Toronto prepares for the Festival of Hope
“The whole strategy is to mobilize the Church to do what we are called to do in the Great Commission”
TORONTO, ON—The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada (BGEA) is ramping up preparations for their largest Canadian festival ever. The weekend of September 12 to 14, they are asking Toronto believers to invite their non-Christian friends to the Air Canada Centre for a free weekend, packed with some of the hottest names in Christian music, and ultimately, the chance to hear the gospel and begin a personal relationship with Jesus.
“Our Festival of Hope ministry is designed to unite Christians and churches across large metropolitan areas, to deepen the faith of believers and equip them to share their faith in Jesus Christ,” says BGEA communications manager, Frank King. “It ultimately brings the message of Jesus Christ to people who may never have set foot in a church.”
Artists performing at the Air Canada Centre this year include Michael W. Smith, the City Harmonic, the Newsboys, Thousand Foot Krutch, and many more. But organizers have also been working to foster unity among local churches, organizing prayer meetings and training Christians to share their faith.
“We tell Christians that while we appreciate them attending festivals, these outreaches are aimed at their non-Christian friends, family members, neighbours and co-workers. Throughout the year-long Festival of Hope journey, we have encouraged participants to pray, by name, for people they know who need Christ and then invite these non-Christians to accompany them to one of the festival evenings.”
King says many local believers are already engaged and excited about the upcoming event.
After bringing his youth group to one of the pre-festival evangelism training youth weekends, youth pastor Jason Persaud said he was more inspired to share his faith.
“The highlight for me was how the speakers focused on the relationship each of us has with God. It stirred a greater passion for me to be more bold in sharing my faith.”
Another youth pastor volunteering with the Festival of Hope is Matt Baker, who became a Christian at the Toronto Billy Graham gathering in 1996. He believes this event is a great ministry opportunity.
“The festival is done with excellence. Christians in Toronto can join in and partner with the outreach and hopefully show people who Jesus is through it.”
King says the festival is one of many events the BGEA has been organizing during the past few years. In 2010, they organized three youth outreaches across Canada called Rock the River.
Their combined attendance was more than 26,000 and saw 2,500 people either make decisions to follow Jesus or recommit their lives to Him.
However, some critics have questioned the lasting impact of crusade-style events. When Rock the River came to Ottawa in 2012, youth pastor Joey Molloy was excited, but said his support was conditional.
“Where I think they are lacking is the staying power,” he explains. “I told them I would only support this if we, as a local body, will go after this annually. It’s great to bring everybody together, but the staying power has to be the local church owning it so this happens more than once every 10 to 15 years.”
But Molloy says the BGEA does a better job than anyone at bringing the Church together. After the BGEA leadership in the initial Rock the River campaign, Ottawa churches rallied together to put on a follow up event last year and are all set to hold a third event, Rock the Capital (RTC), on September 27.
“The whole strategy of RTC is to mobilize the Church to do what we are called to do in the Great Commission,” he explains. “This is one effective outreach tool. I’m not sure there’s ever a time that proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ is an ineffective thing, but truthfully, I believe the most effective evangelism tool would be if every Christian shared their faith.”
The BGEA was unable to provide ChristianWeek with statistics on what per cent of festival decisions to follow Jesus are made by regular churchgoers and how many invited non-Christian friends. The BGEA was also unable to provide an estimate of how likely believers are to actually bring non-Christian friends to this style of event.
Molloy estimates between 60 and 75 per cent of Rock the River Ottawa attendees were churchgoers. However, he says many kids identify as churchgoers, but haven’t made a commitment to follow Jesus.
“For a lot of them, this is a significant moment where they can say, ‘my parents aren’t choosing for me, I am choosing to follow Christ.’ My guesstimate is that for every first time commitment there are three re-commitments.”
While few believers deny the unifying impact these sorts of events often have on the Church, many pastors are increasingly focusing on local, relationship-based ministry and evangelism to bring about lasting change in people’s lives.
“Someone once said, ‘a mind will touch a mind, a heart will touch a heart, but a life will touch a life,’” says Andy Falleur, pastor of Calvary Fellowship Ottawa. “When we invest in people, like Paul did with Timothy or Jesus with the disciples, it results in deep transformation and it becomes exponential.”
Falleur says relationship-based ministry and evangelism can impact your friends, but it also changes you, helping you own your weaknesses and learn to trust God more fully. He believes it’s something we can all do.
“In a mass gathering, you can’t address each person individually and specifically,” Falleur explains. “You don’t know what the needs are, but relationally, you have the opportunity to address someone specifically and watch up close how the Lord works in his or her life and heart.
“Yet, I don’t think it’s wise to focus exclusively on relational ministry. Remember, the church was born in mass evangelism through public proclamation [of the gospel]. That’s something we shouldn’t neglect. Both are important, fruitful and blessed by the Holy Spirit.”
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