Six Flags Holds Evangelistic Festival, AtlantaFest 2005

The 19th annual AtlantaFest, held over the June 18-19 weekend, presented the gospel at the national theme park, Six Flags over Georgia.

A given day at Six Flags may feature a parade or a magic show, but on June 18, thousands of families and students found an evangelistic festival.

The 19th annual AtlantaFest, held on a weekend, presented the gospel at the Six Flags Over Georgia national theme park. Over 25,000 were present at night-time concerts, and 70,000 in the daytime concerts.

"We were able to introduce the Gospel in a place that it is not normally heard and destroy the myth of the sacred secular divide," said organizer Bob Thompson of Micah Music Ministries.

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Christian band after Christian band shared a Gospel message of love. The line-up included Thousand Foot Krutch, Casting Crowns, and Third Day among 30 others.

Over the two-day weekend, music was heard from 10 a.m. until midnight from the karaoke stage in the middle of the park.

According to Thompson, AtlantaFest is a smaller version of CreationFest, the nation's largest music, teaching, and camping festival, from June 29 to July 2.

In addition to the stage, AtlantaFest built a prayer labyrinth with hundreds of tents guiding hundreds to an "encounter with God."

Using cassette players, wanderers were guided through tents with videos and activities, read a Bible verse, and performed a thought-provoking activity that illustrated the verse. For example, on the way out, the traveler must step into a sandbox, and be asked to think about the footprints they will leave behind after they exit this experience. In the middle of the labyrinth lies the throne room, which invites prayer.

When asked for the reasoning behind setting up what may be to many a first-time meeting with God at an amusement park, the organizer replied, "We do it at an amusement park on purpose because there's room for God in the midst of a crazy world."

"Every 45 seconds, a roller coaster would go by screaming with the noise, and that is a metaphor for the distractions and things that scream for our attention in the world, whether advertisements, TV, idols, you name it," said Thompson.

In addition, there are theaters, normally provide 50s shows, used instead for daily Bible studies and various seminars on Christian living.

"Our mission is to make the Word accessible to young people who have not been exposed to the church and to physically demonstrate that the word is relevant in the midst of their crazy lives," Thompson added.