New England's own Christian music festival is currently in full swing in the mountains of New Hampshire.  Believers of all ages are traveling hundreds of miles to enjoy camping, music and fellowship with thousands of others for five days.  This has made me think of festival experiences we have had in past years, and wonder if things have gotten better or worse.

I remember the unsupervised teen who was up all night setting off firecrackers keeping us awake in our tent.

I remember going into the intercessory prayer tent at a festival that had over 2000 attendees.  There were seven people praying.

I remember sitting on the ground crying as I watched thousands clearly worshipping a singer instead of the Lord he was trying to point them to.

I remember hundreds of 'fans' refusing to comply with organizers' pleas to keep the emergency aisles open. 

I remember a Christian rock singer getting booed when he said he was going to play a set of worship music instead of his rock 'hits'.

I remember a fan illegally bootlegging entire concerts.

While most festival goers are sincere in their love for Jesus, I do wonder how many are feeding on milk while God is screaming for them to move onto the meat of a deeper walk.  How many would travel the same distance to evangelize or serve the poor or visit the imprisoned?  How many would spend the same amount as their ticket price in order to feed a starving child in subsaharan Africa?  How many express the same zeal in their own home church as they do worshipping on the hillside? 

Christianity needs to be more than a pop culture phenomenon.  In fact, pop culture Christianity may be the biggest obstacle the Chruch faces in our culture.  Let's start asking the hard questions.