For the people of Victory Caloocan, the last two or three weeks have been a series of rapid, high energy activities. We recently launched our new center at the 6th floor of Victory Central Mall in August 29 and the 1,000 attendance barrier that we’ve been praying about this year has just been broken. Everything around us is new- the building, the air conditioning system, the stage, the equipment, the kids’ church and even the computers. It is time to celebrate and rejoice at what God is doing in this church.

And while we are at it, I can’t help but be reminded of what Pastor Ferdie and all the other pastors have been telling us months before: what brought us here may not bring us there- or at least something along those lines. The idea is that the commitment, hard work and sacrifices that brought us to where we are now may no longer work this time. A new approach might be necessary to sustain our present productivity. Who knows what the Lord will demand of us so we can soar to new heights?

To me, this is quite a sobering idea. I came from a religious background where people have an aversion to change. We’d often do something because it proved to be successful in the seventies. I know that’s hardcore backward thinking but somehow I could understand why some people try to hold on to past glories, if only to feel a sense of accomplishment and success. Forward thinking is always risky. It makes everyone nervous. It slaps us with the fact that our minds are finite and limited and we could not see all ends but it forces us to admit that we need the wisdom of God every step of the way.

Amid the festive atmosphere, loud cymbals and outrageous worship this past two Sundays, I realized two things. First is that the Lord blessed us with a new center, not so we can feel cool about it (although that can be a bonus too) but so we can have a bigger venue to make disciples. This place can be filled quickly with people who need Jesus and it is just a matter of time before we can go for another additional afternoon service. That all sounds great and exciting but that also means we need to raise up victory group leaders as fast as we can.

The pace with which we raised up leaders months ago will no longer be enough today. As I looked around my victory group last Sunday, I was gripped with a sharp sense of awareness that the people who were gathered around our little group only represented a tiny fraction of the total attendance. There were still so many people who are not connected in our victory groups, people who come in and out of our services without anybody saying hello to them, people who may need a prayer, a word of encouragement, a friend, a leader to point them to the direction of Christ.

As I’ve always told the guys in our group, there are times when we are only given one chance to touch a person’s life. The guy you sat next to today may no longer be there next week. We may only have today to make a difference and if we miss that chance, who knows what else we missed?

The second thing I realized is the fact that the God who brought us here is faithful and He will provide everything that is needed to bring us to the future He mapped out for us. At least this sounds very comforting. Seeing the need around us is quite pointless and would only lead us to despair if we fail to see the all-sufficiency of Christ in our circumstances. God provides. Jesus got it covered already. And I am sure that that includes finances, leadership, vision, guidance, and everything else in between. Anyone who’s ever read the Bible knows that God is able to work out something wonderful despite the limitations of our humanity.

Tonight, as I lay myself to sleep, I feel secure in these two things:

a.) There’s too much to do, I am needed.
b.) God provides, He’ll help me do what I need to do.

Good night everyone.

One of the most fiery (read: harshest) sermons ever preached in the Bible came from the mouth of John the Baptist. In Luke 3, he called the crowd who followed him a “brood of vipers” without even batting an eyelash. I may not be a preacher but one thing I’m sure of is that John’s sermon style was definitely not the normal way to attract a following. Church growth gurus and Toast Masters trained speakers today would cringe at the thought of using such offensive language when speaking in front of a crowd you are trying to reach.

But John the Baptist was no speakers’ club member. He didn’t seek to build a religion either. He was simply a man who was sent to announce the coming of the Messiah and he had to do it within a limited time frame. Remember that he and Jesus were born just a few months apart? That means that his message was time sensitive. The Messiah he was to announce was just around the corner. He didn’t have the time to play religious games with the Jews.

That explains the sharp words he used in his preaching. He spoke of a gospel of repentance and forgiveness without apologies. “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance!” he barked at the Jews who came out to hear him. The power and conviction that came with his preaching were so great that people didn’t have the time to grumble about preaching ethics and political correctness. On different occasions, they asked him what they were supposed to do and for each question, he gave practical, straightforward answers: Give away clothes, share your food, stop extortion, be contented with your salary! I could almost hear the people gasp when they heard these heavy demands of the faith. John’s message was outrageous, but the results were enough to confound modern day church growth experts. Mark 1: 5 reported:

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Sadly, we no longer hear these kinds of sermons today. Instead of straightforward gospel, we now hear great tips on how to be successful, how to use faith to get what we want, and how to have a love affair with God. We ask our preachers to tone down their volume, speak slowly like they’re just having a conversation, and present a seeker-sensitive gospel. We’re not comfortable when sins are blatantly spoken in the pulpit. We’d rather be told of how good God is, how much He promised to bless us, and how He loves us no matter what.

