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Concert Review: The Hillsong Experience

I hate when this happens. And it happens quite a bit. While some things are better second time around (cold pizza anyone?), it’s times when the opposite holds true that really mess me up.

Allow me to explain. Nickel Creek played this trick on me, performing an absolutely exhilarating set the first time I saw them only to completely deflate when I drove hours to see them several months later. Another occasion found me moving from a three encore Counting Crows night to a depressing moving-through-the-motions concert the next. Of course, it’s impossible to capture that special magic each night but it’s hard not to hold out that hope when you shell out what some concerts cost nowadays.

So I was spoiled during GMA Week ’07, when Hillsong’s United team was invited to lead the week in the opening worship gathering. Others such as Chris Tomlin and Michael W. Smith had led such events in previous years and they were fine enough. But, for my own personal tastes, it was when the United team hit the platform that I was totally lost in a moment of personal worship. Their worship set that night was simply incredible – filled with anthems of vertical statements of God’s character and horizontal declarations of justice and love and mercy.

Enter the warehouse/gymnasium/community center feel of the south side of Indianapolis where the Hillsong United team recently found themselves. The endless vans and church buses should have clued me into the kind of night we would have, but I was naïve nonetheless. Upon entrance, it was clear that middle school hours don’t extend into the evening because every remotely Christian student was in attendance, crammed up front, ready for an experience.

And therein lies the difference. The week of GMA was filled with industry professionals, media members, other musicians. It was a serious night of worship amidst adults and it lent an atmosphere much appreciated. Fast forward to August 26, 2008. The same wonderful songs were played, with favorites like “From the Inside Out,” “Hosanna” and “Savior King” all making appearances. But it was the in-between that soured the notes from being what I remembered the first time around.

“How many of you think the Bible is a really great book?” was one of the questions asked from the stage while my wife and I laughed and shook our heads in an ‘Are you kidding me?’ sort of way. And nothing kills a worship mood like “How many of you are from In-dee-a-na-po-lis?” with the adolescent crowd cheering because a location was said out loud.

I realize I might simply be the curmudgeon here, one of the old men on the Muppets who sits in the balcony yelling insults and never finding pleasure no matter what’s offered. But it’s my contention that a worship gathering should be, well, worshipful. And it’s also my experience within youth ministry that you don’t have to talk ‘down.’ Today’s students are certainly able to handle doses of actual truth and don’t necessarily need the “rah rah” cheerleading and pyrotechnics that Acquire the Fire and other such traveling circuses seem to believe they enjoy.

Then again, maybe I just need to lighten up.