I went to the Christian music festival this weekend just been. Not long after I got there, I could hear some music that shocked me. The music was the type of music that you would listen to if you were going into battle, and you wanted to listen to something that would make you aggressive and numb your soul. The band was called Amanaki. Here is a link to some of their music. You will be amazed. This should not be at a Christian music festival. (Don't watch too much of this rubbish.)
There was also another band similar to this as well.
After I had set up my tent, I took my flipchart and went and found a place to share the Gospel. This place had plenty of foot traffic and it was not loud. So, a perfect place for someone to hear the awesome message of the cross without being distracted.
One of the first people that I shared the Gospel with was a crew member of the festival. When I finally asked him, "So what did God do for guilty sinners so that they would not be punished?", he did not know. I was perplexed. This was a person who was a Christian helping to run a Christian event and he did not know what God did for us. WOW!!!!
Sadly, I was only able to share the Gospel for about 15 minutes before the big head honcho of the entire event came along and stopped me. He told me that since he did not know me, I was not allowed to share. I pleaded my case, but he would not let me, and he said that he did not want people to be "accosted" with the Gospel. I then asked if I could share the Gospel without the flipchart. So, I would simply be talking to people one to one sharing the Gospel. He still said no. Then he told me that he had people around the place who were sharing the Gospel. But I had walked around the entire area and did not see anyone sharing the Gospel. The group that I went to the festival with was a group of about 25 young people and over the whole festival (Friday to Monday), there was only one of them approached and spoken to. And the message that was spoken was not clear and eventually went to end times stuff.
There was some really good music over the weekend though. There was Charity Gale, We were messengers and many other great bands. There were also some good messages. The cross and love were mentioned many times. So were God's compassion and mercy, that he is slow to anger, he is faithful and forgiving. But sadly, over the whole weekend, there was only about 1 minute devoted to how God is just and that we have sinned against him. So, the messages were designed in such a way that people would not be offended by someone showing them their sin.
As believers, we need to be careful when sharing the message of God that we do not give people a slanted understanding of God. If we talk a lot about Gods love and forgiveness without mentioning His Justice, then we can give a slanted view of God, and people will then be more likely to continue in their sins. After all, if He loves us and he is forgiving, then it does not matter if we continue in our sins.
Overall, I was very annoyed. The organiser of this event would let a very compromised band play, but he would not let believers share the Gospel. This seemed very hypocritical to me. And there were many messages about the cross but not really any for why the cross is needed. If people do not see their need for the cross and they only hear the Good News, then they will receive the message with joy, but when persecution happens, they will wither away.
And also, if they have not seen their sin, then how can they come to the foot of the cross? Christ died for our sins. We need to be careful that we do not make people who believe they are saved but have not come to a place of being broken and contrite.
This was a great festival, and I loved the worship and community, I can see that the organisers do have a heart for God, but they need to reevaluate some of their priorities so that people can see their need for a saviour.
