4,000 people will be coming to Risdon Farm, Okehampton on the 8th, 9th and 10th July for the fourth Cross Rhythms festival.

RELIGION VERSUS RELATIONSHIP
Chris Cole is the organiser of Cross Rhythms '94: Touching Glory. Here he explains why he believes religion alone won't satisfy and we need to touch the glory of God.

I recently listened to a seminar tape of a man call Cal Thomas speaking about Christianity in a secular world. Cal Thomas was invited to speak at this year's Gospel Music Awards in Nashville. He has a weekly syndicated column featured across America in over 350 newspapers and has just been awarded a prime time spot on a national TV network in order to host his own talk show. He is extremely articulate and doesn't suffer fools (both in the media or the Church) gladly. Cal is also a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. He bridges the tension between the secular and sacred and doesn't have much time for fundamentalist religion. In his talk Cal blew away any last defence that the liberal lobby may hold up about the inheritance and consequences of the 60s' 'free love' generation (a subject I warmed to since I was part of the 60s experience and have my own passionate views on the subject). He pinpointed the dreadful cultural inheritance that those idealistic 60s left us with and then painted a picture of the incredible antidote to the world's ills to be found in relationship with Christ.

Cal Thomas is extremely enthusiastic about the present and the future spiritual climate of the times in which we live. I have to 'amen' his optimistic sentiments. Cal, like many mature believers, has heard deeply from the Father, and can discern the signs of the times. He pointed out that today many eminent secular commentators in the Western world are beginning to realise and declare that the traditional Judeo-Christian perspective to life is the only perspective upon which to build a cohesive and solid society. Many of these commentators have at least had the integrity to analyse and reject their past liberal thinking.

The attraction of Cal's analysis of both the world and the Church was not only that it was well researched and spiritually authoritative, but it was obviously built on the foundation of a life which knew suffering, set-backs and pain. This man was not an armchair theologian, but a man speaking truth forged in the fire of experience. I felt my own spirit rise to his observation that only a deep relationship with Jesus will begin to address the problems of our secular culture. I had heard the same themes, observations and conclusions being echoed here in the UK by men of similar intellectual and spiritual authority.

For some who would struggle with Cal's perspective of optimism for the Church of Jesus Christ let me ask you to look around you. Clearly the world is experiencing massive ideological, political, economic and spiritual change. Soviet communism, through economic pressures, has shattered. A militant Islamic fundamentalism is rooting itself across Europe. South Africa, Bosnia, Northern Ireland are constantly in the news while images of street crime and AIDS, political corruption and stock exchange greed, homelessness and drug abuse are constantly on our TVs and radios. The 60s idealism has turned rancid and in its place is cynicism and disillusionment. So what is there in all this to be optimistic about? Cal's, my and the Cross Rhythms teams' optimism comes from a belief that these things are the continuing birth pangs of a greater future. I, like Cal Thomas, believe deeply in the 'end of the Bible' because I'm experiencing in faith now what the Bible has to say about living today. To have a positive perception of what God holds for the future, however, cannot be grasped through mere religion. Church going, observance of religious disciplines, even theological orthodoxy, cannot bring a hope and joyful expectation of what God is doing in the world. This kind of revelation can only be grasped through a relationship received through genuine faith in Christ. It is my hope and prayer that Cross Rhythms '94: Touching Glory will be a vehicle enabling people to discard mere religion and find instead a deeper relationship with Christ. This relationship will change everything we do, say and think. It will have a profound effect on our worldview.

When the Church begins to experience the power of God's Holy Spirit to bring loving discernment as well as signs and wonders, then believers will understand and 'know' that there is a future regardless of what their natural understanding may tell them. On a personal level there will be revelation that God has a distinct plan for all his children in order for them to reach their full potential as Christians and that their actions have profound resonance both in the heavenlies and here on earth. The relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit isn't some intangible mystical experience. Neither is it a 'power trip' in order to inflate our egos or bolster our immaturity. The work of the Holy Spirit is to incarnate the attitude and character of Jesus Christ within his Church. The work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the healing nature of Jesus Christ who always respects j the dignity of our humanity and the pain of sin which we've all been born into.

The Christian community still has much to | learn in this area. Yet until we take this to heart the world will be reluctant to listen to our words. Why should the world sit up and take notice of a message of salvation (healing) when many churchgoers seemingly refuse to accept this life giving medicine themselves and experience its full benefits? Mere religion will not take us into that spiritual dynamic where genuinely, profoundly, 'all things have become new'. Religion shows no respect or understanding to the deeper pilgrimage of the individual's pain. Who was it in God's word who did more to aggravate Jesus than any other group of people? It was the religious Pharisees into control, manipulation and power. A group of people who were more interested in the legalism than the healing of a man's withered hand. More interested in the law than in love.

I'm of the opinion that the charismatic movement is maturing and that's why many Christians are experiencing 'the desert'. If you're committed to Jesus Christ within your heart of hearts and you're going through a tough time then let me urge you to realise that it isn't the Devil who is putting you through your tough times - it's God allowing your trials to happen because he loves you and wants to teach you about love and life and freedom from religion -even charismatic religion. If Jesus himself went through the desert to have his sonship established why on earth do we believe it will be any different for us? My greatest spiritual foundations have always been laid through adversity. That experience then puts the victories into a proper perspective -not of triumphalism, but of deep reverence for the Father of life. When I eventually stand before God, I do not believe He will be impressed by what I've done or achieved as He will be by how much of Christ's character and attitude I've been shaped into.

I believe Cross Rhythms '94 is a place where we will have a wonderful opportunity to explore this religion versus relationship issue. For some, and I hope and pray many, it will be an opportunity to touch something of God's glory in intimate relationship with him.