In my last post, I gave my praise about Rev Gen. Each year they have demonstrated they are trying to make this event better and so for this post, here are some things they ought to consider.
1. Are all those tables in the Resource Tent necessary? Honestly, some of them mock our faith more than help it. I know it helps offset the costs of the event but is it substantial? Unless they are serving as an example of what artists like Derek Webb are singing against, I’m fairly certain that if Jesus were to return on Labor Day weekend, He would first stop at this tent, overthrow half these tables and then continue on to that East Gate in Jerusalem that He’s supposed to walk through ;-)
2. I think it’s time to stop the annoying tract givers as soon as you walk into the festival. Those money tracts are absolutely ridiculous.
3. I love the leader tent, it really is helpful. But this year the vibe seemed a bit more stingy with the free drinks. If youth leaders are abusing it and handing out free water, they could just put up a sign that says something like, “In order to provide adequate refreshments to our leaders, please help us by limiting these to our leaders.” or something like that.
The story of “Revelation Generation” begins quite awkwardly for me. I had just begun my second pastorate here and had decided to take the students to this new music festival with a name that I wasn’t crazy about. Long story short – Rev Gen got rained out and headed to Philly. The following year, we attended and the kids loved the Philly Stage and stayed for Newsboys. Last year was exactly the same, kids loved Philly Stage, and the Newsboys did the exact same set list, down to Peter telling the same stories. We left during Breakfast in Hell to beat the traffic. After that, I was fairly certain that we would not return (We have a saying in Texas, “That says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again”). How could we return for a fourth year? Well, we’re glad we did and here’s why.
2. We didn’t do the Friday concert last year but this year, they had Jars of Clay, Matt West, Delirious, and Mercy Me. For most of us, wanting to hear Jars do new songs off “The Long Fall Back to Earth” was the reason we came Friday. The unfortunate thing was we underestimated a couple of things. Some of our students had just returned to school and so by the time we left, we missed most of the bands. Two, Jars wasn’t headlining. Three, Mercy Me was. And Four, it wasn’t really Jars’ best show. Not a big crowd yet, not very energetic either. Then Jars said they lost track of time and were told they had just played their last song. Frankly, I think the concert organizers should have let them play their last song, it was clearly an accident and they are an established band. I don’t know the business of putting on concerts but I’m pretty sure Jars has earned enough respect to play one more. So in the most anti-climatic way, Dan took the blame, apologized for not paying attention to the clock and said something like, “We want to be invited back so we’ll say good-bye here.” I thought it was pretty classy to submit to the stage manager and end their show the worst way possible. I know I’m not being complimentary but it was an awkward moment that Jars handled really well and it spoke to me a bit.
3. Unless you go into the merchandise tent, you don’t feel that you are at one of those cheesy Christian concert events. The production is fantastic from the signs a few miles away directing you how to get this to obscure farm to the numerous workers and volunteers that create a presence of “we know what we are doing so don’t get any ideas.” They have great signage, very professional looking stages, and enough porta-potites to “facilitate the pending needs” of their own feeding of 5000.
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