Meeting Jesus in Orlando

I was speaking at the wonderful LeadNow and Fusion event 2 weeks ago in Orlando. I have been part of Fusion/LeadNow for several years in a row and it truly is an incredible event that Marc and Brian and their teams put together. Marc and Brian and the RightNow and Bluefish TV team have become very important to me personally. Their ministry intentions and motivations are so incredibly pure - and what they do for the gospel mission of serving others is contagious. I love being with them and I wish we lived closer as I would be hanging out with them for sure. Marc and Brian both wear crocs however, and I struggle a lot with that part of our friendship. But croc shoes shall not be a barrier to the shared mission and friendship we have.

While I was in Orlando, I finally got to see The Holyland Experience. The Holyland Experience is not a theme park with rides, but it is sort of a re-creation of biblical places such as the Temple, the tomb of Jesus, a multimedia experience teaching about the Tabernacle and is more of an educational theme park.

I did have a very friendly person dressed in an New Testament outfit come over to me since I was alone and say hello and then he pretty quickly and pretty directly asked me if I was "born again". I am not sure how I would have responded if I didn't know what that term meant or if I wasn't a Christian, but he was very sincere in asking me. It seemed his role as I watched him and heard him ask the same question to someone else,  was actually walking up to people and it seemed like to see if they were Christians or not and evangelism.

  When you pull off the exit from the highway, it is very strange as you see the Temple. It is quite large, and even as large as they made it, it still is only 1/3 of the size of the real one from what I understand. But there off the highway, is Herod's Temple standing tall. You walk into the place and the walls are all recreations of the Jerusalem walls, the interior of the park is extremely clean and the Holyland Experience staff all wears garb of New Testament times or Temple or Tabernacle garb.

  There was a bunch of (what felt like to me) mini-musicals happening with Roman soldiers singing and acting like an Easter play with music that was like 1990's sort of Easter singing presentations. The people there were primarily senior citizens, so it did seem to fit them and their tastes and they looked like they were truly enjoying it. You could buy Roman solider outfits for children (which I didn't for Katie and Claire). A Roman Guard even guarded the bathrooms. They had cheesecake for sale in the coffee house with a red cross on it. They had some sort of funky vocal chorus praise music coming out of speakers everywhere you went, which slowly was causing my pulse to race as the music was the exact style of Christian praise music that causes me to feel woozy (not in a good way) when I hear it. (I know music is subjective and for some that music is very beautiful). It seemed that it was a high percentage of senior citizens who were there, so perhaps the experience and music was more catering to them I am assuming. But I kept feeling torn about being at The Holyland Experience. Is this just too incredibly freaky or is this a good educational experience?

The Scriptorium was my favorite part as it was a walk through of the creation of the Bible and actually had New Testament fragments, original Tyndale Bibles etc. as part of the history of the Bible. So it felt more like a museum tour with actual artifacts. At times it got a little dramatic with some of the special effects, but it was educational for sure.   

In these photos you will see they had a children's area  where you walk through the parting of the Red Sea, they had a place where you could stand like Sampson between columns and have your photo taken. They had a Jesus walking on the water that you could climb up and have your picture taken with Jesus walking on the water holding His hand (which I did).

Near the end of the day as they were closing, instead of the Disney Parade where everyone gathers on Main St., they had the crucifixion where everyone gathered to watch. It was a little odd as people were beginning to leave since the park was going to close and someone was standing and directing people asking "Staying for the crucifixion? Please go this way." 

I will say that I don't think I have ever seen such a bloody Jesus in any Easter play or musical as the one here. It was definitely the Mel Gibson Passion-looking Jesus. As Jesus walked by people carrying the cross, it was quite surreal with so many taking photos of him as he went by. A member of the cast was singing "Via Dolorosa" (of course) as Jesus made His was to the cross. He was crucified and then after another song was sang He re-appeared in the normal resurrected Jesus type of white gown and everyone singing as they raised their hands all together for the crescendo of the closing song.  

Every time I would get somewhat cynical about the whole "show" part of things and the music used, I would then see people truly worshiping during one of the singing presentations. Or see someone watching the crucifixion and weeping while it was happening as they were sincerely moved by it.

Right at the end of the day as the crucifixion was about to happen, I heard a voice "Dan, what are you doing here?". It turned out that the staff of Missiongathering Christian Church from San Diego  was there. They were in town for another conference and also was curious about The Holyland Experience so they went. They said they also felt somewhat out of place there, so we hung together for the last part of the day. After Jesus rose again and was in His white robe, one of the Missiongathering team  said "We've got to go meet Jesus!" and so I followed as they hurried to the backstage area and sure enough, there was Jesus. He was very friendly and he even posed with us for a few photos before he disapeared into a nearby building. So we got to truly have a complete Holyland Experience meeting Jesus like we did.

                                                                   Jay from Missiongathering blogged about the experience with Jesus we had here.

Jay also linked to an interesting take on The Holyland Experience from a British reporter, I think a comedy show.

Quite an perplexing, interesting, odd, yet learning experience The Holyland Experience was. And quite a memorable one.