Over the years, I’ve attended many Christian concerts and Faith Based Conferences.  One of the first ones I attended was a conference in Saint Louis MO in 1999.  It was put on by an organization called Youth Specialties who promoted products for Youth Pastors.  It was a non-denominational conference.

I had just started working at the church 32 hours a week.  My husband and I were asked by my boss to go to this conference to gather ideas on how to grow Youth Ministry in our parish.  At the time, the only ministry programs being offered to high school teens was the sacrament of Confirmation and my Pastor wanted more.

My husband grew up in a tight knit Christian Church, where he attended youth group every Wednesday and Sunday evening.  However, he was just as unprepared for what we experienced at this conference as I was.

We were in an indoor arena with thousands of people and loud music.  We heard Louie Giglio speak, whom at the time I didn’t know and later appreciated.  The small group sessions we attended were led by people I’d later learn as I sought out resources wrote the books and guides full of ideas for icebreakers, bible studies and instructions on how to lead a small group.

The part both my husband and I remember so clearly about the experience is the worship leader, Chris Tomlin.  At the time, I don’t know exactly how popular he was but over the next 13 years as Christian Music grew in popularity, Chris Tomlin was the worship leader all others aspired to be.

Now my husband having grown up in a Christian Church knew about praise and worship music.  Songs like ‘Amazing Grace,’ ‘How Great Thou Art,’ Old Rugged Cross,’ and all the classics.  Both of us had listened to Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant on cassette; plus I’d attended a concert where they were together in 1989.  Still, we were moved by the music played at the youth conference.

Over the year’s I’ve become comfortable with how people get into the praise and worship music with their entire bodies.  At the conference though, this was not something I understood.  I was taken aback by people closing their eyes in prayer or raising their arms, reaching out to God.  I felt somehow that I was intruding on their intimate time with God.  It was a sight I’d come to see many more times over the years, but that weekend, it was all a new experience.

I’ve certainly come a long way as has Chris Tomlin, who now has hordes of music awards filling his shelves.  He was a trailblazer bringing praise and worship to mainstream Contemporary Christian Music.  The praise and worship music fills your soul and is prayer set to music.  Today, many Christian churches begin and end their services with these songs played, not on the old organ but with electric guitars.  And, though raising my arms to the sky in praise, reaching out to Jesus might have been uncomfortable at first, it’s something I embrace now.

Like when I begin a prayer with the sign of the cross and close my eyes with my palms together, this action is speaking to my reverence of God.  So too is my hand on my heart, eyes closed, swaying to the music of a praise and worship song.  It is prayer.  It is my heart feeling the words of the song and speaking them to God.  I am grateful to my boss for giving me the experience of the conference and for the opportunity to join in worship with one of the trailblazers of Contemporary Praise and Worship Music.