ANTHEM, aka, I love my boss

Thursday night was ANTHEM. It was simply ridiculous. Two services of 600 people each just singing their guts out to the Most High Lord of Heaven.

Jesus, why is it that when we give all that we have to you and worship you to the uttermost, it all just turns around and fills us with joy and life? We're trying to lift you up and bless you, and you turn right back around and just pour it out on us. Crazy.

I was on the video team for this Anthem, as I have been for the last three. Thre's a bit of a difference between helping produce the worship event and just showing up and being part of the worship event. Not that one is better than the other. Just different. I remember when I was running the camera on stage left, all up in Bobby's grill with the guitar solos and then getting awesome shots of Ryan as he's singing with the crazy lights shining around him, and in my head I'm just screaming JESUS YOU REIGN!!!! It's fun. But different.

I did make it that much sweeter when they did a 3 song encore. I had already set down my camera in a safe place and taken off the headset when the band came out.
*Sidenote: They didn't really make the crowd work for the encore, like many bands do at concerts I've been too. It was more of a meet each other half way thing. Half of the crowd was sticking around saying "one more song" and half of the band was at the back edge of the stage, with their expression saying "can we play one more? Yeah?" Which is probably good to not be uppity about encores, since this is technically a "worship event" and not a "concert." Ok, sidenote over...
I got to be in the front and center of the crowd amongst the crazy sweating people for the encore, which was amazing. The band did "To Know You More" which is quickly becoming a favorite song.

Then, the moment: The song crescendos. Mark is rocking out on stage center, and we lock eyes. One thought is in my head at that moment: STAGE DIVE. I'm standing next to Jase Rohde and Ben Jensen, who are both strapping young men, we can do this! I can tell Mark and I are on the same wavelength. To make it all clear, I gesture with my arms in the air like a dad in a pool beckoning his 6 year old son who's on the pool deck. Mark's eyes get wide, the song is blaring. Mark takes a step back and crouches like a skater about to drop into the half-pipe. Three bounding steps forward, and
yyyyyyeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!
jumps into our arms. Ben, Jase and I caught him, but the girls standing directly behind us kind of ran away. Luckily Mike Easton jumped underneath Mark's body. Mark did a good half turn in the air like any good stage diver would, although he kind of piked up into a ball, probably because he saw the people running away. But we caught him, bottom line. It was awesome. The people to our right were on board, so Mark floated that way until we tossed him back up onto the stage, unscathed.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I love my boss. Well, that and the fact that he loves Jesus and follows Him everyday with the same intensity as a stage dive. Praise God.