Thanks, Cornerstone.

Every year a group of our family and friends would look forward to our summer vacation, a pilgrimage to the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois.  This was the last year of the festival that began in 1984.  Dana and I had planned to attend the first, but cancelled the trip after deciding to move to Kansas City and join the Kansas City Youth For Christ staff.  Working camps and mission trips every summer kept us from attending, but we were able to make 7 out of the last 10 festivals.

Had to change this flat with an adjustable wrench.

There are many Christian music festival every year, but none like Cornerstone.  Many seem to be centered around music and culture, which is fine, but Cornerstone is centered around something deeper.  It had become a place of blessed community, embracing a common theme of following God through a unique and subversive lifestyle.

It was at a Cornerstone seminar that Dana and I met Dr. John Perkins, the founder of CCDA.  In talking with John after the seminar, I told John that his testimony compelled me to sell my house in the suburbs and move into the city.  He said, "Well then, you need to sell your house."  That is where it started for us.

Cornerstone will be missed.  I am skeptical that we will ever find any festival or gathering that will have the same sense of community and spirit, that subverts the superficiality and hype that has so permeated so much of popular Christian culture.

We are thankful for all of the great memories, moments, challenges, and friendships that God has blessed us with through the Cornerstone fest.