Learning To See - The Christian Radio Letters Episode 10

I listened to a sermon today from the old testement about Samuel. I had to go back and listen to the this one line that resonated with me on a very deep level:

If you want to learn see things in a new way, you can't play it safe. 

Of course the line that immediately comes to mind is the line in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe  speaking of Aslan, "Of course He's good. But He's not safe. He's not a tame lion!"

Sometimes I wonder if I've let the definitions for safety and clean get mixed together in my mind. Yes, the station that I worked at was safe for the whole family to listen to, meaning we had no vulgarity or lewdness or explicit material.  But the life that Jesus calls us to is anything but safe. It is good, but it certainly isn't safe. I read an article this week that surmized that we've turned Jesus into nothing more than another pop culture figure. A nice guy who's example we should all follow. 

But the truth is there's a lot more to Jesus that that. The shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of our sins is anything but "nice" or "safe". The way Jesus lived his life was not safe, the people he spent time with weren't safe folks. Postitues and known crimnals make me uneasy now, I have no reason to think they wouldn't have been the same way then. 

I finished a book last week that it seems like everyone's been talking about here lately, Radical by David Platt. And Platt is right, there's no way around it when you look at scripture: the American Dream of having the house with the  picket fence and the 2.5 kids and a boat in the suburbs just doesn't line up with God's call on our lives. I sometimes wonder is that's where the quiet desperation that is so deep within the last three generations of Americans is coming from. Maybe somewhere deep down we know we were meant for more than that. I felt it at 28 years old, in a steady Christian radio job that allowed me to pay the bills. As I lay my head on the pillow at night there was a gnawing deep inside that questioned "is this all there is? Is this all His plan is for me?" 

Thank God the answer is "No" God told us plain as day what we are here for: To Make Disciples. That doesn't mean getting people to sign up and buy some Gospel sales pitch and pray some prayer. It's getting to really know people and really care for them and really walk with them, study with them, celebrate with them, and hurt with them the way Christ would. That's not a safe life, but it certainly sounds like something with a real lasting meaning.  

So what does this mean for radio? I think I always came into things on air tentatively, with an "I Hope this doesn't make her turn us off" mentality. I was petrified that I would do something to tick her (our target listener) off. She was my one singular focus. I see now that while having a target is good and very effective, my focus first and foremost, should have been on Jesus. I was always afraid to say anything challenging or anything that wasn't upbeat or super-positive. Because if she turned us off, then she wouldn't give, and then I wouldn't have employment. I really believe if I had the confidence and understanding to say those things I would have been better at my job. Not because I would have been this great challenging speaker, but because I would have been real. During our fundraisers we always say that WE are the only way some people will ever hear about Jesus. And with that being true, I worry that sometimes I didn't give the people the full story on Him.

Following Jesus is the greatest desicion I've ever made, but in making that decision I'm only now finding that it means that all the stuff of the American dream probably won't be in my future. And that what Jesus often calls us to isn't always comfortable or safe, but it is good...really really good. 

Challenge this week: 

Pray over your playlist. Pray over your adds. It's something I failed to do in my time as a programmer, that I wish I had been better about. 

(Full disclosure: I feel weird saying that now, doing what I do. I have some fear that it comes acoss as manipulative. Please know that's not what I'm getting at and certainly not how I mean it.)

-Kris

To The Cloud! The Christian Radio Letters - Episode 9

I swear it seems like I do more interesting stuff since leaving radio. I was always looking to do interesting stuff so I could talk about it on the air, and now it seems the interesting stuff is just coming to me. So I just will squeeze those stories and lessons out on ya'll in this little column I reckon.

Last night I went to an event that one of the bands I work with. Life Wide Open was playing at a small church on a literal foothill of the smokey mountains. They had 400 people crammed into a room built for 300. To give you a better picture of the kind of church this is, the members put out a garden every year, they call it God's Garden. The members tend to it, and they use the food they grow to help the poor folks in thier little mountain town.

Life Wide Open played thier worship set and then a fella by the name of Dwight strolled to the front. Dwight was an African American gentleman, dressed in a suit and tie...at a youth event (this was the second night of a youth crusade type thing)...I was pretty interested to see what was about to go down.

