Welcoming-In Sun 8:00am
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Spring Fest
- James Lennox
- Sep 11, 2009
SPRINGFEST 2009 Feedback
We came up with the idea last year to host an outdoor event for the youth that would provide a platform for the gospel to be shared, an opportunity for the youth to invite their unsaved friends and an evening for everyone to celebrate their new life in Jesus Christ. Leonard Rutten shared that evening and I remember clearly many hands going up in response to Leonard’s call for those who were feeling hopeless and who were in need of break-through. A surface look at the youth during last year’s event would have given you the impression that the youth of today are care free and happy. This was not the case however, as could be seen clearly from the response to Leonard’s message. The youth are in desperate need of a Savior. Appearances sold a façade of happiness and a kind of joviality about life. The word however, which was brought through Leonard that evening revealed the opposite.
1 year later, and we decided to open this event up to all ages and host it together with Satellite, the young adult’s ministry lead by Geoff & Jane Kirsten. With much excitement we planned and prepared for an evening of arts, entertainment, food & fun whereby we could attract the lost. A flyer with “Springfest 09” advertising live bands, fires & youthfulness is inoffensive and attractive to the youth of our city. Our aim: get people here so that they can be infected with the kingdom and hear the gospel proclaimed, in our conduct, conversations and through the word. Hopefully they would come to know God through Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit. We can only be His witnesses, salvation is of the Lord! We want the lost to come. We want them to know our hope in Jesus!
So the line-up for the evening went as follows:
People started arriving around 5pm. Fires were lit, foosball competitions were growing intense, volleyball was happening and as the sun set with perfect weather and a near full-moon rising, we were grateful to see people whom we had never seen before arriving.
Hoofseun, a 4 piece comedy/cover act with members Kyle Rutten (drums & bv’s) & Damian Philips (guitars) hailing from 3Ci, opened up the evenings entertainment with a brilliant performance that had everyone nodding their heads in approval, clapping their hands with delight and then as the show warmed up, pulling dance moves that I haven’t seen since Grade 7 disco (remember the gravy train?).
Next up was Satellite band with a few extra members performing some covers from a well known pop-punk act as well as some Hillsong United & Planetshakers songs. In the middle of the set Geoff Kirsten came up to share. Standing out clearly while he shared was an intense delight felt by all that God is with us, that our lives are not to be lived dualistically, I think we broke rules as to what can happen in a church building (most would consider any music other than worship in a church building to be offensive, some people would even consider any form of music in a church building of the devil) but with clear consciences we were able to enjoy our gifted musicians playing a mixture of contemporary music & music written especially to praise God.
God blessed the evening, I know it. I looked around at the end of the evening at faces that I had never seen before (there were people that came because of the flyers handed out on campus who had no idea that this was an event hosted by a church). I saw everyone experiencing God’s goodness even though many did not know God. I pray that more and more we would break free from tradition to reach out to the lost. We look forward to more music & arts festivals of this kind whereby we can reach out. So artists – get ready for an explosion, this is going to get bigger!
James Lennox
