Can you tell us a bit about 'Agents of Future'?
in 1998, a group of wandering musicians and artists found a spiritual home at The Bridge in Portland, Oregon. We seemed to be after the same thing: fierce, inclusive, visceral worship of our creative Creator. The folks facilitating this community (Ken and Deborah Loyd and Crystal Ward) granted us the permission to explore the heights, the depths, the humour, and the rage of our existence before God. Eleven years later, we are still exploring, which is a bit of a miracle for a people group that generally don't tend to stick around that long for things.
What are you bringing to Greenbelt this year?
We are, ambitiously (and foolishly?), determined to bring together EVERY WILLING VOICE at the festival together for an experiment in an effort to show how possible it is to make room for each other in the family of God. We feel like support and collaboration in this context is a great way to practice the love of Christ, to build muscle and strengthen the sinews of our collective body.
Can you tell us about the concepts and ideas that you are exploring through the act of worship?
Play is a big part of what we are trying to get back to, as humans. Whether we know it or not, God has placed in us a sense of being *compelled* to play, in fact. Play, by nature, accepts the potential mess, makes room for new ideas and takes every new, unexpected elements of life (and pain) as an excuse to discover new adventures. Children don't need to learn this, but adults are out of practice. Even when we try to play, we end up working, it seems. So, our goal is to take their lead to be able to envision the Kingdom of God, just like Jesus suggested. Or did He proclaim it? I don't recall.
Also, there's an active role we have the opportunity to play in making the body function more like a body. If we learn to get good at studying the aspects of God's personality and character that lay hidden under the surface of our skin, things we put our hands to will withstand any of life's difficulties. We develop a courage to look at the hard things. So, we like to dare each other to love and risk. A real helpful definition we've found for love is "a disadvantage we choose that yeilds unexpected results". Power and fear lead to nothing but the same old models repeating themselves, over and over again. Well, that was getting a bit boring for us.
Can you tell us a bit about the around site element of your worship?
We'll be using Twitter and on-site kiosks (key-osques?) as the lifeline to gathering up the elements of participation. We want to collaborate in real-time with artists and experienced curators that can show us all how to use these elements to illuminate the stories that lay under the surface. For instance, we will be announcing an activity on your mobile phone that will ask you to go to each of the kiosks in succession and contribute a word, or drawing, or movement to be compiled and presented to beautiful effect later in the festival. Or we may use the kiosks to give you instructions to build a massive puzzle, or set you off on a quest. We're really excited to see what sort of experiments our collaboratiors will come up with.
What are your hopes for Greenbelt?
That we will truly feel and experience the inter-connectedness that the Holy Spirit has knitted inside of each one of us. And that will all get a glimpse that when we love, when we choose the disadvantaged position, no-one is left out. That crops *that we didn't even plant* will begin to come up as a result of genuine care and support for one another. And that every story deserved to be listened to, we just have to allow God to show us how he wants to make that happen. The Yaysayers of Celebrity are Yesterday, we are all Agents of Future. Will you join us?
