As two weeks of evangelical Christian celebration ended Wednesday night, local pastors agreed that "now the hard work begins."
That hard work will be taking "the answers, the fellowship" home to local churches and keeping them alive in those congregations and beyond, according to the Rev. Scott McKinney, emcee of UTAHAlive!UTAHAlive! began with a week of breakfast meetings and luncheons with local officials and residents along the Wasatch Front, featuring the Rev. Dr. John Guest, an internationally known evangelist. A program Saturday was directed at area youths. The event concluded with a four-day Christian crusade at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus, featuring the Rev. Guest and special performers such as the Maranatha Singers, country music star Ricky Skaggs, trumpeter Ryan Anthony, Bill Murk and Family, Billy and Sarah Gaines and others.
It was the most ambitious evangelical outreach ever attempted in Utah, according to organizers, and involved hundreds in its planning. Average attendance totaled about 3,500 per night over the event's four-night run.
Prior to the crusade, the Rev. Guest told the Deseret News that his goal - and that of the more than 90 Christian congregations that conceived and sponsored the event - was to tell people "the good news of Jesus Christ."
It was a message that drew a strong response. In the course of the revival hundreds of Utahns wended their way down the aisles to the floor of the arena to ask Christ into their lives for a personal, meaningful relationship.
"The message we want you to hear is that God is after you," the Rev. Jimmy Galliant warned Wednesday night. The Rev. Galliant, who is the chaplain for the Charleston, S.C., Police Department and also ministers to street people and youths, explained that God wants people to fellowship with him.
Over the course of the crusade, the Rev. Guest focused on a number of topics, each coming back to the central "good news of Jesus Christ." He discussed setting goals, intimacy, the power of leadership and more during the informal mealtime meetings in Salt Lake, Ogden and Orem.
His nighttime sermons were titled "Go for It," "Good News for Hurting Homes," "You Can Begin Again" and "Forgiving, Forgetting and Being Free."
"Your unforgiveness does not just affect you," he warned. "It can poison the whole environment."
Couples don't forgive each other, he said, yet they continue as husbands and wives. Pastors bear grudges but function still as pastors. Parents and children, business partners, whole races are separated by an unwillingness to forgive, which he said the Bible defines as making a gift of a debt, releasing anger or just "letting it pass."
"It goes on and on and on," the Rev. Guest said. "I can't cover all the reasons people hold old grudges and won't release others from their shortcomings."
He asked the crowd to let go of "a root of bitterness that is so foul, that is so ridiculous" and to embrace the forgiveness of a "loving, living God."