Revere08: Guerrillas now have BombersOnce there was an evil regime ruling over a distant nation. Many revolutionary guerrilla groups sprung up all over the country. Each has their own network. Each has their own tactics. Each has their own legends, heroes and scumbags. But they all have something in common: They all want to liberate their people. And they all are small in the size of their armies. The biggest group could muster a few thousands of guerrilla soldiers. But this is only a few thousand men with guns. These thousand men are not formal battalions (with artillery support and supply-chains). They are not even structured into platoons and companies. Mostly they are small groups operate independently from one another, even though many groups may affiliate with one leader or another. To the eyes of an outsider, these guerrilla groups are similar to warlords' factions. If it wasn't for the common good they seek for their people, they would be no different. And despite their informal trainings and tactics, they are very effective in what they do, especially since they know their people and their land very well. They are loved and trusted by the local people. One day a group got contact with a superpower nation. The superpower pledges their promise to help. With superpower comes firepower. Now there will be artillery from big battleships off the coast. Now there will be flying fortresses and bombers from the sky. But just like everything else, even superpower has its own budget constraints. You cannot continually pound the grounds as if there is no cost of operation. So the question is how these firepowers could be used in the most effective manner. The scenario above is an analogy of what is shaping last Saturday with the REVERE 08 Concert. At first, when I heard of the idea from Ben and Janie, I was expecting a cooperative effort between her church and a few other Vietnamese churches, like a joined guerrilla operation. But I eventually found out, this became bombers and artillery type of superpower operation with the backing of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. 
The stage was constructed in the parking lot at Bolsa Grande a day before. They had an 18-wheelers truck for all the equipment and setup there. (You can see the white truck looks like a house next to the right most lamp-post in the background there). Thirty-men crew came in for setup and breakdown - all know their stuff real well. After all, these are the people who pull off Harvest Crusade every year. They have standby security, fire trucks, and even portable toilets with hand-washing stations. I was impressed with all the professionalevangelism there. How could they put all the volunteers to work and have them show up at 5pm and open the concert at 7pm? Obviously they have done this before many times. I signed up for the "follow-up" team and was put in the "3rd wave". The 1st wave of follow-up volunteers will counsel all new believers in the follow-up tents. The 2nd wave of follow-up volunteers will engage the new believers who came up, but don't want to go to the tent. And the 3rd wave will befriend those who raise their hands in response from their seats, but not coming up at the end. Like a small town freedom fighter bewildered by a B-52, I observe all these people at work with amazement. "Even all the Vietnamese churches put together couldn't pull off such an operation" was my assessment. We are so used to our guerrilla tactics, our informal engagements, and our autonomy that we would not be able to organize such a thing. (Well, almost – one church group pulled off a Paris-by-Night style evangelistic concert a while back called "Tuoi Tre va Am Nhac" – but it's a different target audience). As I see the Midway people actively engage in their assignments (some were doing video and slide, some were doing ushering and greeting, etc.) I am glad we were able to be a part of this operation. But deep inside, I know we were not as effective as we should. In the Dessert Storm conflict, what made the Smart Bombs effective is not just the million dollars which went into the production and deployment. What made it effective are the Recon units on the ground, using laser to mark the target for the Smart Bombs to hit. And we simply didn't laser our target well enough. One parent I know at our church, he gave his teenager boy some money to invite his friends to go out and eat and then bring them to the concert later. They all went to eat, but his friends then went home and skipped the concert. The one man convert I followed-up turned up at the concert by himself, no friend's invite (which also means lower chance for spiritual growth later statistically speaking). One thing I am grateful for is the generosity of Calvary Chapel in throwing their weight behind this effort to reach people for God. They have been sowing generously with events like this, and they have been blessed by God to reap a harvest generously also. They were not concern about just growing their own church, and it shows well in this event. So far, from what I know they are committing to make it happen for at least another year. By then, will we learn enough to take advantage of the opportunity at all: The opportunity to scope out the targets, to laser them out in prayer, to work together for advancement of God's Kingdom as a whole (instead of just a church)? But then there will also be the question of contextualization as well. Would the old-school crusade methodology work well with the Little Saigon's eGeneration subculture at all? We have seen the little effects on what B-52 could do to the Vietnam War; it produced lots of shock-and-awe but could not reverse the course of 1975. From my own group, I didn't see the non-church friends. When asked, "Why didn't your friends come?" The teen answered, "It's just a concert – now, if this is a rave club, it's different." To what extend a revolution could be benefited by proper firepower? To what extend the culture can be engaged without diluting the message of the Gospel? These questions are the one the churches will need to figure it out to respond to the society surround them. For me, I think that different methods may work with different people. To some, invite them to Sunday's worship service would be fine. To others, a concert may be the door. Still to others, Sport Festival would be best. But the two most important factors are these: 1) do you even have any non-Christian friends who you could bring along? 2) do you have any desire to share the good news of God to them? If you do, what kind of venue would your friends be comfortable with to discover God?
| 
True
