archives: may 2011...

editorial...

Trees in Westminster Abbey, two kisses on the balcony, that dress, the crowds and loads of horses running about with posh people on them. It was British history unfolding before our very eyes. Pretty exciting, wasn’t it?

Yep, love it or hate it, you couldn’t ignore the Royal Wedding. The coverage of the whole event was pretty epic. Two national TV channels broadcasting the same stuff, radio stations describing the outfits of every arriving guest, web sites gathering millions of tweets and photos… you would have had to have been stuck under some massive rock in a galaxy far, far away to have missed out on William and Catherine’s big day.

From my TV watching vantage point (on the BBC of course) it was hard not to get involved. Even though we probably only got an hour or so of the happy couple themselves, the footage of passionate crowds (some verging on slightly weird) and thousands of excited wedding-dress-wearing, Union Jack-waving people was pretty infectious. Over 250,000 people were estimated to have gathered around Buckingham Palace at the height of the fervour… that’s a lot of people.

I saw an interview with a couple who bore some vague similarity to William and Kate (in that they had posh clothes on and their hair was nearly the same colour). They said they’d been watching the coverage on TV and decided to get out of the house and wander down to St James’ Park to join in the party simply because it looked like so much fun. The atmosphere and excitement was infectious. People were genuinely happy. It was nice.

It’s that infectious excitement that we’re all looking for in how we communicate our faith. Something viral and genuine that spreads quickly and draws people in. Sometimes we see a glimpse of it at the Soul Survivor summer events, where thousands of us gather to worship Jesus and his presence blows us all away. People respond to God and are excited at being involved in a community that is caught up with him. It’s exciting, but can we see it everyday?

2000 years ago, not long after Jesus died, rose again and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit empowered and met with the first group of Christians (an event we now remember as Pentecost). What happened after that was pretty amazing. You can read all about it in Acts chapter 2, but to cut a great story short, the result was some pretty infectious excitement about Jesus. Three thousand people became Christians in one afternoon. And the reason? The Holy Spirit.

We might not have the same media saturation as the Royal Wedding, but if we want to see that infectious excitement about Jesus, then we need to rely on God’s Spirit. Creating a viral, inclusive, exciting and genuine buzz about our faith needs groups of people who are full of his presence and peace. Yep, we need to speak about our faith and yes we need to live out a life of love and compassion, serving our mates and neighbours, but we also need God’s Spirit to fill us, equip us and guide us. That has to be our starting point.

So, our prayer for you at Soul Survivor this month, 2000 or so years on from that first Pentecost, is that God would fill you again with his Spirit to so you can start spreading an infectious excitement about Jesus. If you’re up for it, ask him to fill you again, wait on him and go for it… and of course, let us know how you get on!

Enjoy the other articles this month, hope to see you soon

Cheers
editor@soulsurvivor.com