Tragic events at Big Church Festival: Where is God in the unexpected?

The Big Church Festival (BCF) has become a staple on the Christian festival circuit. From its beginnings in 2009, it has grown from a one-day event attracting 15,000 attendees to a weekend-long festival, which attracted around 35,000 attendees last year.

Many readers will be aware of the tragic event that occurred just three hours into this year’s festival, when a huge sign collapsed, injuring several people and killing 41-year-old Robert Guanco, who was a pastor at Jesus Living Water Church in Eastbourne. The organisers decided to bring the festival to a close following the incident.

It was undoubtedly the right decision to cancel. Nevertheless, I can imagine how difficult a decision it was, given the major work and expense that would have gone into organising the event. As always, the festival had an impressive line-up of artists, including international artists. This year, for the first time, the legendary CeCe Winans was expected to perform.

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I attended BCF last year, serving as a volunteer with Compassion. It was an amazing experience: getting to advocate for the children Compassion serves, seeing the overwhelming generosity of attendees towards Compassion, interacting with other festival-goers and soaking in the beautiful atmosphere of praise and worship on the equally beautiful and peaceful grounds of Wiston Estate. I know that the abrupt termination, coupled with the horror of the tragedy, would have been disheartening and traumatic for everyone – organisers, artists and attendees alike.

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But how do we respond to situations when our best-laid plans, that we were certain God was a part of, fall apart?

But how do we respond to situations when our best-laid plans, that we were certain God was a part of, fall apart? I have certainly had to grapple with this when I undertook a master’s degree in social work and ended up not being able to work in the field due to health reasons that developed halfway through the course. I had to deal with what felt like a loss of hope: Am I always going to be stuck in the poverty cycle? Did I make the right choice to do the course in the first place? Was it right to step away, given all the considerations? And was God somehow unhappy or displeased with me? Why did this happen?

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Analysing and questioning the reasons for events is normal for us as humans. Consider John the Baptist. As great as he was, he questioned whether Jesus was the one when he was imprisoned. For surely, if Jesus were the one, how could John be in jail for serving him? (Matthew 11:2).

In the Old Testament, Gideon also asked the angel: ‘If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?’ – referring to the oppression the Israelites were suffering (Judges 6:13). It can sometimes sound trite to say that, no matter what negative things happen to us in life, God is always with us. It is, nevertheless, absolutely true. Throughout the Bible, we are reminded that God is for us (Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 56:9; Romans 8:31) and that he will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5; Joshua 1:5).

When we go through bewildering things, it is important for us to also remember that what we have here on earth is temporary and that we have something far better awaiting us when our time here ends.

When we go through bewildering things, it is important for us to also remember that what we have here on earth is temporary and that we have something far better awaiting us when our time here ends. This has become more of a reality to me the older I get.

And yet, as we sojourn here and navigate our own tragedies, as well as the recent events at BCF, let us meditate on and rest in the comfort that Jesus offers us in all these situations (2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Isaiah 49:13; Psalm 119:50).