Riverfest

This past weekend a festival of sorts was held in our neighborhood.

It was a city-wide event, organized by Reid Saunders and nearly 200 local area church leaders.

There was music, food, carnival games, arts and crafts, gi-normous inflatable playgrounds for tots, skateboard, BMX and freestyle motocross exhibits and athletes...in short, there was a little bit of something available for nearly every generation's entertainment.

It was quite the spectacle and best of all, it was free to the public.

Oh, but make no mistake, even though this "giant family block party" was absolutely free of charge, it still cost a cool $400,000 to organize, promote and execute.

So what was the point? Why Riverfest? Why spend in excess of $400,000 and countless hours organizing this two day event? I can answer those questions with two words.

Evangelism and entertainment.

I'm guessing there was a whole lot of fun to be had, fun that was age specific and culturally relevant. I'm guessing there was some good music to be heard and I'm guessing that there were more than a few folks who made decisions for Christ.

I say "I'm guessing", because I didn't go to Riverfest. Why?

I kept coming back to that $400,000. I kept thinking about how there are 650+ kids registered in our school district who don't have homes. Conservative estimates indicate that there are actually 900+ homeless children if you take into account those children too young to attend school, and those homeless teens who have already dropped out.

Organizers claimed that Riverfest was going to change lives.

I found myself wondering how? How were lives going to be changed? And what lives? Do you suppose any one of the 900+ homeless kids found a home because of Riverfest?

Ok, I'm not stupid. I get that we are talking eternal values here. I get that one person's decision for Christ causes all of the angels in heaven to celebrate with great joy. I get that. I really do.

I also get that this event was intended to evangelize, to bring people into relationship with Christ. I get that....but dang, doesn't anyone else get it?

It cost 400,000 dollars people! Riverfest cost $400,000.

Did Jesus command us to host community wide festivals in his name? Maybe I missed that part in the Bible?

Nearly every Christian I know has read Matthew 25. That's the part in the Bible where Jesus clearly instructs us to feed the hungry, to clothe the poor, to care for the sick, to visit the incarcerated and to house the homeless. We are instructed to have special concern for the orphans and the widows. We are to care for the "least of these", because they are Christ.

That $400,000 would have gone a long way in meeting those kinds of needs in my community; and who knows, a few souls might have been saved along the way too.

I don't know, it all seems upside down to me.

Yes, I know that Jesus commanded us to "go and make disciples of all the earth." I'm just not sure that a $400,000 fun fest was what Christ had in mind. Especially in a community where more than 50% of that community's children live in poverty.

Ok, just so you hear me, I'm going to say this as loudly, as clearly, and as succinctly as I am able.

I'm tired of events, and churches, and pastors, and fellow Christians, who seem more interested in talking about Jesus than they are in actually doing what Jesus told us to do.

We could talk all day, every day about what a great guy Jesus was; but if we don't do what Christ asked us to do......well, what's the point?

Riverfest seemed just a tad self-serving to me, like it was just one more fun event for Christians and possibly their outchurched/unchurched family and friends to attend.

It's so much dirtier, so much more heartbreaking to meet Christ in the faces of hungry children, meth addicts, and the mentally ill.

Oh, I know that for some of you out there in cyber-land, I'm preaching to the choir and the rest of you either don't give a damn or think I'm whack anyway. So, before I completely lose myself in a good rant and begin foaming at the keyboard, I'm going to just stop typing and push the little orange "publish post" button.

There, mission accomplished.