Another big Christian evangelical event, but it set a record as the largest ever Chinese evangelical event in Sydney with over 7000 attendees.
With a big event like this, there are obviously going to be a lot of questions asked, of which some are:
- Do these actually work in turning people to a life of faith and dependence to God?
- Is it appropriate to charge admission for an event like this?
- What kind of impressions are non-Christians going to get on Christianity and what Christians are like?
- Does comedy (or other forms of entertainment) dilute the gospel message, or does it improve it?
- Is it appropriate to perform commercial enterprises (such as advertising, sponsorships, fundraising dinners etc) to fund a Christian organisation like this?
- What about bringing out big stars who obviously have very little, if any, idea about what the gospel really means? Should they be given airtime just because they’re “famous” but yet what they say has nothing to do with the gospel at all?
Other questions (not specific to this show, but about ministry in general) include:
- Why does song leading in the ‘Chinese world’ include actions, clapping, stomping, but yet say very little about Jesus?
- Why is there such a strange dichotomy in Chinese Christian songs? They’re either “for old people” or “for young people”. There aren’t too many songs that fit both categories and so it’s hard for people of different age groups to worship wholeheartedly together. Is the answer linked to the evolution of the Hong Kong pop industry?
- What is more important, talking about Jesus, or talking about our lives?
- How do we get non-Christians interested in the Bible? It seems like we’re trying to “water down” the Bible to make it more attractive to non-Christians. Can we do that without watering down what the Bible says?
It is late, I’ll try to answer these at another time. Or if you have a comment, please leave one.
i sense a lot of criticism embedded in the questions.