And he shared his experiences from the early days of Mars Hill, when they had heaps of cred and heaps of ties with the scene. (dyk that in the early days he was in bands with guys from Deathcab for Cutie?) A few things:
- He says there is a danger of being so keen on having credibility in the scene that you never actually speak up about your faith.
- He agreed that trying to weasel Christian themes into bands that play the local venues and other infiltration techniques are lame.
- Providing resources to the music scene can be good. For example, Mars Hill provided an all-ages venue, no strings attached. He recognised that the TBT cinema plans was another good approach.
- He said that loving, genuine relationships have great power.
- Mars Hill has grown larger and so lost its niche indie appeal, but still there are many links to the scene. The relational credibility is the far more powerful thing now, rather than niche appeal for the church itself.
- The hardcore scene is particularly accessibile for Christians because they are often pretty messed up people, they don't care what anyone else thinks and they are deeply into works-righteousness. More art-punk scenes are too pretentious, worried about what others think and middle-class. They are harder to connect with.
- He said that Sojourn Music's stuff really helped him see how church music could serve to lead the church in repentance and brokenness, or something like that. (Shout out to Sojourn!).
