Worship Central Celebration

Australian Christian band Planetshakers was recently in Singapore last Thursday and Friday night (10-11 April), where they performed at the Max Pavilion (Singapore Expo) in an event organised together with Alpha Singapore. Also, Tim Hughes and the Worship Central band made their presence on both nights in the extraordinary worship event.

I went for the concert on Thursday, the first night, with church friends Dexter and Kenneth. Alpha Singapore managed to pay for the entire event, hence there was no entrance fee. There were simply so so many people that turned up that night even though it was a weekday, and the front half of the hall was completely filled, mostly comprising of youths and young adults.

While waiting for the event to start:


More pictures during the event taken on my crappy phone:




This is the third time Planetshakers is here, and during the concert, they performed a few new songs from their latest album, Free. I don't know how to describe the concert on Thurs... to call it a concert wouldn't be accurate, it was more of a youth service-like outreach effort. I enjoyed the time spent; the worship was phenomenal, one of the best I had this year. To be surrounded with fellow worshippers in Christ seemed as if you shared something in common even though you've never met the person standing on your left... and that similarity is our passion for God. The atmosphere of an entire congregation singing in unison and proclaiming the power of God... that's an indescribable scene and emotions just cannot be penned down. Declaring in one voice as a generation and shouting the praises of God, the whole hall was filled with song and genuine worship unto our Lord. Throughout all the songs, such as 'Beautiful Saviour', something struck me: that our God is the most beautiful thing on Earth... Now and forevermore. That evening was a time of connecting with God to give Him the glory that He deserves.

It wasn't about Planetshakers as a cool band or anything, it wasn't about the loud music or that cute lead singer or the glamour on stage, but it was all about shouting out how good God is and saying that we adore Him, through the songs we sing. In this day and age, it's so easy to listen to such Christian contemporary music and lose focus. We must remember that at the end of the day, it's not about the music, but about who we are singing for. Christian music should not be the replacement for reading the Bible or our daily devotion, but it should be something we do in our walk to further enrich our Christian lives. Hillsong United takes a clear stand that they don't want to raise up a generation who knows only the music lyrics of their songs and nothing else. Bible verses are still the most fundamental, and it is important that Christian bands stress this: that all their songs are based on the infallible word of God and nothing else.

So after a bit of sidetrack, let's get back to the concert. Planetshakers came up stage first and started off with the song 'Praise You', an upbeat jumpy track. Then there were other fast songs such as 'Majesty', 'Pick It Up', 'Free' and 'Jump Around' which literally got everyone on a physical workout as we jumped and danced.

Then the slower songs came. 'Healer' is a very powerful song singing about God the healer in our lives. We also sang 'Beautiful Saviour' which was indeed a beautiful song, followed by the new song 'I Need You', which was super nice and 'Saving Grace', both from the album 'Free'. When Planetshakers was done, Tim Hughes and the band came up next to perform 'Happy Day' from his new album 'Holding Nothing Back', together with other songs like 'Blessed Be Your Name' and Chris Tomlin's 'How Great Is Our God'. Then, to my surprise, they also performed a few Hillsong favs such as 'Mighty To Save', 'Here I Am To Worship' and 'One Way'. Finally, after a short message, Planetshakers returned to end off the evening with a song that I can't remember now... Haha :D

Lastly, it ended up with an autograph session but I left knowing that I had school the next day. All in all, a meaningful and unique worship encounter that I will never forget.