Creation 2003

Anyone else going? I'll be leaving tomorrow. It got moved to Hershey because of all the rain, so it should be interesting. I'll give a small report when I get back.

 

Just got back this morning. Creation was great and I'm exhausted, so I'll give a report later today.

 

Ok, not really sure where to start. I guess I'll go day by day with those things worthy of notice:

Wednesday: Having Creation at Hershey was sweet because we could cool off from the 95 degree heat at Hershey Park's waters rides. One of the few things superior to Agape Farm where it is normally held. For those who don't know, Creation starts on Wedneday around 5:30 pm. They have a welcome and announcements, a couple bands, worship, the speaker, and then a couple more bands to finish the night. I missed the first couple bands because I was at Hersheypark, I got into the Stadium where they had the festival about 15 minutes before Eastman Curtis finished his message. BTW, the messages are between 50-60 minutes depending on how long the invitation is. At the end of their message they give an invitation for salvation and rededication. The people who respond go to a prayer tent where there are pastors, youth workers, ect. to pray with them and help them. The total number of people who responded to the messages by going to the prayer tent after the messages was over 4000. I'm not a big fan of Curtis, he uses the old revival style of preaching which I dislike, but the reaction to the invitation was fairly good. After Curtis was a comedian named Brad Stines who was hilarious. Rebbecca St. James and Third Day both played like their normal selves, take that as good or bad depending on your tastes. Communion was the last thing. Ever have communion with 30,000+ people? It's pretty cool.

Thursday:
Got to the Fringe Stage(where all the harder music is) around 9:15. I heard Stacey Foster preach. He has an incredible testimoney. Brad Stines did another comedy routine, had everyone in stitches so I had to get his DVD, I'll probably watch it tomorrow. Superchic[k] just rocked, they put on good show. Pillar was on the main stage even though they're a pretty hard band, they electrified the crowd. Probably the fastest rising band at in Christian music, think POD with more bolder lyrics. 38th Parallel finished the great Thursday Fringe stage schedule. They're a unique band in that they have two lead singers, they sound a lot like Linkin Park. Ken Davis get the main message!! It's kind of funny, I've seen all of his videos, so every illustration and joke he gives I laugh before he's said the punchline because I know exactly what he's gonna say! The response to his message wasn't as much as Wednesday's, but it was still a good amount of people. Steve Taylor was after, and he was....interesting. Won't say more then that. Newsboys closed the night. I'm not a big fan of their music, but I will say that relative to how good their music is they put on by far the best show. They combine different elements so well. A little visual, a little worship, a lot of rock, a little preaching.

Friday: Skillet had the concert of the festival. Bar none. I am amazed everytime I see them. They have more energy then any other band, the best songs, John Cooper is a very good preacher(he preached for about 10 minutes), great instrumentals especially guitar and bass. Skillet did a couple songs, then John preached for a couple minutes on our generation being sold out to Christ, then we all sang When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, then they launched into Alien Youth. Their second to last song has a long guitar solo at the end. Ben (the guitarist) somehow knocked the plug out of his guitar, so John stopped the song and they did the whole ending over again because he wanted to hear the guitar solo. It was pretty cool. Supertones played right before the speaker and they were awesome. Josh McDowell spoke that night, and wow. Incredible message. I don't know if you've heard his testimoney, but it's fantastic. The thing with Josh McDowell is he is the only speaker I've heard who can get up on stage and actually make an intellectual appeal to skeptical intellectuals. He knows exactly what he's talking about, he knows all the evidence for Christ, all the statistics. He spent about 20 minutes on why we know Christ was the Messiah who died for our sins. The response was overwhelming, the most I have ever seen anywhere. Somewhere around 2000 people responded to his message. It was insane, solid lines of people walking to the prayer tent for probably 10-15 minutes. Michael W. Smith closed the night but I didn't hear the concert because I was working on staff. They said he did all worship music and none of his own songs. Afterwards they had a candlelighting service which is indescribable(Sorry, I'm running out of words).

Saturday: Gonna go real quick since it's getting late. Denver & Mile High Orchestra, which is an old style swing band, really impressed me. I'm not a big fan of their music, but they had a couple great songs. The Benjamin Gate was good, their lead singer is fantastic, she's bouncing all over the stage while singing her heart out. I saw a speaker in the afternoon who was really interesting. His name is Justin Lookado and he wrote a book called Dateable. The guy is psycotic, disrepectful, stupid, hilarious, and brutally honest. My friends actually walked out on him halfway through. Personally I thought he was great. A little too disrepectful, but his honesty was refreshing, he just flat out told it like it is as far as girls and boys. After him was a band called Kutless. They sound like a hard Creed. They blasted it up, and the crowd loved it. Creation doesn't allow rough moshing, so whenever they see a mosh pit security guards wade into the crowd to keep it gentle. Well I was watching the concert when I hear a huge amount of applause and laughter from the mosh pit behind me. I turned around and a 250 pound security guard was waltzing with one of the punks in the mosh pit. Funniest thing you have ever seen in your life. Reliant K was on the main stage. Not a big fan of theirs because they don't really have any type of meaningful message. But musically they're really good. The speaker was David Nasser. He's a converted Muslim. Really good. Mercy Me was next and they were better then I thought they'd be. Audio Adrenaline closed Creation 2003, and they were the best I have seen them in probably 4 years. What a concert. They totally rocked the stadium. They sang Mighty Good Leader, Underdog, Get Down, Chevette, Some Kind of Zombie, and Big House among others, so I couldn't have been happier.

Over all Creation 2003 was great, I'll be happy to go back to Agape though. Any specific questions about something?

 

That's not easy to answer. I've been going for 5 years and I still am not sure if I can answer your question with accuracy. First of all, there is usually around 100,000 people at Creation, many of whom are not saved. I'm not sure what percentage isn't saved, but I'd say the absolute minimum would be maybe 20%. Anytime you have that amount of people, saved and unsaved, there's going to be some bad things. I've heard stories about some people using drugs, never seen it myself but I'm sure there are some. I'm sure that there is some sex somewhere, but I've never seen it myself or even heard any talk about it. Alcohol I've never seen or heard about, but I bet at least one person out of that 100,000 people brought some even though it's not permitted. I've heard some cursing there, not a lot but some. I've seen some skimpy clothes, less then you would find in your typical mall on a hot summer day, but there are some. There is moshing and dancing, but if anyone is to consider them bad you'd better be willing to take scissors to your Bible. Did I answer your questions? If not, I'll need either more specific questions or a suggestion on how I could better answer them.

When 4000 people make life changing decisions, there is no need to put Christian in quotation marks. It IS a Christian festival, people ARE being saved. No matter what else happens, that is honestly all that is truly important.