I consider myself a pretty hip guy when it comes to church stuff. I like Louie Giglio and Andy Stanley and, and the pastor at my church uses a glass table with a metal truss for support. Pretty hip stuff.

What I experienced at that little country church that night was something I hadn't seen in years. It was real, old school, truth tellin, high energy, loud yellin preachin. Only made better by the Denzel Washingtonesque stutter that Preacher Dwight had that only came out when he got excited. 

He preached Hebrews 12:1. He aimed to preach on 12:1 and 2, but ran out of time. Hebrews 12:1 is the "run the race" and "Cloud of Witnesses" that I've seen on many a bookmark and t-shirt. He spoke, excitedly about the great cloud of witnesses, which includes the folks talked about in Hebrews 11. People like Noah, and Moses, and Enoch, and Issac, and Jacob, and Abraham. He spoke about how they and others are all part of the cloud of witnesses that cheer us on at this very minute. 

As I had always understood it, they they were just yelling and clapping for us, like I do for the UT football team. But he said something I'd never grasped before. He started giving examples of what the folks in the cloud were saying, singing and screaming. Things like "it's worth it!" and "Keep Going!"  But the sentence that stood out was:

HE CAN BE TRUSTED!

I'm still working out why that particular sentence resonated so deeply with me. But the Bible says that right now we are surrounded by a could of people who have waked the same road we are walking now. Having finished thier race the folks in the cloud scream out HE CAN BE TRUSTED! He can be trusted through finanncial uncertainty. He can be trusted through medical issues in both you and your family. He can be trusted in your broken relationships. He can be trusted in fundraising season. And he can be trusted with every last detail of your life. 

And that's pretty doggone good news. 

-Kris

What's Our Mission? The Christian Radio Letters Episode 8

I've been thinking a lot about missions this week. 

My mission as a person who follows Jesus. The mission of Shamrock Media. And the mission of radio stations all across America.  

I had the chance to talk with Sal April at WXHL this week, and he got into unpacking the reason the Reach Fm network exists and their over all mission for me. And I have to say it was refreshing.

Above all else, they are there to tell people about Jesus. He told me about an event they do call "The Day Of The Cross" where they, as a station and its listeners, serve the poor in the cities they broadcast to and use the station to present the gospel to the people whose physical needs were met at the events. It sounded incredible.

I then got to thinking about my time in radio and what our mission statement was in Knoxville. Sure, spreading the gospel was in there, but it wasn't the first thing in the mission statement paragraph, or even the second. And as I think back on my five years, yes, we did do some great evangelistic events that lots of folks trusted Christ at; but I can't remember a single event where we sought out lost and hurting people in order to serve them and use the incredible tool of a radio signal we'd been given to tell these people about Jesus.

I was genuinely convicted after our conversation about how I spent my time there. I fear I became so focused on "pyro marketing" and only going after the most likely listeners (Church people, particularly church moms) I totally forgot about Matthew 28:19-20.

My 1st reaction is to make excuses about how busy I was and how we had to be focused on a certain thing for the organization to be successful. I'd say to myself, "that's just not what we do."

But deep down, I know that's just what they were: excuses.

It's fine that outreach wasn't our primary mission, but I felt like an organization full of bible believing Christians perhaps missed some opportunities to bring new folks into the Kingdom for fear of it hurting our listener base. Am I saying I wish I had done more "Hard Ask" gospel presentations on the air? No. It's more that I wish my mind had been coming at my job from a little different angle. 

My small group at church has been reading the book Radical by David Platt. This week's chapter built a case for why we should have extreme urgency for telling people about Jesus.

The bottom line is: there is no plan B for making new disciples. We're it. If we don't carry out the great commission no one else will.

Is encouraging people in the church wrong? Absolutely not. The bible talks about encouragement a ton. It's a great and wonderful and needed thing in North American Church today.

