Hillsong Conference 2006 – Monday

I attended my first Hillsong Conference today, held mainly at Olympic Park, Sydney. Today was registration day, and the first pair of night rallies, of which I only attended the first one at 4:30.
As usual, I took a bunch of photos, some of which I’ve included here, but others are avaliable on my flickr account.

As usual, Hillsong spends alot of money on their productions. This one, according to Ps. Brian Houston, is budgeted for $3.4 million. In traditional Hillsong style, on top of the fees already payed by delegates to the conference, a collection was passed around within 30 minutes of the first rally starting. Many people reached for their wallets, or took one of the credit card forms avaliable on every seat during this time, which was justified by a Bible verse. As many readers may know, I’m not to excited about the business ethics of Hillsong Church, but I think their ministry in the community is something for which they should be commended.

The crowd at tonights rally wasn’t at full capacity, but it was reasonably close, with not to many seats left over. The evening started with a video/music compilation that very well pollished, as most Hillsong things are. The opening songs included ‘Take It All’ and ‘From the Inside Out’ which got everyone on their feet, including myself, even though I was quite tired!

The message of the session was delivered by Rick Warren who spoke from Exodus 4 and a Psalm (can’t remember which one!).
I’ll blog again tomorrow night with reports on the JamUnited sessions and the 4:30pm rally!

-james