Tony Cummings spoke at length to Tim Jupp, the founder of the BIG CHURCH DAY OUT

Tim: You've got me on that one! It's the big church weekend out. We did start off as a one day thing. Now about 85 per cent of the people come for the whole weekend.

Tony: When did you move from one day to two days?

Tim: The second year. It didn't take long!

Tony: How is it structured as a business? Is it a private company?

Tim: No, we're set up as a charity, with some great trustees. Everybody who works for the event works for a charity. For me, the Big Church Day Out doesn't feel like just one tribe, whereas a lot of other events become very tribal. Then on the other side, it also doesn't feel like anyone owns it; so in terms of fundraising, people can be slow to jump in, because they can't put us in a box very easily. I love the tribal thing. The children of Israel in the desert didn't camp together, they camped in their tribes. The temple pulled everyone together. I love that analogy with the Big Church Day Out, that it is lots of tribes coming together to worship Jesus, the common denominator.

Tony: Tell me about this year's event. You've got a very impressive line-up - lots of potential to lose more money.

Tim: Losing money is the wrong way to put it: that's whether your glass is half-empty or half-full. We never lose money, because God always provides, so in that way we always break even. But does the event pay for itself? It certainly doesn't. Things get more expensive every year. We're moving the main stage into the next field - only the next field, but to do that costs us nearly a hundred thousand pounds. We need more infrastructure, more trackway; these things every year are a walk of faith. We have the biggest lineup of any event. I was talking to the American guys on the tour with us, and they're like, 'I've never been to an event in America or anywhere in the world that's had that lineup in two days'.

Tony: You've got the biggest acts in Christian music. Do you come up with a hit-list each year?

Tim: It's become a little bit like I just invite everybody in the world, then we wait and see who says yes. There are people we spend a lot of time talking to - even this year we're excited we've got Bethel and Jesus Culture, but those things have been three year conversations. It's not a phone call to someone you don't know, it's sitting down and having dinner several times - hanging out together. We're asking people to do things sometimes that's a bit outside their box. Jesus Culture have never been to the UK without really coming to do their own thing. I'm really proud of them and excited for making the decision to support what God's doing in the UK at BCDO.

Tony: Over that period of time, they could probably make more money if they stay where they are.

Tim: We do work a lot with people right across Europe: I spend months and months working in order to help put a run of dates together. We're getting into the nitty-gritty of how it works. The problem is when you have 12 of 14 international artists coming to your event, and every other event in Europe has one or two international artists, there's not always places for all the ones we're inviting to go elsewhere. Sometimes it comes down to those who say yes the quickest to the Big Church Day Out can make it work because they can book in other things throughout Europe. Some do end up coming as a one-off thing. This hasn't been my intention, but it has become the hub in Europe for bringing in particularly American artists. We're really the only event in the whole of the UK each year that brings these people in.

Tony: Are you happy with the phrase 'worship music'? A lot of Christian musicians consider themselves worshippers even though their music doesn't fit a normal congregational setting.

Tim: I hold the thing quite lightly because I understand both sides of things. People don't want to be put in a box. We don't want worship to just be about music, so we've been talking for years about a worship lifestyle. At the same time, I think some people use it because they want some way of describing the genre of music we sing in a church on Sunday. I don't get too caught up in that conversation.

Tony: We seem to have lost the musical evangelists we once had, groups like the World Wide Message Tribe, who typically end their concerts with an appeal to the audience to accept Jesus.

Tim: I think that goes along with the fact that we don't have artists full-stop as we used to have in the UK. There's certainly some out there - people like LZ7 - out-and-out evangelists all about seeing people make decisions to follow Jesus.

Tony: You mentioned you've got a cheesy name. Why not invite someone like Daniel O'Donnell?

Tim: I wouldn't rule out anything. Why not invite him? We do have a mixture for everyone: my heart is for the Church of all ages. The Big Church Day Out is incredibly broad in both churchmanship and age groups. I talked to someone last week; they said, 'We come to the Big Church Day Out every year - bring a group with us'. They said, 'It's a group of older folk - senior citizens - we come on a coach and we go to the tea tent venue, and we stay there till about eight o'clock in the evening. We've been every year and never been to the main stage.' We do 12,000 cream teas in two days - it's on the lawns of this amazing house on the Wiston Estate; we have the King's Chamber Orchestra, choirs, folk music, people like Stuart Townend. People just love that.

Tony: Would there be room at BCDO for a hardcore band?

