Adventist musicians, stall holders, worship service coordinators and volunteers were all part of the Australian Gospel Music Festival (AGMF) in Toowoomba, Queensland, over Easter weekend. In its sixth year, AGMF has grown to become the largest of its kind in the country with more than 30,000 attendees.

“Festival organizers met with our board and asked us to contribute to the event,” reports Pastor Chris Foote, minister of Westridge Adventist Church in Toowoomba. “It’s a great opportunity for us to be a part of our community.”

The two Adventist churches in Toowoomba conducted a health age assessment on a site provided free at the AGMF venue.

“There are only a few churches here offering something free to festival goers,” says Pastor Foote. “We have something unique to offer.”

The Adventist churches are planning to follow up the contacts they made by offering invitations to cooking, nutrition and stop smoking programs.

The health assessment also provided opportunities for networking. “A physical education teacher from one of the Christian schools on the Gold Coast visited, and she asked whether we would come and do the same thing in a school setting,” says Pastor Neil Marks, director of health ministries for the church in southern Queensland.

Adventist musicians who performed at AGMF include ep (Endless Praise); children’s music group Rocfish; Serendipity, from the New South Wales Central Coast; Rebecca St James; and Charmaine, back-up singer for St James.

“AGMF is bigger than it has been in previous years,” says Rocfish member Joey Grey. “The crowd reaction has been great this year.” The kids tent held about 900 people, but they had to turn some kids away.

The church’s evangelistic magazine, Signs of the Times, was also among the 40 exhibitors at AGMF. “We’ve had a lot of people come past, who’ve taken a magazine and then come back and taken some more,” says Graham Robertson, a member of the Toowoomba Central Adventist Church.

“This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity of being here, thanks to the generosity of a Queensland family who donated the site,” adds volunteer Signs ministry coordinator Pastor Des Hills. “We should have been in the marketplaces and other festivals like this years ago.”

A group of young people from the Adventist churches in Toowoomba served as AGMF volunteers. “We must have emptied almost every bin at the festival [one] night. Our youth group has organized this as a service-type activity,” says Jarrod Sparke who, with his brother, Keegan, serve as volunteer youth ministers in Toowoomba.