Almost 1,400 young people made decisions to become Christians across this summer's five Soul Survivor events. According to the organisers, young people made faith commitments throughout each of the five-day festivals in Stafford, Shepton Mallet and Kinross. Around 30,000 people attended in total, including 5,000 at the growing Momentum event for students, 20s and 30s.
Now more than two decades old, Soul Survivor is a youth festival planted firmly in the charismatic Christian tradition. Each day is book-ended with two 'big top' meetings, at which young people engage in worship, teaching and prayer ministry. At the end of many of these meetings, hosts Mike Pilavachi and Andy Croft present delegates with an opportunity to respond to a traditional 'altar call'. Everyone who responds is carefully counted, given a 'new Christian' pack, and invited to a follow-up event later in the year.
The organisers also claimed that a number of people received physical healing at the events. Pilavachi said that "In Stafford, a woman who had been in a wheelchair for five years with dystonia was healed during the worship. The doctors had told her that with her degenerative condition she'd never be out of the wheelchair but was able to get up, walk and climb up on stage, overwhelmed with joy." Other reported healings included stories of two partially-sighted people seeing their eyesight dramatically improve.
The events will return in 2016. Plans are also underway for the organisation to engage in two major mission opportunities in 2017, including a trip to Durban, South Africa, and a city-wide initiative in Birmingham.
