free events

i was very much impressed by the conference this weekend. there was amazing music led by the likes of jason upton and ricardo. there were concerts by truce (hip hop from nyc), what i call a messianic native group ( i really enjoyed this.) it had the tribal feel, with a lot of drums and beats, with guitar. speakers were nicky cruz, harvey carey and reggie dabbs. in which i was impressed by all of them.

i was amazed with the quality. i mentioned earlier that this was a free event that ran primarily on donations. i think i will call later today to see if the finances came in or not. but i am wondering if the wesleyan church could take a chance. if they could see the need to reach the youth of our church in a low cost event or even a free event in which they eat the cost.

the church where i youth pastor has an event like this. i have talked about it before on this blog before. barn bash is an event in which our church for the most part has taken the cost of the event ( roughly $10,000 not including many donations from the congregation.) we do ask for a donation of $5 but do not enforce this. last year we collected $3000, which meant we payed $7000 out of pocket, splitting the bill for the youth and outreach budgets for the year.

personally i think an event like this that the youth pay $3500 on last year was a worthwhile investment. because lives are coming to Christ out of barn bash. this year barn bash will have 7 bands headlined by an up and coming christian band edison glass (they were at most of the christian fests this summer.) and 6 other quality bands. we will have a skate/bmx exhibition team (enemy opposition) which was featured at logos5 in boston. as well as a acoustic stage (headlined by the infamous dave rowe) hayrides, cornmaze, free food (we have a lot of food)

if you are in the syracuse area the weekend of sept 16 i invite you to check it out. reply for more info or go to www.myspace.com/thebarnbash