No wonder we no longer see this kind of massive public conversions in our preachings today. How sad…

We all know the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10: 38- 42. Jesus came into their home to have fellowship with them but the moment He stepped inside their house, Martha was running around doing a thousand chores that she didn’t even have time to sit and spend time with her guest.

Bless her heart. Whenever preachers look for example of people who are too busy to commune with the Lord, Martha is the first name to come up on the list. And for good reason. If anything, Martha embodies the typical Christian who loves to do more for God to the point of forgetting the reason why she’s doing those things in the first place.

The more I think about Martha’s story, the more I see myself guilty of the same oversight. In all the excitement of getting into the business of making disciples, I sometimes see myself covering up my lack of communion with the Lord with a flurry of activities. There’s just too much to do with too little time, I reason out. So I sometimes try to cut back on my private time with Jesus and replace it with a lot of noise and activity, well, until I bump into a blank wall and get reminded again why I do these things to begin with.

Funny how God is not fooled with my feeble cover ups. He sees through my motives even if I bury it deep beneath loud noise and a thousand activities and as much as I’d rather not be found out, I love the idea that God looks for authenticity after all. When He looks at me, He sees the exact condition of my heart regardless of how much I’ve done for Him.

What freedom. What grace. Thank you Jesus.

One of the many things I noticed during the EN2010 World Conference was the age group of the people who preached. I was especially struck with Jackie, the guy from the restricted country that I mentioned in my previous post. He was 19 when he met Jesus. When he came up the stage and the camera zoomed into a close up, I quipped to my victory group leader who was sitting next to me, “looks like he’s just in his early thirties!”

Jackie is indeed in his early thirties. And when I think about it, I can’t help but think of my own age and how many of my years were spent for personal pursuits in relation to the number of years I spent pursuing the things of God for my life. I also thought of the general idea among Filipino youth about not getting too serious about God in this age bracket. For many people, college years and the first few years at work are the time to get wild and be irresponsible. It’s the time to explore the world, experiment with lots of stuff and get crazy.

Photo from en2010.com

Last Sunday, Pastor Jojo Henson from Malaysia mentioned in passing how he was saved at the age of 20 and went into full time ministry at 22. He told us how the enemy has been telling him while he was in his twenties that he was too young to serve God. Now that he’s past forty, the enemy is trying to tell him that he is too old to make a difference. Of course the lies of the enemy sounds very ridiculous but it gets really intimidating if you start listening to it. The Lord reminded me of 1Timothy 4: 12: Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

While the world thinks it’s okay to be irresponsible when you’re young, the truth says otherwise. Young people need to make a choice on who to listen to. Some people sleepwalk through their younger years until the hard truths of adulthood jolt them to their senses. Others make wise decisions even when they’re too young to be right. But when you are on your thirties and you look back and try to make sense of what you’ve done so far, it is never fun to realize that others have already done so much while you were busy trying to look cool.

Darlene Zschech, the Australian worship leader who brought us the ever famous Shout to the Lord, spoke at the Every Nation World Conference in Manila on Friday night. I must admit I attended the conference partly because she was going to be there. I really wanted to hear her speak. Not sing, mind you, but preach and teach from the word of God. I wanted to hear some snippets of her worship philosophy and somehow get a glimpse of how Hillsong became what it is today.

In this photo: Jennifer Ramos and Mark Lingad of Victory Caloocan. Photo Courtesy of Jason Miraples

Darlene’s teaching was simple but powerful. The first thing she said that made me grab my notes was her definition of worship as a distinct response to a revelation of who Jesus is. I love the way she emphasized that worship is primarily about your relationship with Jesus, not the quality of the music nor the loudness of the singing. When you strip away the guitar, the keyboards, the screaming crowds, or even the entire band, worship could still go on because it has always been your heart responding to God.

Darlene also mentioned that the sounds will change but the intention and agenda remains the same. I’ve seen this happen in the Hillsong albums since the release of The Power of You Love (1992) and The Stone’s Been Rolled Away (1993). Hillsong music has changed down through the years. From the calm, soothing sounds of the 90s to Marty Sampson’s screaming in their newer albums, I’ve heard a definite change of sound that I didn’t like. The United Live series featured loud music that really turned me off for a few years. But when I think of the heart behind the music and how the music helped people around the world express their love for God in a new, fresh way, I quit complaining and joined in the noise.

