R.I.C.E.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the medical term R.I.C.E, see HI-RICE.
R.I.C.E Stands for RICE Inter-Church Evangelism (More commonly referred to as just 'RICE'). It is a Christian evangelistic event organised by a group of youth leaders in Sydney, Australia to give young Christians an opportunity to share their faith with friends. It represents a wide range of church youth groups in Sydney working together to organise a fun and exciting event held over two weekends.
RICE is made up of two major events run on consecutive weekends:
- The RICE Big Day Out
- The RICE Rally
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[edit] The RICE Big Day Out
The RICE Big Day Out is an outdoor carnival/fete. Participants of the RICE Big Day Out can normally expect to play games at stalls and in major outdoor games, listen to live music, get involved in an outdoor talent competition, and so on. In 2006 around 1600 people attended the RICE Big Day Out.
As the primary focus of RICE is to proclaim the Christian Gospel, the event is characterised by many activities centered around this: short Gospel talks are given to the crowd throughout the day; there is an e-Cafe where non-Christian attendees are encouraged to ask questions about Christianity; Christian bands play their music onstage; street theatre performances occur during the day depicting Biblical stories and themes.
[edit] The RICE Rally
The RICE Rally is an indoor rally-style Christian event, again aimed at proclaiming the Christian Gospel to youth. A typical RICE Rally involves music, humorous skits, testimonies from people who have become Christians and a general variety of entertainment. The key focus of the RICE Rally is the talk that occurs in the later part of the night, where talented preachers present the Christian Gospel. Any person interested in the event is welcome to attend RICE. This event has been held at the Sydney Town Hall for the past few years.
[edit] History of RICE
2002: The idea started in 2002 when five youth groups came together and ran a combined outreach event. They organised a bush-dance social event and on the following week Youth Worker Steve Chong spoke on the theme I Just Don’t Get It - looking into the essence of Christian belief.
2003: In 2003, the event expanded to include youth groups from the original five churches, plus seven other different churches, adopting the name RICE in the process. The event featured an outdoor fete event at Concord Public School. The following week James Fong from Anglican YouthWorks spoke on the theme Fate - examining the unavoidable concept of death.
2004: In 2004, RICE grew again to involve twenty-three churches. Again RICE kicked off in July 2004 with a huge Fete (dubbed RICE-Fest) attended by over one thousand people. The following Saturday Ian Powell from St. Barnabas Broadway challenged the audience with a talk on the theme Where is the Love?
2005: The year 2005 saw RICE grow again, involving thirty-four churches. The outdoor event was renamed again to be the RICE Big Day Out and was held at Bi-Centennial Park, Homebush and was attended by over 1200 young people. The following Saturday, RICE Rally was held at the Sydney Town Hall with Al Stewart (Chairman of the Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC) and CEO of Anglican YouthWorks) spoke on the theme There's Gotta Be More To Life!
2006: In 2006, RICE involved 38 churches. The RICE Big Day Out was held at the Wentworth Common, in Sydney Olympic Park and was attended by 1500 people. In 2006 Richard Beeston and Deb Fung were the attending musicians. The following week, the RICE Rally was held once again at the Sydney Town Hall, and the speaker Ray Galea spoke on the theme Lost. A record crowd of over 2000 people attended, completely filling the hall, making this year the first time on record that a Christian event has been met with this degree of success.
[edit] Participating Churches in 2006
- Australian Ling Liang Church
- Bankstown Chinese Baptist Church
- Beverly Hills Chinese Baptist Church
- Blacktown Chinese Christian Church
- Burwood Chinese Presbyterian Church
- Cabramatta Anglican Church
- Campbelltown Chinese Christian Church
- Central Baptist Church
- Chinese & Australian Baptist Church-West Ryde
- Chinese & Australian Baptist Church-Thornleigh
- Chinese Christian Church, Sydney
- Chinese Methodist Church of Sydney
- Chinese Presbyterian Church Surry Hills
- Christian Assembly of Sydney
- Chung Chen Chinese Christian Church
- Cornerstone Presbyterian Church
- East Sydney Community Christian Church
- Evangelical Chinese Church
- Evangelical Free Church of Australia
- Faith Bible Church
- Hebron Chinese Alliance Church
- Hurstville Chinese Baptist Church
- Hurstville Indonesian Presbyterian Church
- Indonesian Presbyterian Church
- Kingsgrove Beverly Hills Baptist Church
- Living Stone Evangelical Free Church of Australia
- North Shore Community Christian Church
- North Side Chinese Alliance Church
- Northern District Chinese Christian Church
- St Andrew's Anglican Church Strathfield
- St Barnabas Church
- St George's Anglican Church Hurstville
- St Paul's Asian Church Carlingford
- St Paul's Carlingford Church (SALT)
- St Stephen's Anglican Church
- Sydney Chinese Alliance Church Rockdale
- Sydwest Asian Christian Church
- West Sydney Chinese Christian Church
