what would Jesus play? [and other reflections on Arisefest 2010]

sometimes i like to picture Jesus in a modern day setting and wonder how His life and ministry would have looked if it was 2011 when God decided to come to earth in human form to settle the original score instead of 2000ish years ago

would He have watched movies or played computer games? Would He have had His own Facebook page or blog? Would Jesus own a cellphone (my thorts are He probably wouldn’t because He seemed to be quite an in-the-moment in-the-place kind of guy) or gone and watched five days of a cricket test (i suspect He might have done this, and used it as an opportunity to spend some time bonding with His little band of followers throwing out “The kingdom of God is like a slip cordon…” and other teachings)

we don’t really know and i imagine if we put even three people in a room and asked them a bunch of those type questions we would have a variety of strong but differing opinions on most of them

looking back over the last two days of Arisefest – the christian band festival i was privileged to be a small part of (as mc for the main stage) – i thort through that scenario again and came up with a few thorts on the matter

in the unlikelihood (i.m.o.) of Jesus being part of a rock/hardcore/hip-hop/indie etc band that played at the festival…

…He wouldn’t invite girls to throw themselves at the single band members and then take off his shirt and call on people in the crowd to do the same…

…He wouldn’t disrespect the festival organisers and the other bands in a tightly packed band schedule by ignoring signals from the side of the stage to end His band’s set so that the next band could go on, just because He wanted to stay on the stage…

…He definitely wouldn’t lead crowds in vociferous “Jesus is my King” chanting or intense praise and worship and then follow it by launching into “just one more song” when told to leave the stage because He was already a few minutes over…

…and i’m fairly certain He wouldn’t have one of his band members try and physically back the mc off the stage and then Himself physically push him away just for a last few minutes of crowd fervour as He played an extended instrumental ending to the “just one more” song He’d decided to do making Him now 15 minutes over His allotted time…

at the same time as some of this was going on, there were a couple of moments that really stood out for me, and reflecting back on them now, the ones that come to mind pretty much all involved bands that i am friends with some or all of the members of (that makes me happy) – moments like the Harbourlight guys playing their set with such a Jesus-focused passion that spilled over to the crowd, Rash from Versus the Wolf taking some precious minutes out of their playing time to address the crowd and share their hearts for doing what they do (which is glorifying God and reaching people with the hope that is in Jesus) and Tyron from Skylit City – the organiser of the festival – full on passionately singing their bands songs and later on leading the crowd in a time of rampant worship and then finishing their band set and leaving the stage ten minutes before their time had even run out (maybe something along the lines of “It’s all about You” honestly being lived out there)

what would Jesus do? We wear the bracelet, maybe we ask the question, but to be honest i’m not sure it’s hitting the heart of the matter because we can only guess and ponder and hypothesise and possibly argue about it… what might be a better, more accurate question is “What would Jesus have me do?” and it really was a festival for me of seeing some bands and people legitimately answering that question while others simply chased the applause of the crowds or got caught up in the experience of the moment…

to Be The Change (festival theme) you HAVE to start with being changed…

plans for new years? how about arisefesting with us…

i have had mixed experiences with new years eves and days – more often they have involved me running around trying to organise events and keep everyone else organised or entertained or worshipping or something like that and generally the ones where i have managed to avoid planning/organising/running anything have been the good ones [altho i do have great memories of some of the others don’t get me wrong] and last year’s hike to cape point was a definite positive memory… and so this year i am gonna kinda be straddling the middle ground – so not really organising anything, but definitely being involved and if you don’t have plans yet and can make it, you should consider joining us at arisefest…

here is the welcome to the arisefest website:

Bring in the New Year at ARISEFEST, the Christian music and lifestyle festival. Held at MIDMAR DAM in KZN from 30th DECEMBER 2010 TO 1st JANUARY 2011. Let top Christian artists from all over South Africa create a New Year’s to remember. This years theme, BE THE CHANGE, is inspired by 2 CORINTHIANS 10: 4 – “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” We look forward to seeing you at this years festival but until then go have a good look around our website to find out more information and thanks for visiting!

so go check out the website here, here, or even here, but definitely not here cos that is something else and start planning…

amongst the bands playing, in no particular order (except alphabetical), are such diverse elements as arise band, cjay, coals of juniper, david phipson, harbourlight, jersey, remix’d, scarlet hill, show and tell, skylit city, straatligkinders, the arrows, theatre, the exploits, the kifness, to our divine, versus the wolf plus a whole bunch more on accoustice vibes…

should be a lot of fun… maybe see you there?