Cornerstone Festival 2008 recap

Last week, the Hope For The Rejected team attended Cornerstone Festival 2008 in Bushnell, Illinois. On Saturday, we hosted Unified Underground Day on the Fatcalf Stage, featuring a number of bands and speakers intermingling throughout the day. Bands that took the stage included Flatfoot 56, Sexually Frustrated, Blaster the Rocket Man, Sleeping Giant, Take It Back!, Bridgeshadows, The Red Baron, Leper, Filthy 42, and Spirit Child. Hope For The Rejected director Loyal Thurman and assistant director Lucas Walther addressed the crowd, along with Rose Kurczab and Lara Freeburg of The Asylum (our gothic partner ministry), Rise Above pastor Skip Brooks, Joshua Stump of Nashville-based The Anchor Fellowship, The Red Baron frontman Phil Porto, and Jeremy Ritch of Pennsylvania's Hold Fast Ministries. Remarkably, we saw many people defying conventional boundaries by sticking around to listen to bands and speakers from all subcultures. Unity was a common topic spoken from stage, but it wasn't the same type of unity that has been called for in the past. Whereas prior years found leaders calling for brotherhood within scenes, it is apparent that everyone is being convicted of the absolute necessity of unity among all of the underground subcultures, as well as unity between those subcultures and the mainstream Church.

Perhaps the most noteworthy difference at the Festival this year was the overall feeling of Christ-centeredness that was apparent wherever one looked. Over the past few years, I have seen many bands out there who are bold and unashamed about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the underground. This year, however, I saw that fire intensified, and I saw something new accompanying it: the bands not only welcomed God's presence, they pleaded for it and led the crowds in outright worship experiences. There was passion and heart like we haven't seen for years, and it finally seems that a number of bands—both new and old—have stepped up to whom the Spirit-filled "torch" can be passed. Jeremy Ritch of Hold Fast wrote, quite simply and unequivocably, "I witnessed revival." Although there is much work to be done and a long road to travel, we are seeing the emergence of a humble and devoted generation of followers of Christ in the underground who seem well-prepared for the task.