The floor of the Acer Arena shook as the band kicked off with the prophetic anthem Rain Down, and delegates attending the 20th anniversary conference from all over the world praised and worshipped God.
Band leader, Martin Smith, stepped onto the shoulders of those closest to the stage for a vertical crowd surf as he blasted out Paint The Town Red from their latest album, The Mission Bell, which has been heralded as one of their best to date.
Against a backdrop of world headlines flashing up on giant screens, Smith encouraged the crowd to take their place as ‘History makers’.
“I believe God’s doing an amazing thing around the earth,” he told delegates. “It’s a great time to be alive.”
“This is a new day and we’re not going back. The way forward is when we join hands across denominations.”
The worship party ended with another hard-hitting offering from The Mission Bell – the convicting Our God Reigns, which tackles the subjects of abortion and HIV.
The five-piece band started out in England during the early 90s. Today, Delirious? are the UK’s most prominent Christian rock band. Two of their singles have reached the top twenty in the UK secular charts with their best-selling single, Deeper selling more than 30,000 copies.
This year’s Hillsong Conference has delegates from 71 different nations, and 21 church denominations and affiliations are represented.
Key speakers yesterday included Rick Warren, pastor and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, and Frank Damazio who has written more than 25 books on church leadership and personal spiritual growth.
Still to come is evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, whose international ministry has seen more than 38 million people come to Christ.