thoughts on cityfest

CityFest...yesterday Alan and i took about 10 students to Eleanor Tinsley Park to see what was supposed to be the city's greatest "christian" event of all time. the idea is great, a whole city coming together as one despite denomination and theological differences. an event to show that christians are cool and xtreme. we skateboard and bike for Jesus. i knew it was going to be an interesting event when i was waiting in-line to buy tickets to buy food (yeah you had to buy tickets to buy food) and i heard one of the skateboarders say something to the extent of "if you believe in Jesus you're going to heaven and if you don't you're going to hell. now who wants to accept Jesus into their hearts?" and that is basically the way the whole night went. now to be honest i expected it to be like that, but i went hoping i was wrong.

now to be fair i was only their for about 6 hours of the 24 hours the event took up. and i only heard 2 people talk including Louis Palaou so maybe i missed the explanation of who Jesus is. if i weren't a christian though, and i only attended those 6 hours i don't think i would be a christian and i'd still have no clue who Jesus is nor would I understand why i would want to go to heaven to be with him.

honestly, i don't want to be negative about the event. Jesus says, "whoever is not against me, is for me," and i am sure that people's lives were changed by the event. still I just wish i could have heard somebody talk about Jesus. explain from the beginning why he had to die and rise. explain what he did on earth that he came to establish his kingdom and bring redemption. explain what it means to be a christian, that it is more than just believe and go to heaven. If that is the whole story than what is the point of living on earth. God should just take us up once we believe in Jesus. I really wanted to hear some good news! i wanted to hear a story of how Jesus changed a person's life! in fact, i wanted to get up and share my life since nobody else was. along with that i wanted to hear a call to action. i'm sick of this passive christianity! Can there be such a thing as a passive, apathetic christian? is that possible? i don't know. i know that i can not be that kind of christian though. lately, i have been feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders and i know that probably sounds ridiculous, but that is how i have been feeling. i know there are christians out there serving the people of this world for the Lord and i want to be a part of that.

So now I just have to say this because it has been eating at me for the last 24 hours. Here we were in the middle of Downtown Houston surrounded by hurting people. people who are homeless and desperate. A whole bunch of christians ignoring the poor and singing worship songs to Jesus....i don't know went on the whole weekend, but i know that i am guilty probably more so than anyone...something that would have been cool is if for that one weekend you could have set up camp in downtown Houston and hung out with the homeless people and got to know them and found a way to help them. that would be a real cityfest! christians coming together and meeting the needs of their neighbors, what a thought! that would be true evangelism. lasting evangelism. evangelism that people can understand. that would be showing Jesus to the people of Houston.

Sadly, I didn't meet Jesus last night at Cityfest. i didn't see him there. maybe i didn't look hard enough. i definitely didn't see him in the prices of food. i didn't see him in the merchandise being sold. i didn't see him in the booths that i passed. I didn't see him in the police who were trying to kick a lady out for speaking her mind, and i didn't see him in the talk of "do you want to go to heaven or do you want to go to hell?" In fact you know where i saw Jesus last night and honestly it didn't even hit me till right now. As we were walking back to our car, I saw him in a little child, sleeping in the doorway of a Subway restaurant with no adult in sight, while a huge christian cityfest was going on a few blocks away. Jesus, i'm so sorry.