sustain:if:able kiwi

come holy spirit

renew your church, for the sake of the world.

Our Pentecost 07 festival, the third Festival we’ve done at Opawa, is over (info on our Norwest festival 05 is here, and Spirit of Life festival 06 is here). In 2007 our focusing text was Ephesians 4:23-4: Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy.

and over the Festival weekend,
we laughed: at Mr Bean and with a Trivia night

we thought: hard, as I did some teaching around “Who God is at Pentecost?” and “Who humans are at Pentecost?” Teaching notes are here (120K) and here (120K) if you want.

we integrated: applying teaching through videomaking, creating doves, making and painting model airplanes the colours of the Spirit, crafting music to reflect Jesus ascending and the Spirit descending.

we appreciated God’s good gifts: in musical performance with Shooting Stars, Sunburn, Amy Hay.

So why would a local church throw a Pentecost festival?

1. It’s fun. Sheer creative fun.
2. It’s community building, as generations mix and people enjoy.
3. It brings visitors through our door – community people were part of Trivia nite quiz teams, a community youth gets to ask me “Who made God?” in a teaching time.
4. The Spirit needs to be reclaimed at the heart of the church. For too long the Spirit has either been a poor cousin, ignored by many churches, or the domain of nut cases. A Festival allows us to bring together head and heart, mind and emotion.
5. The first 2 mentions of the Spirit in the Bible are in relation to creativity (Genesis 1:3 and Exodus 35:3) and so a Festival gives practical expression to the rich and creative gifts the Spirit gives the church.
6. We are a multi-congregational church and a Festival brings the congregations together to laugh, think and create.
7. There are incredible theological riches that enhance our thinking about the Spirit and so a Festival gives me the chance, in a local church, to teach around Trinitarian notions like “Son and Spirit always together, always distinct.”

Practically:
You need a good team and our staff team are stuffed. I think we will have broken even this year. Good numbers at the two evening happenings. Numbers could have been better during the Satur-day workshops, but no workshop “died.”