I think where my conviction is coming from is not that I didn't give the 4 spiritual laws and an invitation everyday on the air. I think it's more that often times I misunderstood what 'encouragement' really is. In my mind 'encouragement' was making our target feel better about herself. Giving her a good "it'll all be okay" feeling, hopefully after a heartwarming story I had just told. Turning her day from negative to positive. Every time I would say something like "it'll be ok, you'll make it through" the words always rang hollow as they left my lips. Mainly because they were. The Bible promises nothing close to that.

What I'm starting to realize is that 'encouragement' is so much more. It's pointing people to the good King and Father who has adopted us as His sons and daughters. A father who longs to walk with us as we walk with each other through both the positives and negatives. It's the news that he accepts us as we are in the middle of our junk, and that He loves us enough to pick us up and turn us around. And to give us an incredible purpose and for the rest of our lives. And that when we invite Him in, He is there and present in every mundane, seemingly boring part of our lives. The ordinary becomes Holy. 

And so, I'll end with that, kudos to Sal and the Reach Fm folks for doing great work and ministry. And for reminding me to rearrange my priorities so that Jesus is where He should be: at the very top of the list.

And I want to say how proud I am to be a part of the Shamrock team. The heartbeat of this organization:  to reach people, and to serve radio and artists, is also very much my own personal heartbeat.

Thanks as always for reading my ramblings. Thank you for the incredible life changing work you all are involved with every single day. It's an honor to serve with you.

-Kris

We Breathe Because He Allows It - The Christian Radio Letters - Episode 7

This past weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to go see Francis Chan speak. In case you're not familiar with him, he's the guy that wrote the book, Crazy Love. I'm not sure what I expected going into it, I suppose an exciting, slightly guilt inducing message about living radically and giving up everything for the cause of the kingdom (because that's what the book is about).

 What he brought though was something completely unexpected. It was a simple message, right on the level of the audience: high school students. It was a simple presentation of the Gospel mixed with a very real and personal bit of his testimony. About how he grew up with an abusive father and how because of his being an immigrant from Hong Kong he always felt isolated.  2 things I specifically remember about his story: the vivid description of an episode of abuse, and this sentence: in third grade, I finally got one, I made a friend. 

Not having a single friend for in 3 years of school would normally be something embarassing. But in this case it was used for the Kingdom, his isolation made him relatable to a room full of 15,000 kids.

After his personal story he dove in to Isaiah 6 in a way that had never really soaked in with me. It's the chapter that describes God. After reading it the simple question was asked: Do you really believe all this is happening right now? It's a really simple question, but one I've never really spent much thought or time answering. The follow up question really put things in perspective for me: Isn't it amazing that all that is happening right now, at this very minute, that everything that's happening right now is happening because He allows it? Take a deep breath. You were able to take that breath because a Holy God allowed you to. 

See, I get so busy with my own tasks, I forget that stuff. Perhaps that's why I get so busy, so I don't dwell on my own smallness. But the cool thing is, it's that very smallness that makes God's love even more amazing. For a people seemingly so small and so insicnificant in the scope of the universe, He sent his Son to die in our place. 

So how do these lessons translate into encouragement specifically for radio folks? 2 things I think: Tell your story, your real story. Not all at once of course (I know you're music stations!), but drop in real life tidbits about your victories AND your stuggles. Every week in some way I'm reminded that when we are real and we let people see our warts and inperfections, they are encouraged, because then they know they are not alone. There are tons of people quietly drowning in the Church. With thier husbands working blue collar jobs, the late 30s mom of two that works an adminstrative job at the local college thinks she's the only one having trouble in her marraige. She feels like she's the only one in her mega church that's struggling with the feelings she has about taking care of her aging parents. She thinks she's the only one who has kids that misbehave. That's where we get to step in and be that reminder that she's not wierd and she's not a failure, and that she's not alone.

The other thing, read Isaiah 6 and let it be a reminder to slow down. Be reminded that all that stuff it talks about is happening right now. 

Every week, the most common phrase I hear from radio folks is, "Its just so busy here lately." 

I know it is. You're short staffed many of you, you've got remotes to get to, logs to make, meetings to have, spots to produce, money to raise, calls to answer (!) and shows to do. I know as good as anybody how busy you are. But might I make the humblest of suggestions: take 1 minute, right now, and do nothing but think about God as described in Isaiah 6. It might change your whole day.

