On Sunday afternoon, the Brunstad Magazine was held outdoors in glorious sunshine. With more than 1000 people singing together in the plaza, this summer’s first information broadcast became a festive event.
By: Johanne Reiersrud – Photos by: Lydia Ødegård
The conference facility looked its best, with the new festival plaza serving as the location for the Brunstad Magazine broadcast. The band from Helge Ankers Musikkinstitutt set the mood for the broadcast, which took place outdoors, with an audience consisting mainly of young people. The program was live streamed to 50 countries, and started with a film recapping the first days of the summer events.
These were some of the items in the broadcast:
- Information from the BCC federation
- Savings program for youth via a new cooperation; Samvirk
- BCC’s plans for conferences and events in the coming months
- Skjulte Skatters Forlag (Hidden Treasures Publishers): Music in church life and new books
Future plans for youth at Brunstad
Over the past decade, many of the local churches have been involved in financing the development of the conference facility at Oslofjord with loans, and in this way have secured a center that is large enough for all the international conferences held here every year. Many members and fellow believers from different countries have therefore purchased 20- or 50-year accommodation contracts at the center.
In orden for new generations to have the opportunity to participate in the church’s Christian events in the future, the consumer cooperative Samvirk will be offering a savings program for young people who want to have accommodation here during church events. Samvirk will work on utilizing available capacity, and contribute to ensuring priority and accommodation for future events for everyone with a savings plan in Samvirk. The broadcast provided information about these opportunities, as well as other information and inspiration to congregations around the world.
Status from the BCC federation
Later in the program, an informative film was shown with a status update on the ongoing restructuring of BCC into an international federation.
Read more: BCC will be organized as a federation in the future
Music and literature – an important part of church edification
For more than 100 years, music has been an important part of the edification in the church. Now the publicist Skjulte Skatters Forlag is working hard to lift the church’s musical heritage onto new technical platforms. This is primarily done through an updated version of the songbook Ways of the Lord. This will now be available in digital form – in an app in several languages, and with a number of additional functions. All Christians around the world will now have access to the songs, written by believers over more than 100 years.
The songbook is very important for edification for BCC and its members, and these songs are full of power and inspiration. The songbook contains songs for all occasions, and now even more people can benefit from the lyrics and melodies that Skjulte Skatters Forlag have administered throughout all these years.
You can get more information about the songs, music, and the new app on the website songtreasures.org.
The broadcast contained information about several new book projects that Skjulte Skatters Forlag have on the way. Among other things, the fifth volume of Johan Oscar Smith’s collected writings is being published on the website christianbookshop.org.
The summer’s events are going according to plan
This summer’s events are well underway, and Steinar Riise from BCC gave the viewers a status update from the events department. Many thorough adjustments have been made due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and so far, the infection control measures seem to be working. Hundreds of participants have taken rapid antigen tests on site, and so far everything is going according to plan.
The events department is continuing with planning, and this autumn BCC is inviting members to both a missions event and a weekend event at the Oslofjord Convention Center. In addition, the BUK summer camp will be held at the turn of the month between July and August, and a new summer period for BCC will be organized in August.
Singing in the festival plaza
In line with the message of the broadcast, three inspiring musical items were performed on the stage, and the audience joined in the singing. The broadcast ended with another song from the songbook Ways of the Lord, and the optimism and faith in the future that characterized this Sunday evening was expressed in the stanzas from “There’s a sun with light and warmth that we’ve been given”.
