Let's Have Church at Bonnaroo

Time for confession.

I went to Bonnaroo. Yes, THE Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, held on a 700 acre farm outside Manchester, Tennessee. With my good friend and music mogul Al B. Who drove us down in his turbocharged Mini Cooper. Yes, it was cool. Very, very cool.

An estimated 85,000 people were there I heard. Lots and lots and lots of people.

Let me tell you first of all, Bonnaroo was not as wild and crazy as we are led to believe. Is there wildness? Sure, in spots. Is it crazy? Not quite. Then again, I was there on Saturday night only and just for a few hours. The draw for myself and many of my middle aged peers was simply to witness this stop on the reunion tour of that aging rock trio from our collective past known as the Police.

The Police concert was excellent, though a close observer might have noted a distinct lack of passion in the band's performance. Our passes got us very close to the stage, so close in fact after their third song I began to wonder if I would be able to hear my beloved children arguing with each other ever again. Midway through the show, Al and I left the front of the stage for the posh digs of a luxurious tour bus, enabling us to sit in wondrous air conditioned comfort, courtesy of Al's producer friend. Not the usual 'roonie' experience, I suppose, but a lucky break for an ex-hippie pastor and his aching ears. Being able to leave behind the dust and the smoke was a bonus.

But I digress, as my intent is not to review the show nor talk about great it was to hang out with Al and his music biz friends. I want to know why there was no church at Bonnaroo. Specifically no church from my denomination. Please understand that I did not walk every square inch of the farm down in Manchester looking for someone from a church. I'm simply betting we had no presence there at all other than myself pumping my fist in the air during 'Message In A Bottle'. Friends, I believe that having no church presence at Bonnaroo is a mistake.

Now before someone calls the bishop and attempts to have me defrocked for posting heresy on the 'net, let me tell you what my first person experience there taught me. Bonnaroo attracts the very demographic that the mainline church can't seem to reach no matter how hard we try. The young people we are constantly wringing our hands over because they do not come to our churches were at this festival in droves. At first I believed they came because of the music. Maybe that was not the true reason. On the way home, deep in thought, it came to me.

While music and arts are obvious draws, maybe what these young people sought the most was the feeling of being a part of something bigger than themselves. To join a community of like minded people united in a common goal, sharing a common experience. Leaving behind a life that doesn't have much going on in it and coming to Bonnaroo for a few days.

Doesn't this sound very similar to the description of the church as it is written in the biblical book of Acts? A group of people united around a common experience (the death and resurrection of Christ), sharing a common experience together (gathered at the table for communion), so they could ultimately be a part of something bigger than themselves (the redemption of the world). Leaving a life that was not much to brag about so that they could instead be filled with the Spirit and life of Jesus. Wow.

I want to go back to the farm in Manchester. Not to hear the umpteenth inevitable reunion concert put on by a band from my generation. I want to go back and represent Christ there. Rent a booth. Give away lots of bottles of water. Silently pray for people as they pass by. Assist those who need help. Mix, mingle, and meet. No Christian t-shirts or giving away Bibles or asking for donations or anything like that. Instead go there with the express purpose of being salt and light and yeast and all those other metaphors Jesus gave us to help us understand our mission to the world. A mission to love people unconditionally, while being the church, the very presence of the living Jesus Christ. Right smack in the middle of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Of course there will be an outcry from those who think they know better. I hear their rumblings in the distance--"Going to Bonnaroo is a disaster in the making! You'll ruin your witness for the Lord!" they could say, or maybe warn "you might fail a drug test from all the secondhand, um, smoke that will get into your system" or "you'll end up being tempted to do something really awful that might make the news, embarrassing us all" or "Don't you know there will be strange new age practices going on, even those Wiccans will be there.' And on and on it could go. Someone might even question our motives by saying, "Why would you want to hang around with such scum?"

You might already know that they said the same thing to Jesus many years ago when he was at a dinner party with some unsavory, un-church-worthy folks (Mark 2:16 NLT). What a magnificent response he uttered to the snide comments made about the company he dined with. It's worth reading when you get a chance. Good stuff. God stuff.

I think we need to have church at Bonnaroo next year. Who's going with me?