Jesus Fest '08 was
held on May 17th, 2008
Jesus Fest '08 was held May 17, 2008 at the Manahawkin Lake Park. This is our 6th year of having Jesus Fest and it will be the biggest event ever! We had 24 area churches are participating, plus at leat 14 other guest ministries!
The Lord gave us a full day of perfect weather for the event. As always, Jesus Fest was open to the public with admission and all activities, pony rides, and prizes being free. Attendance continues to grow each year - the park was packed!
The purpose of Jesus Fest is always:
- To proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior to our local community.
- To celebrate Jesus' love for us and worship Him publicly.
- To promote unity and fellowship amongst the local Bible-preaching churches of Southern Ocean County according to Psalm 133:1.
Jesus Fest continues to change to better express the theme of Christians working and worshipping together! This year's theme was "Building The Church" (meaning the Body of Christ) according to Psalm 127:1. As a visual this year, we actually built a small church on site throughout the day at Jesus Fest (8ft. x 10ft. with steeple and all). Many thanks to the building crew for a job well done (and in record time!). The church will now be converted into a storage shed and donated to our local Habitat For Humanity to be used on one of their upcoming home projects.
There were 3 areas of Jesus Fest at the park...
The Praise Court features live praise bands from the local churches (awesome worship & praise!) playing all day on the main stage. All the churches have tables & booths setup around the park's walkway to greet the visitors to the park and fellowship with their brothers and sisters in Christ from all the other denominations. Most of the churches also sold food (great food at very reasonables prices) to raise money for their youth groups or other ministries/missionaries that they suppport. The ever-popular Jesus Fest Unity Choir, made up of members of many local churches, sand again..this year with children as well! They sounded great as did all the praise bands leading us in worship. Praise God, the Prayer Tent reported people making decisions for Christ and recommittments as well! As always, free Bibles were available for any one who did not have one. Christian Radio Station WYRS 90.7 FM was in the Praise Court to meet the people and broadcast portions of the day's activities. Thanks so much to Bob, Nancy, Billie and the rest of the wonderful crew of WYRS.
The Youth Area (teens area) also featured a stage with live youth praise bands from our local churches offering some awesome "rock-solid" contemporary worship for the Lord all afternoon! We were blessed to have several Christian colleges in the Youth Area to greet all who were interested in attending Christian college.
The Kids Area (grade school & younger) featured live awesome Christian puppet shows, pony rides, games, and Jesus bracelets all day, all free! Always lots of fun! The kids all had a great time all day.
Many guest ministries such as Crown Financial, Compassion International, America's Keswick, Lighthouse Christian Academy, Grace Initiatives, Widows Might and many more were at Jesus Fest sharing information and answering questions. Several foreign children were sponsored through Compassion International again this year by the visitors to Jesus Fest!
Hold on to those Jesus Fest Info books that were given out at the event. It is a great reference of local businesses who support Jesus Fest and the work of God in our area. Please utilize these excellent businesses for all your needs. Also, there are many great coupons in the Info Book to save you money on dining out, hair care, and more!
There are still some of this year's United For Jesus t-shirts ($10 & $11) are available from the CCSOC. If interested, please email us at info@ccsoc.com. Besides food, these shirts are the only things sold at the event to defray all the costs of putting on a free Jesus Fest each year.
If your church is in the Southern Ocean County area and is interested in joining us for Jesus Fest, or any of our other functions, please contact us at 609-660-1060 x55.
See you at Jesus Fest '09!
The CCSOC web site provides a center point of communication for the member churches. Be sure to bookmark this site and check back here often. The will be new information of various area church activities on a continuing basis.
Christian Churches
of Southern Ocean County
PO Box 157
Barnegat, NJ 08005
609-660-1060
Email:
info@ccsoc.com