Two days away from Momentum 2017:  WE ARE and I am PUMPED UP!  But in order to make sure that I'm not just excited for this year's conference but also that I'm PREPARED, I am offline this entire week.  So no blog post and no Periscope today.  

But to help get you (and me) in the mood for the conference, I am reposting what I wrote after the first Momentum back in 2013.  And boy did that do the trick!  God was glorified back then and I got a good feeling that He will be glorified again... AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!

And for those who aren't gonna be there, be sure to follow The HOPE Association on social media for highlights and updates throughout the weekend.

“Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out”
Lyrics from “The Inside Out” by Hillsong

WHAT A WEEKEND! For anyone who attended Momentum 2013 this past weekend, those words say it all. It was one of the most powerful and Spirit filled weekends of my life. Hands down. And I know that I was not alone. It was a perfect storm of the right people in the right environment at the right time that led to the first ever Momentum conference in Ellenville, NY this past weekend.

What was so special about it?

One of things that we kept saying all weekend was that this was not going to be a weekend “retreat.” Retreat implies moving backwards. The group of people that God assembled there weren’t ready to retreat or give up ground. In fact, I kept saying that we weren’t going to use the word “retreat” at all.

“This is not a weekend retreat. This is a weekend ATTACK!” I said.

ASIDE: but then we decided that it probably isn’t a good idea to assemble a group of young people from all over and then have a bearded man with middle eastern roots dressed in all-black publicly proclaim that our goal this weekend is to ATTACK! Probably not the best idea. So we just called it a conference instead. :)

So what was the weekend “conference” all about? Simple. I’ll summarize it with a sentence and an equation.

First the sentence: true fulfillment comes only when I join my story to God’s story.

Part 1:  MY STORY - That is who God made me to be. My gifts, my talents, my values, my personality, etc. Everything that God put into me when He “knit me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). We were all created uniquely for a purpose that only makes sense when we join our stories to................

Part 2:  GOD’S STORY – you didn’t make yourself. You didn’t put yourself here. God put you here at this particular time and with your unique set of gifts and talents and He did so for a reason. It wasn’t random. You need to understand the context of His story in order to make sense of your own story. In other words, your gifts and talents won’t ever make complete sense until you understand His vision for the world and for your life.

Part 3:  JOINING GOD’S STORY – this happens when we willingly submit our lives and our plans and everything we have to His control and His care. This isn’t easy by any means, but it is the only path to true fulfillment in life. The idea is that when I submit to His story, I discover more about myself and who I was made to be. You’ll never know who God made you to be until you willingly submit your life into His hands. Period.

Now the equation:

my gifts + my talents (aka, my story) used in accordance with God’s vision (aka God’s story) multiplied by the power of the Church (we all join our stories to God’s and then join forces in the context of His Body) leads to unstoppable MOMENTUM

And that’s what we felt this weekend. Unstoppable momentum.

What is momentum? Momentum is a tidal wave. Momentum is a force greater than the sum of its parts. Momentum is what the early church and the apostles had after Pentecost. It is a mighty rushing wind that lifts us up and pushes us forward. Momentum is the power of the Lord Jesus working in His Body, the Church, in the world today.

And best of all, after last weekend, MOMENTUM IS WHAT WE GOT!

For discussion: what did you take away from Momentum 2013?