Christian music festival held in downtown Ironwood

By CHARITY SMITH

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Ironwood - God was in the forefront on Wednesday night as hundreds of residents were drawn to the LifeLight UP City Fest for an evening of praise and worship.

Festival coordinator Jill Seppala said they were thrilled to be able to hold their event at the new Ironwood Downtown City Square. The goal is to be as evangelistic as possible in places where they can draw people out who may not be spending time in church and present the Gospel to them.

"We don't want to be hiding in a church somewhere, or out in the country somewhere," Seppala said. "We want to be in the center of town."

The annual festival, now in its second year, is touring the Upper Peninsula with the message "to God be the Glory." The festival includes a combination of big name Christian artists, such as Unspoken, and up and coming artists of various genres with BMX and FMX (Freestyle Motocross) stunt performances.

"Everybody loves extreme sports," said Seppala.

Zero Gravity Outreach, a Christian FMX stunt group, are athlete-ministers who can draw a particular type of audience, she said. The same with Stunt Dudes, she said.

"They're BMX (and FMX) athletes and they're all Christians too," she said. "They use their talents to draw in crowds and then they preach the Gospel to them."

Louie Cortese, Stunt Dudes member, said that while it may seem that extreme sports and preaching the Gospel are very different - they really go hand in hand. Through their sport they are able to attract people who might not otherwise have an interest in learning about the Lord. They come out just to see the BMX, and then they get to hear about God, he said.

"I love that we get to preach the Gospel through our sport," said Cortese.

The stunt groups performed backflip no-handers, wheelies, and other tricks on bicycles, motorbikes and four-wheelers while preaching the Gospel. Zero Gravity took over Aurora Street with high flying motorized tricks while Stunt Dudes performed bicycle tricks in front of the main stage and as Unspoken performed their hit song, "Reason."

Other artists that performed Wednesday included the band, Paper Avenue, hip-hop artists Marcus Montana - also known as Tru-Serva, and Johnathan Stone. The artists shared stories of overcoming obstacles and finding God.

LifeLight CEO and evangelist Josh Brewer spoke to the crowd of his personal struggle as a youth who was abandoned by his mother and his father was an addict. He spoke of how he overcame homelessness, addiction and a felony conviction for automobile theft.

Members of Cornerstone Church in Ramsay, and Lighthouse Church in Ironwood, shared personal stories of overcoming struggles and finding Jesus. The churches helped to fund the festival which although free to the public, cost $38,000 to bring the production to the community, said Seppala.

"The reason we want to have the local pastors and the local church community involved is because when you have people that are wanting to make the commitment and follow Christ or just work towards bettering themselves," said Seppala. "Those people are here in the community and they'll help come and walk along side them and direct them to places where they might need assistance or help them find a church where they might find friends and stuff."

It's important to partner with the Christian community and the churches where they go, she said. The goal is to "plug them into a local church so that they can grow," she said.

"We don't want to jus;t do an event and then leave we want people to have a network that they can connect with," Seppala said.

The event offered a prayer tent with people available to pray for those in need of healing as well as a kids activity tent.

"Rex," a T-Rex dinosaur roamed the crowds pumping up the audience for each event. Children sought out "Rex" to stamp their activity sheets. There were also various crafts and a children's short relay race.

The athletes and artists offered merchandise and signed autographs and pictures. Children could be seen flocking to their booth for meet and greets.

LifeLight is a non-profit Christian ministry that was formed in South Dakota in 1998 and is headquartered in Sioux Falls. According to Seppala, the UP City Fest was started after Dr. Matthew Songer, of Marquette had a "calling from God" to do a festival in the U.P. and found LifeLight. The festival was to take place in Marquette, however, because of the pandemic the event branched out to smaller communities including Bessemer, Seppala said.

"The goal of all our festivals is to bring a family friendly free event to small towns all over the country and provide them with entertainment, from extreme sports to bands, and have Josh Brewer preach the Gospel," she said.

The festival will end its six city U.P tour at Westwood Mall in Marquette on Saturday. The event will be much larger. It will run from 3-9 p.m. EDT and feature Christian music star Jeremy Camp, Paper Avenue, hip-hop artist Steven Malcolm, Stunt Dudes, Zero Gravity, Brewer, and some additional local bands.