This was an open air session, complete with Trivia, in which Courtney took the good Test.

This was open air with Death Trivia, which gets people thinking about death and if they are prepared to die. This is followed by Marcus taking the good test. 

This is an interview with Grace and Jenny, and I ask them about the message in the music of their favorite band. I then share the necessity of Bible reading, prayer, and evangelism in the life of a Christian.

This is an interview with Andrew, a youth Pastor. Why does he bring kids to Sonshine? What does he want to accomplish in his youth ministry? Very eye-opening. 

This is a video of Michael and Andrew. Andrew sounds like he has heard the Gospel, but he still has not found what he is looking for.

A Lot of people ask me  why I , a 42 year old Pastor would go to a weekend music festival without my kids. The answer? To evangelize! But Pastor, isn’t Sonshine a Christian music festival? Yes, the artists are Christians, and fortunately, they do attract a mixed crowd of believers and unbelievers. Unfortunately, however, most of the messages coming from the stage between songs are more along the lines of self help and Jesus is love rather than a true Gospel message. Darrin Brownlee and I had an agenda: To interview as many people as we could, both Christians and Non-Christians to discover what a Christian is in their minds. It led to a lot of teaching, correcting, and evangelizing! The kids are being brainwashed into thinking a simple belief in Jesus is all they need to be Christians. I heard the word repentance once, and the young man who used it didn’t really understand it! The easy -believism that these kids have been indoctrinated with has rolled over into their Bible study habits; one Christian told me he hadn’t opened the Bible in a month (his youth pastor told us that all they are trying to do in the youth group is build a community and introduce these kids to Jesus’ love. A good way to start, youth Pastor, is to train them to read and to love God’s Word!

The festival atmosphere lent itself well to open air preaching. We found a location on a busy path where we could do some trivia, attract a good crowd, and share with the people, young and old alike, the complete Gospel. Again, in the three open air sessions that we did, there was no lack of people who did not fully understand the Gospel even though they were at a Christian event! The third time we spoke, We were escorted by security out to the front gate. It seems we needed a wrist bracelet to be in the tent area!

Well, we were indeed told that we needed a wrist bracelet, but when we explained that we were interviewing people and we said on the tapes that we were at Sonshine 08, they said we could have a press pass! We now had access to the inside of the shows, but it did not change our goal, which was to interview as many people as we could and share the Gospel with those who would listen.

By the end of the day, we had handed out all of our tracts, (over 1,000) all of our prizes, had done several on-camera interviews, three open-airs. We got to share the Gospel in one form or another to over 1000 people, but there was so much more to do! I pray that next year, there will be many more evangelists that will go to these summer festivals with the goal of reaching the lost.

Immediately upon leaving the bus, the ‘pusher’ Steve Sanchez demonstrated an open air technique known by him as free speaking. This is where you pick a corner and you begin to preach a message to those who are passing by.

After Steve did it with no incident, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, Steve had done such a good job, the storeowner contacted security.

We were trained by Steve to keep on preaching even when people tried to block us off. We were given a primer on how to deal with security vs. how to deal with law enforcement officers. This training didn’t make me feel any better about being surrounded, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pressed on.

They simply wanted to tell me that my voice was too loud, that it was carrying across the street, and to tone it down a little. They were very polite and encouraged us to keep it up. In fact, later in the day they stopped to hear a second message! We were polite and respectful, and that gave us an edge in being able to get the word out. Part of our training encouraged us to be polite and to thank the officers for what they do. This goes a LONG way in being able to preach the Gospel when the armed security feels respected, and is even in defense of your right to preach.