What is God doing in our life?
This past weekend we had the opportunity to go to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Indianapolis, IN!(We leave tomorrow at noon). You may be thinking that we were crazy in going to a conference days before we are moving to another state, and yes we were crazy, but we KNOW God had us there for not just one reason, but many.
Here’s why:
1. We needed to get our minds off of moving. We are excited to move to Minnesota and actually going to this conference, we realized how excited we are get back into youth ministry! But because moving has been our focus for a few weeks now, our minds needed a break. Going to a conference where there are over 2800 youth workers, you can’t help but just love youth ministry that much more. The seminars we went to were just incredible. Our main one was “Sneaking Theology Into Every Aspect of Your Ministry.” I can’t wait to talk about what we learned in weeks to come! We realized while being in Indy, we rarely talked about moving, which was healthy for us. We feel refreshed and rejuvenated to start this new chapter in our life.
2. We were able to be filled with just solid Biblical knowledge from the experienced. That is two-fold because we not only learned what not to do and what to do as youth workers (from those vets who have gone before us), but also how the Bible is our map and guide for life. Dan and I just couldn’t get enough! We just wanted to keep learning more and more, but our bodies were telling us enough, enough :). We are just sponges right now as we continue to grow and transition into a new stage of life.
3. We were able to talk about the things we haven’t talked deeply about for awhile. Conferences always bring out emotions. It doesn’t matter what you are going through, but when you are in an intense environment with worship, speakers, peers, and out of your normal environment (think mission trips), emotions can seep out because they are emotions you may not have dealt with in awhile. Children often come up at these conferences and though those talks brought tears to our eyes as we continue to miss our two little Hooties, we knew we had to have some “tough” conversations. It has only been 6 months since God took them home. It was so good to get deep again and talk about that experience. Even us having to leave the church. To just see how God has loved and showered us with His blessings, amidst the pain, is just unexplainable at times. To talk about what we have been through and how we now carry that into a new chapter, was just good (sorry for the lack of a more “deep” term), but really, it was GOOD.
4. The speakers and bands were AMAZING! One of the biggest highlights for me personally was seeing Lecrae! If you want to know one thing about Kristin, it is that she LOVES Christian rap – especially Lecrae. I don’t like him just because he’s a Christian rapper – I like him because of his stance on life and faith. His music expresses such deep theological points, yet he puts it in terms in a way that no one else can (through rap, of course). When you sit, listen, and think about his lyrics, it only draws you closer to God. That is his whole goal. Lecrae doesn’t talk often of it, but he even won a Grammy this past month!
Here is a news article from MTV on Lecrae winning a Grammy:
On Sunday night, Atlanta-based MC Lecrae won a Grammy for Best Gospel Album with his 2012 album Gravity. The term gospel rap automatically conjures up images of Kirk Franklin and while Lecrae is crystal clear about where his faith lies, he has done well to exist within hip-hop’s secular sphere collaborating with DJ Don Cannon, Big K.R.I.T. and participating in BET’s Hip-Hop Awards Cypher in 2011.
For folks who’d like to put Lecrae in a box, he aims to break the stigma of faith-driven music. “The Lecrae fans are like everyday people. Some of them are hip-hop fans, some of them are fans of responsibility and honesty,” he told MTV News back in October. “Obviously some of them are people who embrace their faith. And that’s really who resonates with my music. It’s just honest, real hip-hop.”
After Gravity was released in September, it shot to #3 on the Billboard 200 with over 72,000 units sold, proving that not only can Lecrae spit bars, he is also quite popular. “I don’t know if the sales surprised me as much as they encouraged me to keep going,” he said. “I know that my people rock with me. It’s more than just good music. It’s good music, but it’s honest music. It’s music that’s transparent and people relate to that, so it encouraged me to keep going.”
Many rappers make records about faith, the famous example being Kanye West’s 2004 single “Jesus Walks,” but hip-hop’s relationship with God doesn’t stop there. In 2002 Houston rap vet Scarface dropped The Fix, a highly touted LP with a number of religious raps (“Heaven,” “Someday” and “What Can I Do”). Then there is DMX, who often begins his album with a prayer, and Ma$e, who once left the business to dedicate his life to God.
Given hip-hop’s history, the idea of a gospel rap star shouldn’t be so far-fetched. “Historically I’ve been more adamant and have created songs that were unadulteratedly explicit in terms of the message and so I think that’s where a lot of the stigma comes from,” he said. “But people mature and they learn their sound and they learn their lane and that’s really what I’ve done, I’ve learned my sound and my lane. What you’ve gotten with my mixtape Church Clothes, what you’ve gotten with my album Gravity is who I am.”
5. Finally, God just reminded us of who He is. In so many ways, God reminded us of His presence in our life. That is the BIGGEST thing we could learn/take away from the conference. That God is real. He cares. He loves us. He is sovereign. These truths and promises only felt confirmed this past weekend and as we start a new journey in our life, we feel even more prepared for the unknown, but even more excited to be walking with God in this.
One last day tomorrow!
A few pics from the weekend:
While driving to Indy, we reminisced a few times of what last year brought us – a tornado. This year, the skies once again looked a little “odd” but we knew there wasn’t supposed to be any crazy weather and thankfully we made it down there in once piece! This is a pic of the skies this year – looks rather similar, doesn’t it?
Indy!
While eating dinner Friday night there was this limo with a chicken on it with two guys hanging out the top waving to people – we didn’t get it.
Capitol of Indiana
The rapper Propoganda – he was awesome!
DJ Promote – he can seriously rock the beatz!
Shane and Shane led us in worship everyday
The Skit Guys, Tommy and Eddie – seriously some of the funniest people I know!
Saturday night, the Lecrae concert!
Letting my inner-rapper come out 🙂
Lecrae’s talks were so real – talk about a man who just desires to walk with God!
Afterwards there was a Q and A with Lecrae and Canon (Canon was a back-up rapper for Lecrae). We’ve seen them both in concert before and yet again, it was just awesome.
Lecrae called us his “light-skinned cousins” as he sees us all as family, not fans.
View from our hotel room – Lucas Oil Stadium (I think where the Colts play (NFL)).
I hope to share more about what we learned. I feel like I honestly have so much to blog about, but so much is going on, that I need to take time to just sit and blog :). I LOVE blogging, so hopefully someday I will get “caught up.”
