Church Basement Roadshow – The Nashville Edition

I am certain that many others will go into more detail than I about tonight’s Church Basement Roadshow, featuring Doug, Tony, and Mark. Given the hour it seems fitting to throw out a quick review in fine bullet point fashion on what was a great evening.

• Part of the value in any emergent gathering of any sort is simply connecting with folks that I don’t get to see very often. Tonight that included Lilly, my Cincinnati friend who I wish I could convince to come home to Nashville; Holly, who I discovered has moved to NashVegas without telling me; Will, who I only see at emergent and Youth Specialties events even though we live in the same city; and a whole cast of others who will probably never forgive me for not naming them, but who I love just the same.
• I was a bit surprised to see that the revivalistic portion of the show was actually quite minimal, although well presented and quite fun. The majority of the evening was Doug, Tony, and Mark telling their stories, calling people to new ways of living the life of faith. Some of this I had heard before along the way, while other parts are new, but they all connected me to the story of faith in a deeper way and I greatly appreciated and needed what they offered tonight.
• It was hard to read the crowd in regards to their connection with what the guys were doing. Nashville is a notoriously tough crowd for musicians and preachers because everyone here is a professional at some level. I am sure that some probably felt the gospel revival portion was over the top and disrespectful of that tradition. However, when one listened closely one discovered that the stuff done in character directly related to the contemporary stories, and I think made some profound points about the changes we are currently going through. It was also quite fun.

The guys headed out tonight for their next show in Charlotte. If you haven’t caught the tour and are in the area I encourage you to check it out. You will have a fun night and I think will find some spiritual nuggets along that way that will move you.