This is the most exciting and brief post that I will write for about 3 posts.
This year in preparing for Eastercamp, it became crystal clear to me all of a sudden, that it’s no point booking Christian bands for no reason other than they are Christian. Those bands very rarely offer any major drawcard or culture access point for non-churchy kids into the Eastercamp culture. In fact, it could be seen and experienced as another sub-culture exclusion point instead.
So what if, I said, we actually hosted non-Christian bands that do create a culture access point at Eastercamp? What if we created the culture access point around common World Vision values, a supportive media proponent like txttunes.com and do something that’s never been done before.
A few years ago, it was easy to book Christian bands that were doing a bit of mainstream crossover. But now, the case is not the same. Those acts have either wound up or moved overseas. Currently, there are a wide range of artists where one or more member of a group is a committed Christian. For a number of those bands, they carry strong social justice themes and that means a wide common ground can be found between Eastercamp’s theming, World Vision and the advocacy causes of the artist.
I put it forward, simply asking that I have permission to pursue the kid that otherwise wouldn’t come to camp, to create a resource that actually creates inroads or helps build impact for kids that seeing this and not usually coming to camp.
I expected a fight. I prepared my arguments. They were well-worded, compelling and convicting. In fact, I’m almost disappointed that I didn’t get to use them, because they really would have been fun to expound… but I didn’t have to because my Vision team said yes. They bought the dream, caught the vision and gave me permission to walk on the sharp sharp edge.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
A new day has begun.