Winterfest was this past weekend. I've been going to Winterfest since 1991. There have been years where I did not particularly care for the sessions. There have been years where I have not really been fond of some of the worship time. Some years, the worship leaders have been very self centered in appearance (not to judge their hearts), and in return, hard to really get into worship due to the distraction.
Winterfest is not the best thing in the world. Don't get me wrong, I think its awesome. They do a great job of incorporating media and excitement into the sessions so the teenagers won't get too distracted. Let's face it, teenagers (and most adults) have about a seven minute attention span, and they do a great job of mixing things up so the interest level stays high.
I always come back from Winterfest and examine it from a distance, once I'm past the spiritual high and emotion that stems from it. Some years, I think that things could have been done better. Some years, I think they could have done without lots of things. However, this year, as I do my post Winterfest examination, I have nothing but praise.
Watershed did a good job of leading our worship. Many of the songs, they would start them off, and then really back off of their microphones so that all you could hear were the 6500 + voices singing to our God.
The drama part of the sessions this year was excellent. There was a group from Oklahoma Christian University that did a continuous running drama that mirrored the lessons. Top notch job they did.
Walling, well, in past years I've come home and said "He didn't give me anything new, he used a bunch of the same things he's used in the past". Not this year. The whole structure of the lessons was based on Believing in Jesus. He pointed out many things, such as Why to believe in Jesus, when to believe, 5 solid things to base our faith on, and most importantly talked about how important Baptism is in your walk and faith in God.
All in all, I could find no scriptural fault with anything done at Winterfest. It bothers me still that so many say that Winterfest is crazy and that they are doing things that are not scriptural. I say to these people: I will respect your opinion once you have gone to experience it, but until then all you are doing is basing your beliefs on something someone read somewhere or told you.
I had a good friend of mine, Kevin, who said he wanted to go with us. Kevin is 27 years old, and became a Christian at around 18. He attended more conservative churches, and went to Freed Hardeman with me. All he ever heard about Winterfest were negative things. So he decided to go for himself this year with us.
His opinion: Overall, he had a good experience. The clapping during the songs, and the VBS attitude during some of the songs got to him, but he admitted that was just a comfort zone thing to him. He thought the sessions were good, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Walling push baptism like he did. He walked away from the weekend very satisfied.
It was great to see everyone, like Jason, Johnny, Nathan Reeves, Terry Reeves, many old friends from Freed, and my old youth group from Ashland City. Terry Reeves -- Way to go! Fight the fight brother! That cancer got scared of your faith and ran away!
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4 comments:
You are entitled to believe whatever you like. That doesn't make it true. Just your opinion!!!!!!!!
Lane,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to go to Winterfest with the group. This was my first time to hear Jeff Walling speak, and I was impressed. I think it is wonderful that 13,000+ teenagers come from all over to praise, glorify, and learn about God. I have heard a lot about Winterfest from people who have attended, and now I know what all the hype is about. There were some things that, like with Kevin, were not exactly inside my "comfort zone", but they were within someone else's, and it is not my place to judge where their heart is as they worship. After all, whether we sing and clap, sing and clap and turn around, or just sing, the important thing is that we all agree that Jesus was born like no man, lived a life of service and ministry to others, died on the cross for our sins, rose from grave on the 3rd day, that baptism is essential for our salvation, and that Christ is coming back to bring us home with Him to Heaven.
Lane, my brother, you always tell it like it is. I love you for it! Yes, it is your opinion, and I for one, agree with you 100%. Winterfest was awesome this year, maybe one of the best ever.
I have some cousins and aunts and uncles in my family. I like some of them and others are "different." I don't always agree with them, or approve of every little thing they do. But they are still family.
Same is true in the church. Whether or not you agree with power point, or clapping, or shouting, or having a praise team, we ARE family. And it is a shame we treat our spiritual family like we have "disowned" them. Oh, if everyone were just like me the world would be such a perfect place, right?
We can't get it all right, if we could there would be no need for Jesus. Until then, we keep striving to grow closer to Him everyday. Meet you on the line!!!
We just had walling at an event here in Jackson. He's one of the best speakers in our broherhood. I don't know where people get off saying that he's soft on baptism. I have never heard him preach and not emphasis being baptised. Are folks just paranoid about this issue or what. Sometimes I think tht if we could see repentance like we do baptism, we'd focus on that.
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