Madison’s Brat Fest started 40 years ago with a table, three chairs and a grill. So selling over 100,000 brats over a holiday weekend is impressive. So was what looked like the largest crowd ever at the annual Brat Fest community worship service.
For the second year in a row, the 2023 worship service was hosted by Sun Prairie’s Heartland Church. A show of hands revealed about two-thirds of the crowd at the Main Stage Sunday morning were from Heartland. One count put attendees at 950.
Looking out over the sun-soaked crowd, Heartland pastor Jon McNary said, “I think this is the perfect way to start summer.” He went on to promise that his sermon would explain how to make this summer “the best summer of your life.”
His focus was on joy, starting with the question, “Is it okay to pursue joy?” Reviewing numerous Bible verses about joy and comments from such distinguished authors as C.S. Lewis and John Piper, McNary concluded that the answer was yes: “God wants us to have as much joy as you possibly can in your life.”
He cautioned against pursuing joy without God or expecting sinful indulgence to produce joy. But making good on his promise, he recommended making a list of things that bring joy, and then making a plan to do more of those things than usual this summer.
“Recognize that activity is a gift from God,” he concluded. “Acknowledge him and thank him for that.”
McNary’s sermon was followed with an unpromoted appearance by Bob Lenz, the founder of Lifest, also celebrating a significant 25-year anniversary this summer in Oshkosh. Lifest has helped sponsor the faith-based stage at Brat Fest.
“My mother taught me that joy was J-O-Y, Jesus-Others-Yourself,” Lenz said. “If you look at your circumstances you will always question if God loves you. If you look at the cross, you’ll know that Jesus loves you ‘for the joy set before him.'”
After the community worship service, attendees were invited to visit the Ministry Marketplace in a tent near the stage, where a couple dozen local ministries that serve the Madison community in a variety of ways were set up to share information about their mission. Ministries included Safe Families for Children and Extended Hands Food Pantry, recently profiled on this website.
Most of the ministries were grant recipients of the Madison Christian Giving Fund, which sponsored the tent. In just a few years MCGF has channeled over $1 million in donations from Madison area residents to support the work of these ministries. (Full disclosure: MadisonChristians.com is an MCGF grant recipient.)
After the community worship service, the music also continued on the Faith Based stage, including rappers JP Got Saved and Nicky Gracious, The Project Brave from Waunakee, and headliner Britt Nicole.
As Britt Nicole ended her music, she declared that the band merchandise tent was now a prayer tent and encouraged fans to meet her there for prayer. To which one observor quipped, ” Praise God- finally a prayer tent at Brat Fest!”