Stirred By God’s Sung, Preached, and Spoken Word at Catalyst Dallas

Last Thursday evening’s session at Catalyst Dallas was by far my favorite. It began the real heart-stirring time of the conference.  Not that what came before it wasn’t good; in fact, it was all excellent, but the praise and wonder and amazing joy of serving God was on full display during this session.

The evening began with music from a band called Gungor.  I had not heard of them before and thought their music was intended to be a concert for us.  It wasn’t.  We sang, and I began to see their amazing gift, not only of music, but talent and skill in writing good (yes, really good!) Christian music.  The band made use of a variety of instruments and vocal harmonies, and their words were deep, powerful, and even theologically rich.

Next, we moved into a time of teaching from David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, and author of a popular book called Radical.

The theme of the conference, in general, was “take courage.”  Many of the speakers spoke about building up and growing in courage, learning to fight battles and conquer our fears. But not this man, Platt boldly stepped out and said, “Courage doesn’t come from us (from looking inward) but from looking upward.”  He spent the rest of the evening getting us to look at the difference in our incomprehensibly great God and our own sinfulness.

He didn’t just leave it at a juxtaposition between God and us, though.  No, he pointed us to Christ, as our “scandalously merciful savior,” who didn’t just stand in the place of our sin, but of us. Because of this, he called us to our indescribable and urgent mission of sharing the gospel with others.

Platt’s passion, conviction, and descriptions of present heavenly realities were dramatic and moving.  His voice would waver between light-hearted laughter to deep, heart-wrenched emotion.

After he stirred us all, the band Gungor came back out to play a few more amazing songs. At one point, the also very gifted spoken word poet, Amena Brown, spoke out her impassioned lyrics in the dark to the steady rhythms of the musicians.  I shuddered at the awesomeness of God as tears streamed down my face.

Gungor, then closed out our time with one last song, “The Earth Is Yours,” whose chorus rings out “Holy, holy Lord, the earth is yours,” which we sang out over and over again.

I left that night, feeling refreshed and strengthened.  My eyes were lifted from my own insecurities rightly upward to our incomprehensibly great God and scandalously merciful Savior.  I didn’t want the evening to end, but as I drove home, instead of my usual phone call-making, I prayed and sang out the chorus again and again. It was a sweet time of praise and wonder.

If you were there, what do you think? If not, tell me about a heart-stirring experience you’ve had through the church.

Check out my other posts on this topic: Catalyst Dallas Brings a Breath of Fresh Air and Healing the Tension between the Younger and Older Generations: Craig Groeschel