Epic Conference - Awesome

I spent this past weekend at the Epic Conference in San Jose. It was fantastic. But rather that reading me – here is what John Waidley (Regional Leadership in CA) had to say:

“I cannot thank you enough for your prayer for this weekend’s conference. I think all we asked you to pray for was answered with a Yes! Yes!
The final facts:
We had around 230 students and 40 staff, all but about 13 of the 270 was Asian American.

What went on:
This is really hard to describe as the facts don’t do justice to the passion that was in the room. But from the first meeting it was obvious God was up to something. Instead of your normal Friday night warm up, everyone get comfortable talk, Jeason Ma went for the juggler on the need for a serious walk with God and we were all convicted by the Holy Spirit by our tendency to not make prayer the center of ministries. There was a time of commitment to move from a vanilla Christian life to one that prioritized the Lord…well over 50% of the students responded on the spot.

Saturday morning built on that theme…added to that was the challenge of our ministries to move from a “come” mentality to a “go” focus. They were given multiple examples of what a “go” focus looks like. At the end of Saturday morning talk we were challenged to cry out to the Lord for our campuses….this is where you needed to be there but…students were praying very loudly and in tears as they prayed for their campuses. It was truly and amazing moment...but only a prelude to Saturday evening.

Saturday’s seminars were taught by local pastors and a couple staff…they all got great attendance (after three in a row this is a miracle) and reviews.

Saturday evening it became obvious that many of us were trying to do the ministry outside of the powered of the Holy Spirit. Again we were challenged about prayerlessness and the lack of Holy Spirit power in our ministries… this led to a time of group prayer. This prayer time can probably be best described as a visit by the Holy Spirit. As student repented and prayed for themselves and their campuses the environment was electric and serious and went on for an easy hour and a half. About one hour in the staff were instructed to pray for each student and give physical hugs as if given from the Heavenly Father. There were many tears of joy for the love of God being poured out on their hearts. The evening ended with the summer project directors getting a chance to share about the projects as a practical application point to going to the world and a natural transition from the prayer time. It was a four hour meeting! …and while most were tired, it was a good tired as if we had all done business with God. Most of the students stayed up long into the night reflecting on what the Lord was doing.

Sunday morning was clear and simple instruction on how to pioneer and build movements everywhere. It was simple and clear what the steps would be…and we closed discussing what needed to change back on campus.

A few things stood out to some of us from the conference. 1. The shear passion and volume at the meetings during the worship and prayer…when those quiet Asians from your campuses get together outside of the white community they let down...seriously. On said to me that the just feel like they can breath again. I have not been in a student environment like this on the mainland…it was truly amazing.
2. If one thing comes from this time I would want it to be the seeds of a regional prayer movement. If you have students who attended this conference it would be good for you to ask them how they are thinking about prayer. The bi-product of prayer will be new movements. 3. The John 17 sense of unity for the whole thing…we partnered with AACF, Local churches, IV, other regions etc. and the unity was tangible and many people commented on it.

A lot of staff and interns gave of their time voluntarily to this conference…not one needed to be there but they were compelled to come. The white staff who served behind the scenes put themselves in an extreme minority position and gave from their hearts. I am truly grateful you encouraged them to come…now they need a couple days off!

We hope to track with what the Lord is doing as a result of this conference. So if you have anything that you can report on directly related to the conference that is happening on campus I would love to hear it.
Please pray what began will take root in each heart.

Thank you again for praying!
John for the Epic Conference leadership”