Something about speaking the language of God was also mentioned in Darlene’s teaching. I think that was the highlight of her entire message that night. She recounted how the European settlement in Australia almost phased out the native speech of the Aboriginal Australians when the new foreign settlers forced the natives to speak English. There’s complicated history behind all these but the point Darlene made was if the enemy can silence your language, he can definitely silence your tribe. Christians ought to speak out the language of God or run the risk of getting silenced by the enemy.

Lastly, Darlene mentioned that in church, we seek to raise disciples, not celebrities. I love this part of her teaching simply because I’ve seen how the music team of some churches that I’ve been to are acting like celebrities in the local congregations. They don’t get into discipleship because they’re busy with their music. Some of them don’t even listen to the preaching of the word of God because they feel too important to be bothered with all that talks. In one particular church, the musicians were not even Christians. They’re rock stars who didn’t get signed up with a record label.

Hearing all these talks about the importance of our relationship with Jesus are a breath of fresh air for most and a gentle rebuke for some. God looks at the conditions of our hearts when we come to Him. Our inner lives matter. Let the music change. I no longer care if it’s Mexican chacha or RnB or Korean pop. If the sound points a person to a deeper understanding of God’s love and a stronger faith in Jesus, then let’s go ahead and rock!

Pastor Jojo Henson of Malaysia said something that got stuck in my head yesterday in Victory Caloocan. He mentioned in passing how Peter asked Jesus if they could make tents in the Mount of Transfiguration so they could stay there with Moses and Elijah. You’ve probably heard this a dozen times already but in light of the excitement and afterglow of the EN2010, I think this message never gets old. The idea is that Peter was so overwhelmed with the presence of two prominent Old Testament figures that he wondered aloud if they could just stay there and bask in the glory of the moment.

There was nothing wrong with the request. Peter probably did it in good faith, I mean, who wouldn’t want to just sit back and enjoy the glory of God’s presence? If it were me, I would probably feel the same way as Peter. The fact is that whenever we experience something glorious, our natural tendency is to hold on to it and never let it go.

Photo Courtesy of Jason Miraples

But as much as we want to make the moment last, a time always comes when we have to step down from our high moments and get assimilated back to our daily realities. EN2010 concluded with a loud bang for most of us. Yesterday, Metro Manila churches enjoyed an extended time with some international delegates as they spent their Sunday with us. The mountain ends there though. Today, a day after all the flurry of activities, we’re back to our offices, to our work stations, to the normalcy of the daily grind. It’s time to roll up our sleeves again and deal with our backlogs.

As I think about these things, I am reminded of Acts 1: 8 and Matthew 28: 19: Jesus said that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses… therefore go and make disciples…”

Powerful encounters with God are meant to fuel us to love God more. They’re meant to drive us to action, to go and carry out His mandate with fresh fire and fresh revelation, not so we could sit back and just enjoy the glow. No, there’s a heaven for that kind of stuff. The sooner we understand that, the lesser the frustration we’ll feel. I’ve seen countless young men and women attend conferences and come home feeling like they are ready to take on the world. Some of them were even so fired up with the euphoria that they vowed to go into full time ministry. When they attend church the first Sunday after the conference, the sing the loudest and cry the hardest. Reality sets in after two or three weeks though. They come down from the mountain and face the gritty realities of the daily grind. Life’s back to normal again.

How are we to land safely then? I mean, after the exhilarating flight of our spirits, after the so-called foretaste of heaven, how do we touch down gracefully? I couldn’t find much clue in the story except the fact that Jesus walked with them on their way down the mountain. Jesus never rebuked Peter’s ignorant prayer to make three shelters. He perfectly understood why Peter longed for that permanence in a glorious place. But He had to take them to the real world again so they could get on with their jobs and their ministries and their callings.

It is such a comfort that the God who shows us His great power and glory is the same God who will walk with us as we go down to the normal, ordinary details of our days. He is alongside us the moment we got back to our work today. He is not just a God of the mountains or the valleys. He is God everywhere.

If you’ve been around Facebook and Twitter this last few days, all the update you probably got from Victory people in your network were their experiences (and lots of photos) at the #EN2010 World Conference. Everyone’s been raving about its huge impact in their personal lives and how the record breaking singing of Amazing Grace in sixty languages brought them to tears. It was like a foretaste of heaven.

Some of the conference highlights that are worth writing about include Darlene Zschech’s teaching about worship, the communion of the nations, and Pastor Steve Murrell’s message about honoring God.

