TRBC Youth Blog

At the suggestion of someone, I'm just reposting my own blog post on this blog, just to let you TRBCians see what some crazy kids went to do...

Needless to say, it was awesome. Short, but awesome. I'm slightly disappointed with the sound; the singing wasn't very clear, and we often had to strain to listen through the bad sound plus the Australian accent, which occasionally made it impossible to pick out any words.

The songs were (as usual) generic stuff; Planetshakers hasn't really impressed me with their lyrics, but their heart for capturing the youth crowd is there - all the tunes are youth-friendly, lots of cool basslines and the occasional in-built shout-lyrics (like Running After You, and Jump Around/Get Your Praise On).

However, despite the cool-factor, the only redeeming grace for songs like Evermore and Always and Forever are their tunes. I hate to be harsh to a band which I rather like, but the truth of the matter is that they've got a long way to go before they find better lyrics than constantly rhyming "Lord" with "God", "today" and "say" and "obey" and "way" or "ray" etc.

Starting from the beginning, SX, X, Ed, JJ, Bev and Ben arrived there first, meeting YX, who opted for the old-person's seating waaaaay in the far side of the Max Pavillion at Expo. The setup was simple - a stage, a large area for jumping around (not quite the equivalent to moshing), and about two hundred plus raised seats. What stood out in the setup were two mini bungees (which I forgot to take pictures of), which were supervised, and which you could try out for free. I came late and there was too long a queue, and after a hard day's work, I didn't have enough energy to strap that thing around my waist and try to turn myself upside down.

We each exchanged our tickets for a glow stick and a goody bag, which contained a noisemaker, a whistle on a string (you twirled it around on a string until it goes fast enough to make a whistling sound), a balloon, and a small stick of facepaint, which we promptly took out and started vandalising each other with. Ed was particularly traumatised as we tried to draw on his face. "I don't like the smell!!!" he doth protested. That's him being tortured on the left.

I decided to have some fun (come on, you're only young... er, young-ISH once...), and painted my eye area white. Too bad our group got stuck with only white; we would have had fun with colours. That's me (and my eyes) on the right.

Even though the tickets weren't sold out today, there was still so many people! The emcees played a game while waiting for the band to come on stage: they requested the pastors/youth pastors who were there at the concert to come up and play soccer... which just meant that they kicked a soft soccer ball off the stage and everybody else tried to keep each ball up in the air, depending on which "team" they supported. That didn't work very well because nobody could tell which ball belonged to which "team". The game eventually fizzled out (note to self: must plan good games if emceeing), and the pastors danced the Chicken Little Dance, which was hilarious. Even more for us because we were all busy imagining our staid, starched-white cotten shirt-and-collar pastors doing the Chicken Little Dance. Not. Gonna. Happen. :)

The concert finally started at 8pm, and went on till about 9pm, when the "sermon" came into play. This time, it wasn't about how God worked to bring a child into a barren couple's womb, but about how God can satisfy the deepest cravings of your heart: when you have to have noise and people around you constantly, and when you do know ABOUT God, but you do not KNOW God personally. The example given for this was in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 23: 21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

In this simple sentence, the greek word for "knew" isn't about head knowledge - it's not the knowledge of an acquaintance, or the knowledge of a book. It's about a relationship. The dangerous thing for any Christian to do is fall into complacency - do you really have a relationship with Jesus, or is your apparent "relationship" just a passing acquaintance that you could live without?

It was a wonderful message, and I think that it was presented thoughtfully, albeit in a little bit in a rush. But I think they've done their homework on this (or it could be at Lawrence Khong's request and/or suggestion) as the basic message was not to new believers, but believers who have been in the church a long time, for christians who know ABOUT God because they grew up in a Christian home, but who do not KNOW God and Jesus.

The concert ended with one last rendition of Get Your Praise On, and then even though we shouted ourselves hoarse for an encore, none was forthcoming. We met up with the rest (Beverly had semi-passed out in the middle of the concert, and Ed took her to the first aid area for some R&R), and decided to queue up to meet the band (since we were accidentally near the front of the line.) Bev and I decided to take photos with the band members, which have been stored in her phone, hence you don't see it here. I'll bet she's still squealing over the keyboardist.

After that, we ended up in our Rochor Road Soya Bean, now almost a ritual after concerts. 4 taohui, 1 chinchow, 1 youtiao. Yum! Good friends, good food - the perfect end to a really good day.