Over the weekend I spoke with a friend of mine who's a rather conservative minister . . . wow. I
think DB and my friend went to the same conference, though from my friends rant it was hard to believe.
Some of his angst:
He wasn't happy with it. The music was too wordly. The musicians weren't dressed right. Too much rock and roll. Too charasmatic. The worship leader looked too worldly. Worship was fake and the real spirit of God wasn't there. And the one time there was real worship, someone stopped it too soon instead of letting it continue.
JU was trying to be like TD Jakes too much with the blasted organ . . . should look in the mirror and find himself instead of trying to emulate TDJ.
TG's message wasn't very good. Apparently my friend was upset over something TG said about (paraphrase) "what's better...7500 people getting the Holy Ghost or 1 person getting closer to God? 1 person getting closer to God." He was all kinds of upset about that.
DB, do you remember the quote or context?
Then he got mad at me for laughing while he was ranting.
I just couldn't believe the differences in the reports. I asked him if the spirit of God wasn't there (or the real spirit, that is), how come I've read reports and talked with others who were there and either had friends or loved ones get the HG or who received a blessing themselves. His reply was that if you're hungry enough for God, you'll get what you need.
He didn't like the candles either.
*sigh* He's not a fan of the GYD . . . says they've been to too many charasmatic youth conferences.
oloroid
It's interesting how different people view the same thing. The good thing is I've heard far more positives about NAYC than I have negatives. And I won't say from what side of the spectrum the negatives are from, but one could probably guess correctly.
Also . . . anytime you get 15,000+ young people in one place worshipping God - it's a great thing!