so. here we are. i’m in a really weird spot. we had some unfortunate problems after 2009 tom fest. it really shook us. no one died or anything, just normal human drama. here is where i am at. tom fest has grown and changed many times during its years. 2010 would be the 15th northwest version of the festival. i did some in texas, colorado and california. the plan was to really put a lot into 2010 and make it one to remember. 2009 was a good year and spiritually speaking, there were great strides. in fact it really mirrored some of the great past years of the festival. well, i am now at a crossroads. i know which way to turn but it is difficult for me. the problems this year were severe enough for us to have to part ways with the location and management of the festival. we sincerely wish them well and know that God will do amazing things with them.
but that left me standing here. what do i do now? tom fest does not make money. a lot of people look around and see a bunch of people and multiply that by how much a ticket is and come up with a number that they are sure we are putting in our pockets. that is not the case. we DO NOT make enough to pay the bills. fortunately we have one single donor that takes care of the event financially so any shortfalls are taken care of. that number is in the thousands and sometimes in the tens of thousands. but this really isn’t about that. our donor, and founder of the ministry i run, is absolutely ready to do it again. we would have no problem doing it financially. i have a staff here at epic ministries (www.epicventura.com) that are willing and capable to help to make it happen. so it’s not about the ability to make the festival happen because of manpower. i can do the festival. i’ve done them for many years and i can easily pull them off. 2009 really had a great spiritual environment. it took us a couple years to get that train up to speed but it was cruising along. there were a lot of great things that God did in 2009. the festival ran pretty smooth. no huge problems and we can do it again.
but there i was. where do we do the festival now? go back to the old location? that’s possible but there are others doing a festival there that we would never want to hurt and i know it would hurt their event. find another location in the nw? i did that and found a few that would totally work but then i had to ask, why? why should i do another festival. just to do it? no. do i do the festival to see people come to Christ or rededicate their lives or learn something about Jesus? absolutely, but then, how do i follow up? that’s one thing i know i have failed at. following up. in fact we now have policies in place here in southern california at epic that we use now so that we follow up and contact those that have made a decision, are looking for help, or want to get connected. we help them to get placed in some type of community or just to simply hang out with us. so how am i going to follow up with people in the northwest from here in southern california? (i moved back home to southern california about 6 years ago). should i move it down here? hey! that’s a great idea. but what about all of the nw family? will they come? i know what i’ll do....... i’ll give everyone with a driver’s license from the nw a ticket for $10....... or a free ticket. yeah!
i HAVE to do the fest. it’s the 15th year! i have to do it! i kept saying that to myself. i prayed about it and started to take it apart. we are so busy down here with what we are doing, it’s insane. we run a multi-faceted event space, we do events constantly, we are teaming up with xxxchurch.com and fireproof ministries to do some crazy stuff in 2010, we just gave thousands of dollars in toys away to raise awareness for www.helpventuracounty.com, intern programs, night of worship, bring it to light, epic in other cities, a book, a venue and band networking convention, a one-day fest at an amusement park and gamechurch. wow. crazy. so much stuff but i know we can still do it....... but wait....... there is one problem.
my pride.
after the festival i heard a few things that pushed my pride button. in fact, i just had someone from a band come up to me saying that they heard the festival was dead. honestly 1/3 of my motivation to do the festival would be my pride. to prove that its not about money. to prove that i can do it. to prove that its not dead....... that’s dumb. even as i’m writing this, i can feel my pride creeping. it would be a horrible idea to build another festival on even a little pride. those of you that were at the low attended, poorly run festivals in the past when we were at the old location got to see what it looks like when you do it through pride.
so here i am now. through lots of counsel and prayer, we’re going to wait. the plan is to do it in 2011. we are going to go back to the drawing board. what we have learned from 2009 and our daily dealings at epic here in california, is that we can really re-work the festival and do it for the right reasons. more on that to come. i think it is pretty clear that we need to move it down to california if we are going to fulfill the vision of the festival in the first place. i know for some of you that sucks. i’m sorry. we will still be honoring those willing to make the trip. it’s not bad....... I-5 south and you’re there :). more than likely it will be in orange county where we have tremendous resources to follow up and really make an impact. i have an idea to put a twist on the festival and do some new things. with much counsel and advice i think it would be a great event. we have found a location down here but want to take the time to do it right instead of rushing into something because i need to prove myself to....... who knows? we need time to really design it from the inside out and spread the word with a model we have just started to recently use that we have seen much success in.
who knows, God may change that plan at any time but i’m just going to keep walking forward. what i do know is that i cannot do it this year. please pray for us as we have a tremendous amount of intentional programming that we are working on for 2010.
please feel free to ask me any questions that you have. you can email me at mikee at tomfest.com (just put an @ where i wrote at. im doing that so no one can ‘fish’ for my email address).
two of the biggest things you can pray for are:
we are working on using xxxchurch.com’s model for outreach. they do a booth at different xxx events and preach the gospel in the most tremendous way. this month they gave away 6,000 bibles and had many conversations about the real Jesus right in the middle of a porn show. and that’s just the beginning of what they do. we want to take that model and do the same thing at c.e.s., e3, and possibly comic con. (if you don’t know what they are, google them :)).
we are seriously working on an event at knott’s berry farm, an amusement park down the street from disneyland. sort of a one-day festival with a huge twist.
this is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but i believe it’s for the best. i hope you will continue to support us in prayer. thanks for reading this, i get a little carried away sometimes. i miss you all —
mikee bridges
exec. director
epic ministries
mikee@epicventura.com
www.epicventura.com
www.tomfest.com
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