FaithFest

WOW is all that I can say about the Christian music festival that was held this past weekend here in Wilkesboro.  A big shout out to Craig Church of Craig Church Ministries who put this vision into reality.  Craig is a longtime friend and member of MPBC who does some amazing work in evangelism all over the world.  This event was a huge undertaking, but it was well organized and with the help of great sponsors and hundreds of volunteers, God was definitely glorified and people were exposed to the gospel.  

As a member of the MPBC praise team I love good music and on Saturday I was blessed to be part of this great event that brought national Christian artists like Unspoken, Matthew West, Phil Wickham, Meredith Andrews, Jason Crabb, Matt Hammitt, and Finding Favor to little ol' Wilkes County, NC.  Faith Fest also afforded the opportunity to local artist Caleb’s Crossing, John Lewis and our MPBC Praise Team member Kandace Brown to use their talents and glorify God as they sang in this venue.  This event was more than just a music event.  It was an event where we saw thousands come together to not only hear good music, but also hear the word of God preached by Craig and challenge us to carry the cross of Christ every day.  What an AWESOME experience it was! I really felt the presence of God throughout the evening and it was wonderful to see the community come together to support this outreach event. 

I must admit that at times I got caught up in watching the bands as they performed trying to see what they did musically or what their stage presence was like, hoping that I might see something that I could use to better my role on the praise team.  As the evening went on I stopped watching what was going on and drifted into “worship”.  You see true worship cannot be planned for, it just happens.   For me it was during one of Jason Crabb’s songs and I just had to stand and raise both hands toward heaven, I didn’t care who saw me or what they thought.  When you are in the presence of God you will give him praise!   Now, don’t get me wrong. I do believe that we can prepare our minds for worship, but true worship happens when we let go, don’t worry about what others see and just focus on God.
  
My prayer is that anytime that I am in front of others, my focus will be on singing and praising God and not worrying about what people see.  If I can do this then God will be glorified and hopefully I can be a vessel that will help lead others into letting go and worshiping as well.
  
Psalm 95:  Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.  Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, let us make a joyful noise to him with songs or praise.  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 

I have no idea how many people attended the inaugural FaithFest, but here are a couple of pictures that I took looking back over the

crowd. It was awesome to see people praising God and lifting their hands toward heaven. 

Just a little glimpse of what heaven may look like!

Geoff