Yes, this is one of my favorite photos...
Movement leaders from around the world gathered together for the deeply spiritual act of eating pizza together. In this home setting you could feel the energy in the air. Seasoned leaders who had pastored and led revival movements for 50 years and young pastors just getting started in the journey. Something so beautiful happens when the generations converge! I floated from conversation to conversation and from pepperoni to veggie to meat lovers as the evening progressed. Finally, I found myself surrounded by some amazing young leaders and as we began to sample the dessert table the questions began to flow and something incredibly profound begin to unfold. One of the younger pastors interjected, “Tell us more about the revival move you experienced in the 90’s.” It’s hard to express the wild mixture of emotions I felt in this moment. Honor. I felt honored that someone would value and recognize the treasure of what I’ve seen God do in the past. Shock. Yes, shock. I was much older and farther down this road before I learned how to truly value the testimony of older generations. But now, a generation is rising up that is not only looking for the “new thing”. They know it’s about the double portion that comes from combination of the old and the new. I’m thankful for the patience of leaders who surrounded me in my early days when I came in as the young leader all about the new thing. At times I had very little honor or value for the old or for the price paid by a previous generation to open up the highways I was freely enjoying. As we began to reach the point where there was no more room in our stomachs for even the best of the desserts on the table, it happened. What do you call it? It’s that moment of connection when "the deep" of one generation begins to really connect with "the deep" in another generation. It's that moment when you know something precious is being imparted from generation to generation. That "something" no amount of money can buy. And it's not a one way thing. It's a two way highway of transference. It's that moment where the sound of the testimony of one generation convergences with the sound of another generation and the "baby" in each generation leaps with the expectancy that greater things are about to be birthed than any of us have seen or imagined. It's not a sound that says, "let's go back to 1981, 1993, or 2007." God forbid! No. An older generation is rising up that has no desire to try to squeeze a new generation into an old movement or wineskin. A older generation is rising up that will not resist or even simply tolerate the fresh move of God they will once again be captured by it. An older generation is rising up that does not see themselves as lifeguards watching safely from the shore to correct the young crazy swimmers. No. A generation is rising up that is not here to watch and judge from sidelines but is ready to dive into the deep waters again with the younger generations. From the raging wild untamable currents of the precious river of the Spirit of God we will imperfectly and humbly together be overwhelmed and conquered by something neither generation can control. The waters of the old will converge with the waters of the new as something wild, crazy, and holy is conceived. The host of the evening began to clean up. The conversation came to an end. We went our separate ways. We were not the same. Pizza, precious treasure, and the convergence of the generations. Deep is calling to deep and the stirrings of a fresh move of God are being felt across the earth. I see and feel hunger like I haven't seen or felt in years. I feel the foundation, testimony and faith of the old and the untamed fury and fire of the new. Yes, count me in, Lord!.
