This week is one of the biggest weeks for Calvin’s Student Activities Office (SAO) with the Festival of Faith and Music (FFM) kicking off. The festival is known by folks all around the country and is known to be a safe place of cutting-edge thought on the intersection of faith and culture.

The biennial gathering will be happening on our campus for three days where lovers of God and popular culture will be coming together to listen, learn and discern.

Beginning on Thursday afternoon with a pre-conference workshops led by Michael Gungor and ending with a conversation and concert by Lecrae, this week is full of a diverse group of speakers, performers and attendees.

The festival serves many great purposes. According to Avery Johnson, intern for the SAO, the weekend is, in portion, meant “to let people outside of the Calvin community know what’s going on in our community but also to allow students to experience our office’s mission in the integration of faith and popular culture.”

As noted in its mission online, SAO commits itself to encouraging students to discern what we know as popular culture as opposed to a complete withdrawal or unquestioned consumption of what is presented before eyes of the viewer and ears of the listener.

This mission is amped up, and the best and brightest minds and musicians have gathered to provide a showcase of believers and non-believers striving to ask questions of faithfulness and relevance.

Student Activities Office director Ken Heffner had a few comments to weigh in on the impending events.

“[The festival] is meant to be a testimony of a way that Christians can speak into the pop music world,” said Heffner. “It’s unique,” he concluded, noting that this approach is a road not usually taken.

Despite most Christian conferences, this one is “not a CCM conference or a worship conference — which are both fine — but something entirely different.”

For many students on the Calvin campus, this approach should prove to be quite attractive. Heffner shares that this weekend long festival provides even more of the “whys” behind the “whats” of all the concerts and films that many of our students attend and appreciate.

More than that, students from all around the nation will be venturing to Calvin to learn together and provide a wealth of stories and impressions.

With those traveling from far away from their homes and campuses, it’s good to know that community forms. When asked, Johnson believes this is one of the highlights for the festival:

“The festival gives a sense of community. It’s always encouraging to see people who have some of the same interests as you and see a host of different perspectives come together in the same space as well.”

Similarly, Heffner takes notice of the kinds of folks that step foot on campus to make this communal feeling possible. “People who are coming here have been searching for theory and practice on how to engage with pop culture and faith. They want to know what’s behind the lectures and actually see it in practice with live performances.”

This is exactly what FFM offers: a hybrid of academic excellence and musical performances.

In the end, the Festival of Faith and Music has much to offer to the masses. From moments in hallways between sessions and comments shared over meals, each day holds experiences students and guests won’t want to miss.