Monday, November 21, 2016
Since Liveloud was introduced in Canada a few years back, I had a sense that the Liveloud praise and worship concert would one day be a great evangelization tool for our local CFC community. That said, I had hoped that CFC-Youth Edmonton would one day host Liveloud. For many, this dream had finally come into fruition on November 12 when CFC-Youth Edmonton hosted its very first Liveloud! Praise God!
In the morning, I was feeling tired because I hadn’t slept, as I was finishing the service team ID’s and the CFC-Youth booth that would be displayed at the Liveloud Expo. (I would not recommend not sleeping to anyone) But regardless of my tiredness, I couldn’t help but be so joyful and excited for the day that was to come.
As one of the event heads, I didn’t have anything committee-specific to do on the day of. All I had to do was to give the service team ID’s to Secretariat/Admin. to disseminate, pick up a camcorder rental from Vistek, to set up the CFC-Youth booth for the Liveloud Expo, and to put makeup onto the band members (that was fun haha). As I would do these things, I would look around as I normally would and watch the youth and the many other CFC Family Ministry members work so diligently to put the event together. It was so great to see CFC come together as one in the Holy Spirit.
Time went by so quickly and before I knew it 7:45AM became 4:00PM. We were welcoming and expecting over 1000 people to come through those doors. Looking back it’s unbelievable that that we were expecting that many people to come because just two weeks prior, we had about 200 tickets sold. What a difference! Only God could make a miracle like that happen haha.
The Liveloud concert was amazing. The music. The videos. The messages. But what was more amazing was seeing all of the people worship God. All around me and above me were groups of people I had never seen in my life and this made me excited because it meant that as a community we were evangelizing more and more people. I was also very grateful to God that I was able to experience this Liveloud with both of my parents, who probably haven’t been to a CFC community event since their last conference in 2007. It meant a great deal to me that my parents and friends came to support the event, despite not really knowing what to expect, but just coming because I had asked them to. But I know that Liveloud is not about me and I’m definitely okay with that (it would be extremely weird and awkward if it was LOL), but that it is and will always be about God, so it meant an even greater deal to me that my parents and friends came because it was an opportunity for them to experience and encounter God’s love in this special way.
At the end of Liveloud I was sharing with the service team that everything was so “mega” about this event. From the mega lettering to the mega number of people serving and guests in attendance, even to using online ticketing and the cool ticket scanning system we had, I was just feeling amazed at how — you guessed it — mega everything was, haha.
But none of this mega-ness would have been possible if it weren’t for God. No act of service from any of the committees would have contributed to the mission in this way if it weren’t for God’s love, mercy, and grace. There would be absolutely no point to a Liveloud concert if God and His love didn’t exist, but both God and His love do exist. There would be no theme to the Liveloud concert if God wasn’t merciful, but God is merciful. We would not have the ability and strength to go about excelling in our responsibilities and service if God’s grace wasn’t given to us, but God’s grace was given to us in unimaginable ways throughout the preparations and on the day of. Needless to say, God is so good for blessing us with His love and mercy, and giving us the grace to share our talents with others so that they can also experience His love.
This Liveloud was particularly special to me, not just because it happened or because my loved ones came, but because it just shows how great and faithful God is to the CFC community. God wants us to grow, so He made us grow. God wants us to evangelize, so He made us evangelize. God wants us to sing praises to Him, so He gave us the opportunity to do so. God wants us to turn our mourning into dancing, and that’s exactly what happened to everyone who was present.
This Liveloud concert can represent so many things to so many people, but I rejoice in knowing that for myself, this Liveloud concert doesn’t just represent an opportunity for people to experience God’s unconditional love and mercy — which is already an incredible gift. But reflecting on the mega-ness that existed at this Liveloud — or any Liveloud for that matter — leads me to ponder on God’s dominion and greatness, to recognize that no matter how great something seems to be, that nothing can come close to how unbelievably generous and great God is. He is the Lord of all, Saviour of sinners, Creator of the universe, and the Father Almighty. What we do can never add to God’s greatness and yet we are everything to Him. There is no greater love. There is nothing greater than God.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
