people you kick by accident during praise and worship.

These people – whom I, in my own prejudices and human nature, write off as ‘weird’ – they’re all around us. But they’re just like you or me. They’re loved by a loving Father and saved by a glorious Saviour. But sometimes, when they seem a little too different, so unlike what we deem to be socially acceptable… we keep our distances.

They want, like all of us, to fit in. They want to belong, to be a part of a greater whole; you can see in their eyes… in the awkward angle of their posture… in the slight scuffle of their feet… wanting and not wanting to be part of the background, trying to be as ‘normal’ as possible, but not really knowing what it means to be so… and now the real question on my heart after hearing about truth, love and justice, after singing about tearing down walls and shouting His glory until my throat is hoarse, is this: where do we go from here?

The answer’s simple. Even when we have these huge venues… events with such meticulous planning and logistics and household names… gathering thousands so that the name of Jesus can be lifted high… even when the night’s ended and we’re going back home with full hearts and changed lives… it all still comes down to one thing:

It’s about people.

It’s about that boy. It’s about the person you see in church who doesn’t really know how to fit in.  It’s about you and me and Jesus in the midst of everything. It’s about being loved by the Father and loving out of that love. It’s about reaching out to the people around us and saying ‘we’re all this in together’.

It’s about letting this love we have received in such abundance and without condition tear down the walls in our hearts.

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Text by Grace Tan

At the workshops at The Zone 2009 Youth Conference

The Zone 2009 Youth Conference started with a big bang right at the stroke of 12pm on the 25^th of July. With snaking queues and faithful young hearts eagerly queuing up to have their ticket stubs torn and wrist bands and goodie bags collected, one could see that everyone had come with expectant hearts to receive a greater portion of God’s love for us. I was part of that snaking queue eagerly waiting to step into the zone of His grace and love.

The United Team!

The first of three workshops began at 1pm with Jad Gillies and seven other members of the United team. It was an informal setting with sharing from Jad and introduction of the United team members and the various roles of serving that they took up in church. Jad began the session by addressing the main goal of the United team which was to serve God and building His church in the process. Whilst hearing how each of these United team members stepped up as volunteers with a heart of service to the kingdom of Christ, I was filled with a revelation that God had empowered each of His children with gifts that can be used to build the church. I realised the servers or the ‘volunteers’ as the United team calls them forms the backbone of the church. I am encouraged that God sees and honours the sacrifices that a server has made. Anything given to Christ, will never return the same way again and that includes time, rest and many other sacrifices made.

Joel Houston

Joel Houston was the second speaker for the afternoon workshops. The title of his workshop was “From the Inside Out”. He began the workshop by telling us that “the church is part of something bigger than ourselves”. Church is not just about me or you. It is not about the gifts and talents that a few of us seemingly possess but the sacrifices of many. He expounded on many verses and one of them that particularly spoke to me was Romans 11:36 “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen” All of my life belongs to God and hence every part of my life shall be for His glory. Joel then defined the meaning of life in three aspects – truth, love and justice. To live a life in truth he quoted Mother Theresa, “Truth is Humility”. Truth is about being humble, to be who we are, just as we are. We do not need to put up a wall of pretense. Our lives are not about our own stories but God’s plan and His story lived out in our lives. A life defined by love is to realise that love is about coming to an end of ourselves. To die to our flesh and be anchored and rooted with a love for people that can only come from God because He is love. Lastly, a life defined by justice is to live a life pursuing justice on earth and not to be hardened and ignore the injustice that we see around us in the world. We are, after all, called to be the light of the world, and wherever we are in our daily lives, we can make a difference.

Pastor Judah Smith

Pastor Judah Smith rounded off the afternoon preaching about success and the story of Joseph. He began by shared that the Christian faith is nothing more than a continual response to God who is the initiator of our relationship with Him.  He shared about Manasseh and Ephraim and how the first born blessings was intentionally given to Ephraim instead. Ephraim means “fruitful” and Manasseh means “make forgetful”. I can now be fruitful because God has made my sins forgetful. We, The Zone Ministry, are the generation of the right-handed blessings. And indeed there is nowhere we can run to escape from His blessings.

