General Council

I will have a couple of posts that reflect some of my thoughts and impressions from General Council (GC09)in Orlando two weeks ago. In this first one, I will hit some of the overall things and the tone etc. In other posts I will address a couple of specific issues regarding decisions and business conducted.

Overall, GC09 was a great event! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Everything except the registration was run very well and quite organized. Not sure what happened at registration, I have attended Councils before and never had to stand in line for more than a few minutes to get through, especially when we were pre-registered. I was in line for almost an hour and a half and know of some who did so for over three hours. Oh well, I wouldn't want to be in charge of processing 29,000 people.

The Kids Council registration was excellent. They took pictures of the kids and of the parents and even fingerprint scanned the parents. After that, parents signed their children in and out via fingerprint and then received a printout with pictures of kids and parents. That print out had to be turned in and the child's sticker placed on the paper before a parent could leave the area with a child. Very secure and very well done.

The children's workers were wonderful. They engaged the kids and they showed great energy even when I know they were tired. There were field trips in the mornings, activities in the afternoon, and children's services in the evening. My girls loved it! They made friends and they came away telling us about the Bible lessons learned and singing the worship songs. They are already asking if they can go to Kids Council again in two years. Very cool.

The exhibit hall was impressive. It was very hi-tech with computers and video screens everywhere. There were interactive media displays and a couple of stages set up to try out new audio/visual gear from Yahama and even record in a studio set up.

As part of the exhibit area, there was a Eurasia Experience that took you through a full production starting as if you were going through an airport and flying overseas. It walked you through a couple of areas that gave the feel of being in various parts of Eurasia and ended with a great program.

There were a couple of schedule changes that were really nice this year.

On Wednesday, the Youth and Kids Councils had their normal evening services, but there were no adult services. This was designed to give parents a night out alone. Great idea. (We took advantage and had a very nice meal at one of our favorite restaurants.)

On Thursday night, there was a combined Youth and Adult service with elements geared toward each. It was an amazing evening. There is not much that compares to radical and passionate praise taking place across generations in one place. A few rows in front of us was a lady well advanced in years and dressed traditionally. At the front of the room and scattered throughout were teens and young adults. On stage Jeff Deyo was leading worship. There were moving lights, giant screens, and motion graphics. This dear woman had both arms raised fully engaged in worship of God, and so did the thousands of young people as they jumped and shouted! Across the room, people of all ages proclaimed dedication and praise of the living God in one voice. Awesome!

The overall tone of the Council was very good. I am encouraged about the future of the Assemblies of God, but more importantly about the future of the church. This wasn't just about our specific fellowship as moves were made and things were done and people represented that go beyond a labeled group and have Kingdom significance. I walked away challenged and encouraged. God is doing something incredible around the world and we are privileged to be a part of it.