Great Bible teaching, great fellowship, great fun, great encouragement – all these marked the inaugural Kin(cid:30)re Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland. Six hundred Christians from all over Ireland gathered to worship, learn, fellowship and hang out together.
The idea for Kinfire was born out of an online prayer meeting hosted by the Irish Gospel Partnership (IGP),that attracted over 300 people from all across Ireland. The question was asked: ‘What if we were able to get this many people together in person to spend time together around God’s word and to be encouraged by simply being together?’ And so Kinfire was born.
Kinfire is styled as a festival as much as a conference. The name reflects the fact that Christians are ‘kin’, so in addition to sound expositional teaching, there was plenty of free time to allow people to spend time together. There were bouncy castles and sports, or you could sit around the coffee and chip vans, all afternoon and into the night, making new friends and catching up with older ones.
Christians in Ireland are spread relatively thinly on the ground. It was magnificent to see so many like-minded people from various churches gathering together, and to be reminded that we are not as small as we think. And it was brilliant for our children, who may often be the only Christian in their class or even school, to meet many others their age. It was also fascinating to see the range of nationalities God has brought to Ireland, to hear their stories and listen to what God has been doing in their lives.
Gary Millar, originally from Belfast and now Principal of Queensland Theological College Australia, was the main speaker. Sung worship was led by New Irish Arts (pictured).
