dodging traffic

Right now, I am working with a new band called The Gap Theory. We’re currently preparing for a concert tour in India; we leave September 28th, and will head home October 14th.

Our Indian hosts tell us that they have 10-12 shows arranged; one is a partnership with the Billy Graham organization. They are excited that we’ll be able to play to many many thousands of people.

We’ll also do a public show in the Indy area next Friday.

To follow our adventures online, keep an eye on our website – The Gap Theory, for pictures and tour stories.

Here’s a video of us doing a new song called ‘So Much For Love’ in rehearsals.

As of late, I’ve been working on preparations for a tour in India with a band called The Gap Theory. I’m excited about that, but I was leafing through some blog entries from blue sky nine (the band I spent 4 years leading and touring with) and came across this article that I had written, but never clicked the ‘publish’ button.

So… here’s a previously unpublished story from the 2010 blue sky nine tour.

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- May, 2010

Recently, in addition to a bunch of colleges and other shows, blue sky nine played outreach concerts at 3 different prison facilities.

One was an outreach at a Level-5 security, ‘Supermax’ prison. At that event, we saw literally hundreds of guys make decisions to turn their lives around and follow Christ.

At another facility, we learned that mentioning that Adam (the band’s percussionist) is single is not such a good idea when you’re playing in a women’s prison.

Oops.

And at the third prison, we were asked to play some worship songs for anyone who chose to stay around after our ‘normal’ concert. About 30 guys stayed around for that, and it was, in a word, amazing. I have never seen people worship and celebrate their spiritual freedom with such abandon as these guys – and I have seen a lot.

It’s funny. Those guys, who have no ‘freedom’ and have had everything stripped away from them, were extremely honest, open and demonstrative in their worship. They had been given a legitimate, life-changing spiritual freedom through Christ, and it showed.

Maybe Janis Joplin was right – freedom really is just another word for “nothing left to lose”.

I realize there are easy criticisms to make regarding ‘jailhouse religion’, and all that. I’m pretty sure that God can sort out what is genuine and what is not. But those guys were experiencing a truer freedom than many people I’ve seen on the ‘outside’ in church.

On several occasions, we’ve heard prisoners tell us that they are truly grateful for being incarcerated, and it is the best thing that has ever happened to them. It made them come to their senses and realize where they were.

Spiritually speaking, I don’t think any of us ever get out of prison until we realize that’s where we are.

Okay. It’s all over the news. The organization we work for, Campus Crusade for Christ, is re-branding. We’re changing our name. It’s been a long time coming, and there are several reasons for it.

Absolutely nothing has changed about our mission. But evidently, the name change is a pretty big deal. After the announcement, the web traffic caused a national trend in the Twitter social networking world, and the story has been reported (with varying degrees of sensationalism) by Christianity Today, Fox News, The Huffington Post, many other news outlets, and countless websites, blogs and discussion forums.

Some people think it’s great, some think we’ve lost our minds, and some think we’ve lost our bearing.

We’re now going to be called, simply, ‘Cru’.

You may have a lot of questions about why we changed, and what the name means (or doesn’t), and all that. But, first and foremost, here’s what I want you to know.

I believe in this. This is a good decision, and I honestly believe it will help us more meaningfully take the gospel to people.

This isn’t simple, but I believe is is the right move. I’d love to talk to you more if you have questions or concerns. There are ways all over this site for you to contact me if you’d like to talk more.

For a Q-and-A straight from our leadership, click here.

Thanks,
- Scott