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Soul Survivor 2007 Festival Report

General
The first Soul Survivor festival was held at Manfeild Park, Feilding, from January 3rd-7th. It was a hugely successful event with excellent feedback from delegates, speakers, local churches, the community and the SSUK team.

The festival was a great launch for Soul Survivor NZ and we are incredibly grateful to the huge team of volunteers who worked so hard to make this event happen.

Shortly after the festival an email was sent to delegates asking for feedback, and most of the delegates responded to this survey. Their feedback is included in this report.

The Delegates
The age range of the 268 delegates was 12-28 years, with an even spread across the ages. A further breakdown of numbers:

// 268 people attended the festival
// 165 camped on-site
// 43 stayed off-site
// 60 were day visitors

31 different church groups were represented from the following denominations

// Anglican
// Baptist
// Open Brethren
// Assembly of God
// Presbyterian
// Vineyard
// Independent (Christian Community Churches; The Rock; Blueprint; Soul Survivor Watford)

What does this mean?
Firstly it is great news that we have such a spread of denominations at the first event. We are also encouraged that many Youth Workers came with even a small number of their young people, to "check us out". We have received nothing but positive feedback from the youth workers and so look forward to them coming back with more of their young people in future.

Our age range is older than in many centres (which focus on 14-18 year olds). This is a reflection on the need for events like this in NZ, but also something we need to respond to by providing both for the needs of high-school students as well as people into their 20's within the festival programme. This will continue to be reflected in both the "After-Hours" events and in the seminar options.

The Site
The site worked well with plenty of room to grow in the future. The indoor rooms provided good spaces for seminars, resource, admin and welfare areas, cafe and band venues.

The marquee was a good investment and provided a good space for the main meetings and late night movies.

Delegates camped in "villages" where village hosts provided a sense of community and pastoral care.

Bringing in showers and extra toilets meant that camping was a pleasant experience for all.

Delegate Feedback: The Venue - Manfeild Park - Overall rating 81%

Generally the venue, site and facilities were liked and were compared favourably to other events. The money spent on showers and toilets were appreciated. Some feeling that we 'rattled round' in the large field - we would fit better with 500-800 people on site. Biggest downside was the wind... a challenge will be to determine if there is anything practical we can do about that.

Seminars / Workshops
There were seven seminar times at which five different seminar options were offered. The seminars were roughly divided into five "streams":

// Leadership
// The basics of faith
// Social Justice
// General topics
// Soul Sista and Soul Blokes

Again, we are very grateful to the many seminar speakers whose presentations were of the highest calibre and very well received by the delegates.

Delegate feedback Seminar topics & streams - Overall rating 86%

Very positive response – clearly good topics chosen and the comments provided a library of future topics.

Seminar Speaker - Overall rating 84%

Also very positive. The speaking/teaching was clearly a highlight of the Festival. The UK speakers were appreciated and liked but NZ speakers clearly made a big impact as well.

MAIN MEETINGS

Ministry
During the Main Meetings there was time to reflect and engage with the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. There was a high level of response on the part of the delegates and some significant revelations of God's grace and power.

Teaching
With Mike Pilivachi and Ali McGuiness from Soul Survivor UK, and Darryl Gardiner and Rosemary Poland from Soul Survivor NZ, the delegates were treated to world class teaching from those at the cutting edge of the Christian movement. We were pleased to note that the delegates "resonated" more with the kiwi speakers, which reflects well on the Soul Survivor NZ team and the health of the community here in NZ.

The teaching topics were connected to the theme of the event "Set free to serve" with service being the main focus in the mornings, and freedom being the primary focus in the night meetings.

Music Worship
We were pleased to be joined by Ben Cantellon from Soul Survivor UK, and together with Tim Costley, Andy Campbell and a great band from NZ, the music worship went very well. The feedback from the delegates was incredibly positive, but we are planning on diversifying the style, and modelling different expressions of music worship at the next festival to empower those from smaller communities.

Delegate feedback Main Meetings - Overall rating Worship=89%, Speakers=92%, Prayer Ministry=83%

The figures speak for themselves. Improvement suggestions/opportunities are: they are very long for every meeting, seating (related to prior comment?), more variety in format and worship style and 'more kiwis' hosting and speaking. There seems to also be some room for improvement in prayer ministry. The 'cultural gap' between Kiwis and the UK team comes up here and in other general comments.

After Hours Programme
In partnership with "Zeal", the after hours was a great success. It was a challenge to know where to pitch this particular part of the festival, and there may be a few tweaks to the program for next year's festival, but generally it was well received. The highlights would have to be the acoustic performers and the giant twister competition between the NZ and the international visitors. We are pleased to report that NZ won convincingly. Activities included:

// A giant "Halo" xbox competition
// Late night movies
// Rock Bands
// Acoustic Acts
// Open Mic sessions
// Late Night Stories
// Sports
// Cafe
// Resource area

Delegates feedback The After hours Programme - Overall rating 74%

Twister was a big success. Huge range of activity appreciated. "Great fun all nights". Feedback highlights the diverse desires of people for after hours from 'metal' to just have a quieter 'chill zone'.

Social Action
Probably the most exciting part of the week, thoroughly enjoyed by the delegates and is one of the distinctive activities that we want to highlight and promote as part of the work of Soul Survivor NZ. It was great to have the opportunity to put into action the "set free to serve" message for an afternoon. Through the work of the local churches in Feilding there were six different projects that delegates took part in:

// Local Park Clean up
// Painting of Manchester house (the local community centre)
// Gardening for the elderly at a retirement village
// Cleaning and gardening at the local school
// Community BBQ and gardening at the council flat
// Clearing of rubbish in the local stream

We received some great press about this initiative in the local newspapers. We are planning to double the social action element of our festival in response to feedback from delegates and youth workers.

The point of this exercise is to model justice initiatives that can be easily duplicated by a small youth group in any community and to involve young people in being Good News.

Delegate Feedback Social Action projects - Overall rating 81%

The biggest single theme seemed to be 'please have more of it'. Some requests for better communication/organisation.

Cafe
One of the hardest working teams at the festival was the cafe team from Blueprint church in Wellington. The cafe was hugely popular, and the main social gathering point for the festival.

Delegate feedback The Cafe - Overall rating 72%

Supporters
SSNZ is very grateful to the following groups for their generous support, without which this festival would not have been possible.

// New Wine Central
// Youth For Christ
// The Winton and Margaret Bear Trust
// Youth Alpha
// Anglican Youth Trust
// Zeal
// Blueprint Church
// Manna books
// Feilding churches
// The many volunteers who gave so generously of their time and expertise