Harvest University wrap-up

Apr 21

Um, can anyone say, “FIRE HYDRANT!” That’s what it felt like I was drinking from the whole time at Harvest University in Elgin, Illinois the past few days. Here are some highlights…

Singing

We worshiped the most glorious, most holy, most worthy God every session with excellence. Tons of biblical truth and gospel saturation in every song, played skillfully, reverently, passionately, joyfully. The best time for me was on Tuesday morning when I got to go up on stage and sing in the choir about the heavenly worship seen in Revelation 4 & 5. I was overwhelmed many times with gratefulness, wonder, joy at the thought of joining in that worship someday and getting a taste of it now.

High Impact Services workshops

James MacDonald, Andi Rozier, and Rory Noland did a great job of equipping us with lots of philosophy for why Harvest does what they do during their weekend services, lots of practical and creative ideas, and some good, clean fun. Most helpful in these sessions was the answer James and Rory gave about whether preaching or worship is more important, but there was tons of other good content.

Preaching

Oh how refreshing to hear James preach from Revelation. He is a fantastic communicator and has a gift for applying the text to the lives of the listeners. His first message was from Revelation 12 about “Pulling Over” and his second message was from Revelation 10 about “It Ain’t Gonna Happen.” Something James mentioned in both the workshops and his second message was a list of 5 things he thinks churches should focus on that will be “conduits of transcendence”: being vertical, biblical, intentional, relational, and missional. He also mention the following 6 paradigm shifts, which I thought were excellent:

Forget about relevance and go for transcendence.
Forget about what people want to hear and go for what God wants said.
Forget about making people feel comfortable and go for making them feel “wanted.”
Forget about fun and go for ministry.
Forget about subtlety and go for directness.
Forget about gifts and go for passions.

The guys

It was great to be together with all the pastors and other guys from NewSong. I love them all and feel so blessed to be part of such a great team!

Now I’m looking forward to getting an even closer look at the Harvest Worship ministry over the next 2 weeks! I’m so grateful to God, Harvest, and NewSong for giving me the opportunity!

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