Tim: As I said, I would never rule out anything. The thing for me is the relational side and the authenticity. We all know that when something is authentic, we can find it incredibly exciting. We go to a few mainstream festivals in the summer to see what's going on. I went to one and they had the Sadler's Wells ballet there. I can't say I'd be the first person to buy a ticket to see the ballet, but when you see something that's absolutely amazing, with gifted people, why not have it? For me, if you pushed me on it, in that heavier side of stuff in the Christian world, I've never seen anything that has blown me away-maybe they are not that good and being authentically angry enough! We've got some great rock this year - Switchfoot, Needtobreathe; we've got some great hip-hop with Lecrae - because they're great guys, I know them all personally, and I love what they carry. Last year we had a pipe band playing "Amazing Grace" walking through the field with bagpipes.

Tony: As well as the well-known artists, BCDO has become a hugely important platform for exposing up and coming artists.

Tim: As the event grows, and people's expectations are there, the amount of people who ask to come increases. Our biggest frustration is we don't have enough programme time to put more people in. We're holding that in tension with the fact we want to keep that corporate thing all the time. There's enough artists out there to put another two or three stages in, but we don't want to dilute that sense of being together."

Big Church Day Out Year-by-Year

2009
Delirious?
Cathy Burton
Lou Fellingham
Kings Chamber Orchestra
Michael W Smith
Israel Houghton
Graham Kendrick
Yfriday
!Audacious
Kairos
New D Crew
Tom & Olly

2010
Brenton Brown
Hillsong United
Israel Houghton
Switchfoot
Tim Hughes
Toby Mac
Graham Kendrick
Kings Chamber Orchestra
Lou Fellingham
Stuart Pendred
Bosh
Jules Rendell
Lifecolour
LZ7
Tom & Olly
Trent
Guvna B
Matthew Allen
Monique
Rachel Kerr
Roger Samuels
Witness

2011
David Crowder Band
Chris Tomlin
Israel Houghton
Matt Redman
Newsboys
TobyMac
Philippa Hanna
Graham Kendrick
Jonathan Veira
Kings Chamber Orchestra
Lou Fellingham
Portsmouth Citadel Band
Stuart Townend
BeBe Vox
Chip Kendall
Daniela Hogger
Dweeb
Jahaziel
Philippa Hanna
Guvna B
LZ7
Monique Lawson
The Gentlemen
Tom & Olly
Trent

2012
Casting Crowns
Gungor
Matt Redman
Rend Collective
Leeland
Tim Hughes
Israel Houghton
Phil Wickham
Muyiwa
Martin Smith
LZ7
Newworldson
Lou Fellingham & Phatfish
Newsboys
Iona
Watoto Children's Choir
Portsmouth Citadel Band
Kings Chamber Orchestra
Cathy Burton
Dave Bilbrough
New Wine Choir
Philippa Hanna
Yvonne Lyon
BeBe Vox
Chaos Curb Collaboration
E Tizz
Four Kornerz
Guvna B
Jahaziel
New Wine Choir
Rony Padilla
The Steels
Tom & Olly

2013
Hillsong Live
Phil Wickham
LZ7
Gungor
Salvador
Israel Houghton
Philippa Hanna
Rend Collective
Newworldson
Jars Of Clay
Matt Redman
Amy Grant
Guvna B
The City Harmonic
Brenton Brown
Jason Upton
Kings Chamber Choir
Watoto Children's Choir
Porstmouth Citadel Band
Dave Bilbrough
Yazz
Nathan Jess
Stuart Townend
Chip Kendall
Divine Divine
Kerrie Roberts
S.O.
Superhero
Empire Nation
Ghostree
Guvna B
The Steels
The Uprise Click

2014
Third Day
Fred Hammond
Rend Collective
Matt Redman
Newworldson
Bellarive
Four Kornerz
LZ7
Matt Maher
All Sons & Daughters
Guvna B
Worship Central with Tim Hughes
Jason Upton
Jahmene Douglas
United Pursuit
Newsboys
Philippa Hanna
Watoto Children's Choir
Iona
Cathy Burton
Tara Brown
The Abrams Brothers
Gospel Singers Incognito
Anastasia Baker
Chaos Curb Collaboration
Daughters Of Davis
Divine Divine
Empire Nation
Faith Child
iEquals Change
J Vessel
Jono Miller
Noel Robinson
Rebirth Dance
Royal Foundlings
Tara Brown
Twelve24
We Are Lions