Spontaneous Eruption

Even planners can appreciate the beauty of an unplanned experience.
By Joanna Eitel

Most meeting planners thrive when they have ample time to do what they do best: plan. We find pleasure in knowing every detail is covered. Whether it’s a citywide event, national conference or weekly church service it takes quite a lot of preparation to make it all happen. But what happens when that time and careful planning is stripped away? What happens when you have no time to plan, no time to prepare and your event just happens? It was a busy day in November full of meetings as our team was preparing for our national onething09 event, which draws 20,000 young adults to downtown Kansas City in December. I began to receive texts and phone calls that one of the morning classes at our Forerunner School of Ministry was still going. I was intrigued but honestly didn’t think much about it until I received a text from my director later that evening: “There are over 1,000 people at FSM. Come as soon as you can.”

As soon as I arrived I was in shock. It wasn’t just a simple group of students hovered in the corner, having a good time and refusing to leave. Our auditorium was filled to capacity! The atmosphere was thick with excitement and a spirit of worship. Young adults were praying for each other and families were looking for seats. Our media and sound team had sprung into action, stage lights were on, lyrics were on the projectors, and the next worship team was ready to take the stage to relieve a team that had been leading for two hours.

What usually takes months to plan was happening before my eyes. It doesn’t take a seasoned event planner to realize this situation was completely backwards. The event started, everyone scrambled and then we got a game plan. That night, in the swirl of activity watching our team shift into overdrive, I began to realize the raw hunger of this generation. There was no marketing plan, no registration, no flurry of e-mails, no preparation whatsoever. Word spread that something real was happening and people showed up. Of course, we cannot expect to sit back and watch events run themselves. There is always a time to plan, prepare and put careful thought into how to carry out an event. However that night, as a Christian event planner, I was forced to reevaluate what I do and why I do it.

When planning an event, for young adults especially, it is not about how flashy you can make the posters, what band you can pay to show up or how many drawings you have for a free iPad. Sure, it gets their attention, but what do they get out of it? They want something more than fleeting pleasures that never satisfy, which is something man can never offer no matter how much time or money we spend. Sometimes we just need to get out of the way and let God be the ultimate coordinator.

Joanna Eitel is the event coordinator for International House of Prayer – KC. The spontaneous event about which Eitel describes continues to this day as the “IHOPU Student Awakening” every Wednesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight CST. View the live webstream at ihop.org.