I feel a bit guilty for emphasizing relatively minor peeves with the Summit speaker's comments the first day. I was actually very positive about that chapel. He's upped the ante of any chapel speaker from here on out. When people are waiting a half an hour ahead of time to get into a voluntary session that is bound to go way over an hour... something's going on.
And I heard that last night's talk was amazingly nouveau-revivalist in its "altar call." I heard that he had people take a stand if they wanted to commit to Christ for the first time after telling everyone that there would be no eye closing and everyone would be looking at them. He had them stand for a good long while (again, after a warning) and had them leave the chapel ahead of everyone else to give their info to the Dean of the Chapel for follow up discipleship. In short, he had major confession and commitment going on. I heard that big guys were crying in repentance before it was all over. It was like a modern version of an old time camp meeting-- without the baggage.
Yes, it's definitely the current "if you don't have passion about it, what's it worth." But there's nothing wrong with that... especially if you don't belittle the commitment of those who are silent and steady... and wholly committed too.
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What I appreciated about the week was this:
1. Local church orientation. Kevin lifted up the local church—other speakers from para-church orgs often make the apex of life escaping a local church into a para-church org…he single-handedly reversed this thinking. I loved the interview whene the video guy said right out that LA was not where he wanted to go to be the best “world changer” Neat! Cool—it was nice to hear that the CHURCH is God’s first great plan for world changing!
2. Professionalism. The music and media was so professional that even crusty old stuck-in-the-mud professors had to admit “While I don’t prefer that style it was certainly done well.”
3. Wisdom. Kevin spoke with his own authority like an uncle—and the students took it. He is a much older man than he is in years. His approach really did mold student thinking…and mine.
4. Team. I loved how everything was a team and not merely a solo speaker. That was classy!
5. Masculine. I especially appreciated that the content and approach of Kevin’s preaching (and much of the music, and all of the videos and for by all means his in-you-face “altar calls”) –they were very appealing to males. IWU, like all Christian colleges has 2 or 3 times as many women and men and thus males often are overlooked in the style of Christianity presented. Kevin has reversed a bit the feminization of spirituality on this campus—I think I’ll go buy one of those giant swords myself on ebay!
Yes, the “barbarian way” has some drawbacks and I’ve posted articles on that, but I was happier with this Summit speaker than any I’ve heard in the last ten years—that would be 20 in a row. Thank you Kevin.
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