Christchurch is in the midst of Bread&Circus – the World Backyard Buskers Festival 2021 (website). The reason why it’s not the usual world festival is presumably obvious: NZ (unlike some other countries) is restricting entry for non-residents because of Covid19.
Fraser Hooper (above) has gathered individuals; moulded them into a group, a community; drawn out individuals from the community to perform specific tasks, helped them to perform the tasks necessary to make the experience work (mostly by silent miming); taken up a collection; and left people transformed. It is a wonderful metaphor for leadership and liturgy.
I have written previously of the parallels between liturgy and the dynamics of busking:
- Gather a crowd – from individuals and small groups to a united audience (and get it to grow)
- Get the crowd to participate (clapping; call and response – there are standard ways of doing this that regular busking crowds know, and those who are new soon pick up from the regulars)
- Go through your fixed routine, adapting it to the context, and to the reaction of the people
- Send the people away satisfied and transformed (oh yes – get some of their money)
If you want to explore this model further, here are some previous posts:
Buskers – a model for leading worship
Busking & Liturgy
Buskers Lead Worship
You can see more of Fraser Hooper (Boxing in Austria) and on his YouTube Channel
