New Attitude (III)

I think the powers that be must have read my blog and noted my comments about the music being “not quite rock concert loud.” This morning the music seemed noticeably louder. I’m quite the fan of loud music, so this suits me fine, even if it is difficult to use my laptop when my foot keeps tapping. When 3,000 voices are added to the already amplified singers and instruments, it becomes very loud indeed. It’s a good thing.

I’m sitting in the middle of the room at a table with four other people, all attempting to describe what’s happening here. There are two guys from Boundless and Ricky Alcantar from New Attitude. On the other side of the sound booth is another table where I believe the Rebelution guys have set up shop for the weekend. And during the times of teaching there are laptops throughout the auditorium with others typing out their thoughts and, no doubt, posting them for the world to read. This morning I met up with Josh [Harris] at Starbucks and we were imagining what a conference would look like where there was no liveblogging, no audio recording and no video. Conferences have become something that people can experience by proxy-that they can experience, at least in part, even if they are not at the actual event. It’s a good thing, too.

The morning opened with something called Community Groups and Family Groups, where the people attending the conference join together in small groups to begin to apply what has been taught and what they are learning. Every Community Group is divided into several Family Groups, each led by a young man who leads and guides discussion and prayer. There are, I believe, 180 of these groups. Aileen and I are not participating in these, so you’ll have to go elsewhere to find out what this part of the experience is all about. I’m sure it’s also a good thing.

There are to be three general sessions today (and three tomorrow and one on Tuesday). It’s hard to believe it’s Sunday today as the days all kind of seem the same at conferences. We’ll hear from Mark Dever this morning, then from Al Mohler this afternoon, and finally from C.J. Mahaney this evening. It’s a busy day, really, with sessions running from 10:45 AM until 10 PM. It’s bound to be a great thing.