Our youth group is going to the Newsboys and Rush of Fools concert in Missoula, MT tomorrow Wednesday April 16th. I’m excited to see Rush of Fools as I have not yet seen them live and I have always loved the Newsboys. I will later post about our experience and what I thought of Rush of Fools since I don’t think my opinion of the Newsboys is going to change.
This experience makes me think of: Are concerts still an effective means of evangelism today? In some cases yes, but in other cases it seems that I’ve seen a lot of students not that excited about going to concerts. It seems that back in the 80′s and 90′s there were some big concert turnouts. Did anyone go to the DC talk and Audio Adrenaline concert back then? I thought that was just one of the best concerts I have been to. It seems to me that now, events like LifeLight in Sioux Falls, SD seem to be more effective because it’s free and because of the diversity of bands that they bring out that ministers to all types of people. Anyone ever been to Life Light? – It’s very awesome!
So what’s your take on concerts now-a-days? Has there been any changes? Are they more or less effective? More on this later.
Youth Leaders: Group Text Messaging Only $9.95 Per Month!
Try The Survivorz Lock-In FREE
I saw Rush of Fools last year and they did a really good job. They see their music as worship, in which the audience is encouraged to participate, so they project the words so people can sing along. (If you have some of their songs for the students to sing on the trip, they’ll be ready…)
I’m not really a proponent of the concert-as-evangelism M.O. but I do think they can be a good source of encouragement to youth ministries. My experience has been that a lot of people might raise their hand (in response to an invitation) or pray a prayer at a concert, but there’s got to be something more to make a decision ‘stick’ and become a real commitment. The artists aren’t capable of providing that kind of support to every audience at every show they play. Encourage your students to use concerts to open conversations with their friends and be that support for each other.