Jerusalem: Destination for Worship

The One Thing Jerusalem conference put Israel’s capital city on the map as a destination for worshipers and worship leaders across the nation and around the world. 

The first-of-its-kind conference in Israel highlighted a growing trend among Messianic Jews and Christians to make worship pilgrimages to the Holy City. 

The three-day event was broadcast live by God TV, which boasts an audience of 1 billion. Several renowned Christian artists and speakers from Europe and America made their first trip to Israel for the conference, showing that for many, Israel is taking on a greater role in their journey of prayer and praise. 

“Where Israel had been cut off in many ways or was left behind in the move that God was doing in the earth, now it’s not just catching up, but it’s going to run ahead,” said Emily Schiavi, a worship leader at Succat Hallel, which organized the conference. “When people catch the vision of God’s heart for Israel, nothing is going to stop what will go out from here.”

Despite the civil war in Gaza and rumors of war in the North, One Thing Jerusalem drew more than 1,500 people, including an estimated 600 Jewish and Arab youth from the believing community in Israel and young people from 20 nations.

“The conference was way beyond anything we imagined,” Rick Ridings, founder of Succat Hallel house of prayer on Mount Zion, said. “A group came from Australia that was doing a 40-day fast for youth revival in Israel. A Chinese group came. This is not just something we’re doing. There are people in the nations praying to make Jerusalem a ‘praise in the earth.’”

One Thing Jerusalem featured young Israeli worship bands as well. A decade ago, that might have been impossible.

“When I first moved here [eight years ago] I felt like it was a valley of dry bones,” said Anna Boyd, who works with Israeli youth and made her own album in Israel. Boyd, 25, who lived in the US and Belgium before moving to Israel, said the worship music scene has gradually awakened since she’s been in the country.

“Right now I feel like all the [believing] youth are incredibly hungry for God,” she said. “They are starting to cry out for their friends’ salvation. There’s a sense of being so excited that, ‘God saved us so we want to worship him.’”

The awakening among Israeli youth has paralleled a rise in the number of Christians from overseas who have come to Israel to take part in worship watches or make a recording of their own. 

Kish Johnson, 32, originally from Slough, England, arrived in Israel three years ago and finished his first album here. While living in Jerusalem, he started writing worship songs. 

“When you understand the importance of Israel, you can’t help but understand the call of the nations,” he said. “We are pioneering to a certain degree.”

Another pioneer from abroad is Jess Cantelon, from Canada. Cantelon made his first recording here in English and is now writing songs in Hebrew. 

“Israel is a blank slate in a way,” he said. “If we went to Kansas City or England, these things have been done. Here there’s lots of potential because it’s a new country and we’re talking about the second generation of believers. We’ve not been too affected by the West. Israel is its own culture, its own generation, its own expression.”

Schiavi, 30, said she has seen major changes in worship in Israel since she came from the US four years ago. After the One Thing conference, which was meant to galvanize a generation of Israelis and Arabs in their own Land, she expects an even greater change.

“Local things have connected internationally. The nations come to Jerusalem, they gather here and the word will go forth from Zion,” Schiavi said. “It’s not going to be from people coming here. Now the people who live here are going to take this for themselves and run with it.”