Feast At The East - Mission At The Marketplace

These last few days I was involved in part of the 60-hour community festival called "Feast at the East" in a shopping centre in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where many churches , schools and Christian artists are participating in. The community festival happens from the centre stage and is organised by RSVP: to Life! . The Director of RSVP: to Life! and the main organiser of the event has invited me to be one of the MCs during the event.

The vision of this community festival is to use a feast of artforms (including singing, drama, mime, cartoon-making, stand-up comedy, dances, mosaics, jigsaws, quilting, walking with giants, game shows, sketch and tell, art and photo displays, puppets, harp playing, floral art, jazz bands, storytelling, drumming, and various creative and children's workshops etc.) to share life meanings with people in the community.

Aims and Objectives of the community festival:

• To choose a number of themes and issues around popular books, films and subjects of interest – grace, identity, power, addiction, hope, redemption and community.
• To express and explore these stories and concerns through a wide range of high quality, crowd-friendly creative activities on the stage area.
• To engage a cross-section of the public in conversation (we consider this is a crucial part of the whole enterprise, not only our on-stage presence).

We are using an inclusive/inductive approach, exploring life matters and life meanings together (based on our common humanity, God’s image, meeting and befriending people from all walks of life). Given our blend of ingredients, it’s a new model for mission in the market place, and we hope this will become a template, a pattern, for elsewhere in Melbourne.Around 200 people are already involved. And I feel really privileged to be part of it.