CORNERSTONE 2010

Craig and I spent 3 wonderfully challenging days at Cornerstone Festival this week, amidst people young and old covered in tattoos and piercings, listening to great music (and some not so great IMO), hearing people's stories and being joyfully spurred on to follow in the footsteps of Jesus...who himself was a bit of a fringe-dweller. We almost didn't go because of other stressful things going on, but Craig decided he didn't want his first decision, after turning 50, to be NOT going to a music festival! This is our second year and I think we are hooked in to coming back as often as we can to be a bit shocked...and rocked.

There are hundreds of bands that play Cornerstone but the one I went back to listen to 3 times was an up-and-coming band named Photoside Cafe'. While I think their lyrics could use a bit more poetry and sophistication...musically they were incredible. In fact, I ran into the drummer at the Over The Rhine concert and told him that after hearing them for the first time, I described it as, "experiencing a really cool thunderstorm." Each of them was so skilled, I think I could have been entertained by just the drummer or the base player...but their sum was even great than their parts. He was modestly grateful, and told me he grew up near there and had been coming to Cornerstone since he was 3 years old, so playing the Main Stage on Friday night was quite a thrill for him. It was nice to see someone's dreams coming true. I hope they are successfully recognized for their creative talents.

The speaker that most impacted me and set my mind in motion was Johnathon Wilson-Hartgrove, a man from Durham SC who has written a book called, God's Economy, which we ended up buying after the 3-day seminar. He was saying some pretty hard things for most of us white, middle class Christians to hear, but he had such a free and kind spirit about him that it was actually easy to hear. There was no condemnation in him at all when people raised doubts or disagreements. He is obviously one of those rare Christians who are able to let people be where they are on their journey of growing up in Christ and trust the Holy Spirit to bring them into all truth. To be challenged and refreshed at the same time...what more could you ask for?


He is also one of the New Monastics, a term I finally discovered for what I have recently been reading about (and somewhat lived out in the late 70's), and had been seeing again so clearly within many of the groups at Cornerstone. It is exciting because I think we are on the brink of some huge economic, social and theological change...what Phylliss Tickle calls "The Great Emergence"...that seems to happen every 500 years or so. I won't see the end of it...but I hope I'm part of it!

I am an avid note-taker at events like this, but not really a very good one. When it is all said and done, I find that I haven't really written down the meat of the topic...just key phrases or concepts that I find interesting or are outside my own thoughts. Below are some of these phrases, quotes, jots and tittles, etc taken from my notebook:

"What the culture gives us isn't really what we're made for"

"Jesus doesn't offer the another economic system or "-ism" (capitalism, socialism, communism, etc), because all of them are broken. He just asks us to slip the reality of the Kingdom into the cracks of our world and let it take over like yeast. "

"Blessed are the Poor in Spirit...those who know that the world is broken and long for more."

"When someone asks you for something - it is an invitation into relationship."

"If your church disappeared tomorrow...would the neighborhood notice...would they care?

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - D. Tutu

"Everyone is looking for places that are OK to not be OK."

"We cannot end extreme poverty unless we end extreme wealth."

"Love your ecological neighbor...the one living downstream...as yourself"

And on and on.........

Anyone else ever been to Cornerstone? Would love to hear about your experience...if I can still hear!