Photo Courtesy of Jason Miraples

Darlene’s most quoted statement for the week, “if you can’t sing well, just sing louder” became a fodder for Facebook and Twitter updates since Friday. It was funny and revealing at the same time. Worship has never been so much about music. When you really think it through, God is actually more interested with what’s going on in your heart than the tune you carry. As Darlene said, we seek to raise up disciples who submit to the Lordship of Christ, not celebrities with rock star complex. This word is especially powerful coming from the mouth of someone who is so well known around the world. It gives us a bit of an idea of how the Hillsong team operates behind the curtains.

The communion of the nations, in my opinion, was one of the most significant events in the conference. It was not a very moving part of the program, in fact, it just felt like any Sunday communion that I’ve ever had. What made it different (and special) was the physical presence of different nationalities inside one building. When you think of the diversity and unity in the body of Christ, there’s no better way to picture it than when you see different skin colors, hairstyles, heights and accents put together in a single room, saying Amen in unison and partaking of the communion elements all at the same time. It was so powerful and symbolic for me.

The last part of the conference that I consider to be a highlight was Pastor Steve Murrell’s message about honoring God. I was laughing half the time when he was preaching but when he was done, I almost cried at the simplicity of the message that he so consistently carried in the last 26 years. From the early beginnings of Victory, it has always been about honoring God and reaching the future leaders of the nations. As he walked us through the history of this great movement, I could plainly see how our leaders stuck with the basics to accomplish what God has placed in their hearts. The methods may have changed, church fads come and go, but not the mandate, not the call, not the specific assignment God has commissioned us for.

As I pushed my way out of SMX yesterday after the conference, I couldn’t help but think of how much this Every Nation spiritual family has greatly blessed my life. I looked around and saw friends from U-Belt and Caloocan, the people I am now going to church with. I saw some people from my own victory group wearing those big, glorious smiles. I saw my pastors who looked haggard and happy. I saw the volunteers who looked like they needed a week worth of sleep. I saw before my eyes around twenty thousand happy faces.

Lord Jesus, thank you that I am part of this.

Second day of Every Nation World Conference. Walls were broken, spiritually speaking. And the SMX building was shaken, literally speaking.

I’m not sure if I would ever find the correct English words to write about what happened yesterday. The speakers from different countries all brought something fresh to the conference, something to drive home the fact that the gospel of Jesus has been changing the spiritual, political and cultural landscapes of the world.

Photo Courtesy of JasonMiraples.com

During dinner, my brothers and I talked about how the conference revealed fresh truths for us as a family. CNN Hero Efren Penaflorida’s testimony of how the gospel changed his life and led him to give back to his community confronted us with a new question. How are we treating our hometown now that God has blessed us here in the city? Like Efren, we also came from the poorest of families in a distant village in Leyte where McDonalds was never heard of. Like Efren, God blessed us in our chosen careers. But the similarity ends there. Efren gave back. We relocated. Ouch.

The preacher from India and the pastor from a restricted country both shared powerful messages that are too long to recount here. (Again, you can listen to the full podcasts at EN2010.com). The one major point that I got out of their messages was the unique way they both encountered Jesus. One of them met God in the rain (and got saved through a McDonalds hamburger) while the other felt His touch as he was left on the side of the road, dying.

These testimonies are emotionally moving but what made them more interesting and more dramatic was the fact that the guy from the restricted country met Jesus through a Filipino missionary. This simple bit of information was enough to drive me to tears. It made me think of World Partners Program and little things we can do to help send missionaries abroad.

A few years back, I attended a Victory church service in U-Belt where the pastor not only preached about mission theories but really brought in testimonies fresh from the mission fields. Young people who have just been through ten-day mission trips reported on the harvest they witnessed. I remember sitting there feeling skeptical about their reports.”Ten days!” I thought. How could ten days change a nation? Are they even sure these kids are not simply taking vacation in a foreign land? Forgive my raw thoughts. I have long repented of my ignorance and I’m ashamed that the thought even crossed my mind.

Yesterday, as I heard the preachers speak of how they met Jesus through Filipino missionaries, I was sharply reminded that the money we sow into the lives of these missionaries are actually producing multiplied results in the international spiritual landscape. Whoever partnered with the Filipino missionary who reached the student (who is now leading a significant movement in the restricted nation I just mentioned above) would never have known that the money he sent is now making endless ripples in that country and the world over. The money that was used to buy McDonald’s hamburger is now being rippled back to the Philippines, setting so many hearts on fire, triggering renewed commitment among those who heard that testimony.

As the day came to a close, I saw before me the crumbling down of my own walls of excuses and alibis. I’m certain that something in me was forever changed after I saw this coming together of many nations. I can never look back now. I know that even if I am just as small as an ant crawling in a majestic cathedral, I have within me the power and the potential to make a difference in this big wide world. If I could just touch a soul, or give a thousand pesos to a student missionary, or do one to one discipleship with someone who will later become a key figure in a society, then I would have made a lasting impact on this world, an impact that would later send ripples everywhere.

