Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Remembering OneDay 2000-Sacred. Holy. His.
If there is such a thing as an epicenter of a movement, it’s probably true that the epicenter of the Passion Movement happened ten years ago today as 40,000 university students gathered on a field outside of Memphis, TN. Though Passion was only three gathering old, we felt a sense of urgency that led us to call the students of the nation to a holy fast, a scared assembly…a day set aside to put our faces to the ground and pray for this generation.
More than a festival or concert (no names were used in promoting the event and we didn’t even call it Passion), OneDay 2000 was a day purely set aside for God. Though students arrived in the days prior, no one set foot on the OneDay field until the morning of May 20…with the exception of those who read the Word over the ground 24 hours a day from a wooden tower erected in the middle of the vast grassy slope.
And when the crowd did arrive, they arrived in silence. As you would expect with Passion, clouds were overhead and a steady, misting rain met the morning. But the weather only seemed to add to the serious tone as tens of thousands of people made their way from the various campsites onto what we all felt was holy ground.
I can’t say I have ever experienced anything quite like it, especially given the months and months of prayer and anticipation that led up to that morning. Our team had crossed the nation by tour bus and RV, meeting face to face with students and holding events on hundreds of campuses from coast to coast. And, in response, students had come from the four corners to be represent their campuses and bow before the Lord with their peers. OneDay was billed as: Sacred. Holy. His. And it was all that, and more.
An hour or so before the day began, our leadership team was together praying in a tent off to the side of the main stage. The moment was marked by such a sense of God’s presence that no one wanted to set foot on the platform. No one wanted to taint the beauty and power of His presence. On our knees, the mood was more of, “I’m not going up there…you go up there!”
As the day unfolded, there was no rushing into celebration. Confession and repentance led the way. And then the cross came…visible in our midst and massive in our hearts. I think we were so in touch with our sins (and those of the nation) that we felt we needed its power as never before. I remember standing, somewhat stunned, as students started running toward the cross from the edges of the field…from hundreds of feet away. Their response wasn’t organized or dignified as they sprinted past their friends and literally threw themselves on the ground at the foot of the cross. We were all wrecked by His grace and mercy…and sent out with a desire to amplify the One who bore our shame.
I can close my eyes and be back there in a heartbeat. I can see a generation on their knees…on their faces…bowed down in the muddy grass to be lifted up again to touch the world in Jesus name.
Ten years later I would guess anyone on that field can tell you how God touched their lives that day…and many would say they are where they are because of the calling God put in their hearts at Shelby Farms.
That’s why Shelley and I are here in Tokyo tonight with a Passion Team that still carries the heartbeat of OneDay among a nation that is yet to see His grace and sing His praise. For a time we thought that OneDay 2000 would be the end of our Movement, yet, today, it serves as fuel for a journey that has only just begun.
Along the way we are: Remembering. Grateful. Humbled. His.
LG




