I am convinced that God has chosen to use each and everyone in The Zone Ministry for His story and His glory.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

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Text by Ruthe Kee

What can I say, the entire Youth Conference was a BLAST! From the beginning to the end, everything was just so amazing that all I could do was to soak in every sight and sound. How do I put it? It wasn’t just the 9-minute summarized story of Joseph by Pastor Judah Smith at the workshop or the awesome time of worship we had with Hillsong United… It was an accumulation of everything, how every single event that happened at The Zone today simply consisted and upheld one another in the presence of God, glorifying God. And this really spoke to me, like how, really, every single thingthat happens to me in my life glorifies God. Regardless of how we feel about the things (good or bad) that happen in our lives, they still end up glorifying God because He makes ALL things work for good.  To me, this is truly beautiful, for it means that even the worst thing that we have done, God can use it to glorify Himself. I mean, it’s not even about us trying to glorify God anymore, but when we stop looking at ourselves and what we can do and start lifting up our hands, worshipping Him and letting Him work through us that we glorify Him the most. And you know what? That’s 0% our efforts, 100% rest in God (God is doing ALL the work, all we do is follow!). That’s crazy! And that is, to quote Pastor Judah Smith, scandalous grace.

That's me, second from the right!

As for Pastor Judah Smith’s sermon, it was like revelations nonstop all the way! I was so blown away when he said this:“Grace is not man coming to God; it’s God coming to man.” I mean, this sentence just sums it all up! Jesus is Grace! And Jesus came to us, not the other way round. Truly, at that point in time, I could just feel Jesus grabbing (not touching!) the casket that I have hidden myself in for so long and asking me to sit up and speak up, to be who He’s called me to me. It was a time of metanoia (=renewal of mind) for me, and I believe for many others there too. I really love how Pastor Judah was so real with us and so open to share about his life, as well as his numerous hilarious illustrations of the Bible and made it relevant to us. It just spurs me on to want to know Jesus more and dig into the Bible deeper for truths I have previously skimmed through. So here’s a little feedback from me… MORE OF PASTOR JUDAH SMITH PLEASE!

Pastor Judah Smith preaching at The Zone '09!

And the concert? Well I feel like singing all over again: Your name is glorious, glorious / Your love is changing us, calling us… It feels like a whole new level of worship, a deep work began in my heart, a seed sown and watered and growing steadfast within me, a desire to want to worship God, over and over again. The whole atmosphere during the concert was simply put, infectious. Isn’t it cool that while the world is worrying their heads off over H1N1, here we are, being infected with the spirit of worship? I really love how the lyrics to Hillsong United’s Tear Down The Walls goes, that we don’t need to see our miracle to believe that God has already worked on it. I ♥ Hillsong

A whole new level of worship

It’s really special when the entire youth ministry comes together for a time of worship like this, ’cause it just felt like family time, where we were just upholding each other in our praises and worship to our Abba Daddy, praying for one another. It’s so beautiful to see the entire youth ministry united in one voice, unrestricted by self in the presence of our great God.

Thank you, dear church for organizing this awesome-st event for us!

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The title for Pastor Judah Smith’s workshop is now out!  Click here to read more!

Joe

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Here are details of the workshops conducted by The United Team…

Workshop #1 – 1:00pm
“Worship That Builds the Church” – Jad Gillies & The United Team
The Hillsong United panel talk about building the creative team to serve the church as a whole.
They will also open for questions to be taken from the audience.

Workshop #2 – 2:00pm
“From The Inside Out” – Joel Houston
Joel will share his heart on what it means to be a true worshipper… Loving God, Loving People.

Are you ready for The Zone 2009 Youth Conference?!

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