It’s the second day of Every Nation World Conference. What happened last night pushed me to raise my expectations of what God is about to do in Every Nation family. The way I see it, we are just getting started. We are barely scratching the surface of what God has in store for this movement. No I’m not talking about the three-day event. I am talking about what He is about to do the moment our delegates head back to the airport  to get to their homes.

Photo Credit: http://www.en2010.com/category/gallery/

In more than two decades of ministry, God blessed the Every Nation family of churches beyond humanly possible. What I saw yesterday in the parade of nations was not something one person can do. The striking part was the fact that when you try and summarize what was happening, you can’t really pin point one single person taking the center stage. It wasn’t Steve Murrell, Rice Broocks, Joey Bonifacio, Jim Laffoon or anyone else. It was Jesus Christ!

I believe that this is one of the major factors in our growth. Lifting up Jesus. Not getting in the way of His praises. Not taking the credit. Stepping aside to let the applause be directed at the God who made all these possible. Basking in the pure delight of giving God the glory that He deserves.

As I prepare myself to attend the second day of the conference, my prayer is that God will speak to us in a fresh way today. I don’t mind the same old message, the “same old boring strokes,” the same old vision and the same ancient mandate. But I pray for FRESH FIRE, a new wave of revelation to be poured out today. God open our ears, let us hear you with definite clarity.

It’s already late. My laptop clock tells me it’s way past my sleeping hours. Twenty minutes to 2AM and I am wide awake. I just got back from the opening of Every Nation World Conference, the famous #EN2010 we’ve been tweeting about in the last couple of months. Tonight was the night I was part of something this big and the thoughts that are running in my head wouldn’t let me go to sleep unless I write them down to document what kind of day it was.

I will not dwell on how great the venue was or how advanced the technology we used. That would just trivialize the event to the point of being vain. I also would like to refrain from using words like “excited, excellent, great, amazing, and awesome. They’re like broken records already. Everybody’s excited, everybody’s saying it was awesome and great and excellent and amazing and all that. But what really happened there? How does it look like in the eyes of a regular Joe like myself?

Let me just point out one of the highlights, the parade of nations. I know that those who have attended Every Nation Conferences before have already seen it. I haven’t. This was the first time in my life when I saw with my own eyes how forty seven nations from around the world came together in one room and worshiped God with one voice. I could hardly believe it was happening right in front of me.

Yes the atmosphere was electric that it was easy to get carried away with all the shouting and dancing. It was easy to get drowned in the noise. It was easy to join in the euphoria of the moment. But for some strange reason, I could not even shout or clap or cheer. I was fighting a lump in my throat. I was holding back tears, trying hard not to sob when I saw the people from other countries waving their flags as they entered the main hall. It was like a deja vu of heaven, a preview of a prophecy recorded in Revelation 7: 9 when people from every nation, tribe and tongue will come together in front of the throne of God.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

As I looked, a few things came to my mind. One is the fact that I was actually looking at a snapshot of my future in heaven. No matter what my circumstances are today, I already know how this is gonna end. I am going to win, you are going to win. Someday, Jesus will all gather us to celebrate our victory. We are going to overcome, Revelation 7: 9 tells us that.

Second is the spiritual connection I felt as people from different nations passed in front of me. It somehow amused me that people with different skin colors can be my family. We all went through the same discipleship, we believe in the same Jesus and we are brothers and sisters in the fullest sense of the word. I have never been prouder of my Christian faith than today. For the first time it just hit me that my faith is not something that is driven to the corner while the world took center stage.

Third is the visible evidence of how the gospel of Jesus can melt cultural, political, economic, racial and linguistic differences. Not only were there people from different nations gathered together today. Politicians, students, celebrities, regular office workers, businessmen and people from all walks of life were also there, representing the wide diversity in our churches and in the body of Christ. As we sang the EN2010 theme song, I could feel the voices of the nations rising up to the high heavens, breaking down walls that have long separated people from each other. I love how Jesus alone can do this.

Fourth is the universal power and appeal of the gospel. When the female Nigerian preacher came up to preach a fiery message, I couldn’t help but feel the same familiar warmth in my heart. She was speaking with an unfamiliar accent but the message was something that was so native to me, something that I felt has been there all along. It was the same fire that I often feel when I read my Bible alone. It was like God Himself was talking to me.

I walked out of the conference hall feeling light and warm. I know that was just a foretaste. More is yet to come. I will definitely come back tomorrow.