Have you ever noticed the significant moments in scripture that happen on the top of a mountain? Time and time again throughout the Bible, God chooses this setting to reveal himself.
Pastor Louie Giglio mentioned this at VOUSCon just a few days ago — a moment on the mountaintop with God is a moment to be all-in, wholly present and totally surrendered.
We see a picture of this in Exodus 34. At God’s command, Moses hiked to the peak of Mount Sinai. God came down in a cloud and stood before Moses, his glory and character on full display. After Moses bowed and worshiped, the Lord began to make a covenant with him. They spent forty days on Mount Sinai together as Moses fasted and wrote the covenant on stone tablets.
This story captivates me. I often imagine what those forty days were like. What did they talk about? What was it like to be so fully enveloped in the presence of the Lord? I don't think I would ever want to leave.
Verse 29 is my all-time favorite scripture.
“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.”
Whew — how moving is it that God’s presence made a physical mark on Moses that others would see? We would expect to see the effects of not eating bread or drinking water for forty days, but instead, Moses is radiant simply because he had been with the Lord. God’s presence marks us.
While we didn’t trek to the top of Mount Sinai, we did spend three days on a mountaintop with the Lord at VOUSCon.
Moment by moment, God poured out his presence in the Watsco arena. Just to be in his presence was enough, but we know that God goes far beyond our wildest imagination. God spoke to us corporately and individually. He restored dreams, gave visions, and reminded us of our identity. His spirit breathed on the parts of us that needed new life, spoke truth into lies we believed, and imparted new gifts while strengthening old ones. His power broke chains, healed disease, and brought us into victory. He deposited wisdom and deepened our understanding of our authority in Jesus. Best of all, he allowed the weight of his glory to fill the room — the kind of weight where the only response is to bend in worship.
Our team is still reflecting on everything God said and did. Read below for two perspectives from Naomi and Kat, who represent our creative and operations departments.
CREATIVE — Naomi
Creativity sets the stage for people to encounter God. We embody a creative creator. Everything we do at VOUSCon is preparing a way for people to know him.
Our creative teams work in unison to tell the story of Jesus before, during, and after this three-day experience.
BEFORE
Teams from design, social, film, web, communications, and photo worked together to produce all the in-service content our guests would see.
From video openers to touch cards on seats to LED displays, our goal was to create an inspiring and welcoming atmosphere to disarm people to encounter God. Before they hear us, they see us. Our intentionality in these "small" moments paved a way for people to believe God could do something more.
DURING
Our number one goal in creativity is telling the story. Throughout the weekend, our content teams worked in tandem to capture moments of VOUSCon and share them with our global community. Our goal was that whether or not you were in the room, you could capture a snapshot of what God was doing. Real, tangible, and authentic is always the goal in the content we display.
AFTER
Just because VOUSCon 2023 is over doesn't mean we stop telling the story. Now, our team is focused on compiling speaker and workshop content to share with the world.
Our main focus — continue telling the story until VOUSCon 2024.
Creativity is partnership with our creative God. In each moment we have an invitation to glorify him through our art. As we do, we pray that his name be known.
OPERATIONS — Kat
I want to start by saying how proud I am of our operations teams. These teams play an essential role in the VOUSCon experience. They oversee the entire load-in and load-out of VOUSCon, help coordinate details and logistics, and run operations not only in the arena but also in the workshop and VOUSCon expo spaces.
Because our operations teams are the front-facing teams at VOUSCon, they play a vital part in curating guests’ experiences. Host team, workshops team, merch team, welcome team, and connect corner team are all making sure that everything runs smoothly for our guests. These teams are directing guests on where to go, helping navigate people to their seat in the arena, and answering any and all questions guests have throughout the weekend.
I’m most proud of their heart to serve. God’s word tells us that it’s more blessed to give than to receive, and our operations teams poured out so that others could be filled up. I got to hear stories of what it meant to our teams to serve — they found that as they poured out, God refilled and refreshed them. They had powerful interactions with guests and with others on their teams, sharing moments that marked them forever.
One of the most special nights of VOUSCon was actually the night before VOUSCon started. We hosted a prayer night in the Watsco arena for people to come worship and pray over the three days we were about to experience. All of our teams — operations and beyond — took this responsibility seriously, praying over every seat in the arena. It’s beautiful to see how God moves through us and ministers to our hearts as we serve others in creating a space where he is honored, glorified, and magnified.
I would encourage anyone who wants to go deeper in their VOUSCon experience to sign up to serve. Get to know the ins and outs of the experience and see behind the scenes. We had an incredible VOUSCon 2023, and I can’t wait for 2024.
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I love what one commentator wrote about Exodus 34: “The radiance of Moses’ shining face was a reflected radiance, a received glory. The source was the face of God, and as Moses communicated so directly with God his face received some of this shining glory. The face of Moses shone because he had long looked upon the face of God.”
VOUSCon 2023 marked us because we got to look upon the face of God. We are forever grateful for the way God revealed himself to us this past weekend. We received some of his shining glory that we will carry with us forever. We look ahead to the future glory that awaits us at VOUSCon 2024.