-Kris

Prom Of The Stars and Secret Millionaires - The Christian Radio Letters Episode 6

Prom of The Stars, and Secret Millionaires

So this past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer at an event here in Knoxville called "The Prom Of The Stars."

It's a prom thrown every year for mentally handicapped adults, ages 16 and up, in the Knoxville area. And it's awesome.

Tuxes and dresses are donated, Hair and make-up are done for free, the music is loud and thumpin, and the guests all get a free meal and pictures. My job was to be a table host. There wasn't much to it really. Just check everyone in and make sure they are at the right place, and get  this or that  if needed. In fact, now that I think about it, it's one of the easiest volunteer gigs I've ever had, the most taxing thing I did all night was help crack the glow necklaces all the guests recieved. 

But the lack of actual work really gave me time to sit back and observe what was going on. Most of these folks were coming from group facilities and it was very likely that this was the one time of year they would have the opportunity to get dressed up and have thier picture made and go out for a "night on the town." 

The thing that stuck with me was the look a gentleman named Alvin had on his face when one of the ladies in our small group asked him to dance. But I'll get back to that in a minute...

There was a new reality show that premired this past weekend called Secret Millionaire where a millionaire goes undercover at different non-profit organizations and then at the end of the week, writes some big honkin checks in support of those organizations. My town, Knoxville, TN was feautred in the 1st episode (and there was a CCM connection too! see left). 

And as with any gooey reality show worth its salt, there are lots of tear-jerkingly happy moments throughout the whole hour-long ordeal. But I noticed someting, something that was freshly familiar in my mind. 

It was the look, The look the guy in the show had when he recieved a check for ten thousand dollars to take care of his family, was the very same look Alvin had on his face when the lady from our small group asked him to dance. 

Generosity is a powerful thing, and I'm not just talking about money. Being generous with our time can make just as large an impact.

The lady from my small group didn't have ten thousand dollars to give, but she did have 5 minutes to look another human being in the eyes and ask him to dance, and I don't think Alvin would've traded his dance for it anyway.

That look. The one on Alvin's face as he strolled to the dance floor with Lori on his arm; the one on the faces of the people in Secret Millionare and they recieved thier checks; It's the look of pure undignified joy that we all get when we recieve a huge gift we can't repay. It's the incredible power of generosity and acceptance. It's the same look that a husband and wife get when they give thier vows to each other and say, "I choose you and love you even with all your screw-ups and imperfections", they give thier lives to each other. 

I think all of these things, these situations, are little glimpes into the heart of our King. That's why stories of great generosity resonate so deeply with us.

Because He's given so much to us. 

-Kris

I was going to try and tie this back around to radio and fundraising in some way, but I think I'll just leave it at that.

Libya, Christopher Lloyd, and Asking the Right Questions - The Christian Radio Letters Episode 5

I was talking with a friend this weekend who had just filled his car's tank and was angry at having to pay so much for it. Most folks seem to be blaming the high gas prices on the ongoing instability in the middle east and specifically Libya. The conversation then led to us thinking about how long Libya has had issues. 40 years thier dictator has been in power. And if I'm not mistaken, it was Libyan terrorists that shot Doc Brown in Back to the Future in 1985 (after he sold them a fake nuclear bomb made of pinball machine parts of course). 

I'm not really sure where I was going with that, I just really wanted to get a Back to the Future reference in here this week. Oh yeah, I remember...

The situation in the Middle East, I'm starting to realize, is a pretty big, historic deal. These revolutions we hear about on the nightly news are the things kids in the not too distant future will be reading about in thier World History Class.  

So what, if anything, is Christian Radio supposed to do with these events? I have no idea but, I think it's a valid question to ask. The easy thing would be to just say, "she" doesn't care about it and just move on to the next thing.  But I think there's another way. There's a way to come at it  that "she" does care about, and "she" does find compelling.

I think of the great Brant Hansen and the way he took the ugliness and seemingly un-target-friendly things happening in Afganistan, and turned it into an incredibly compelling and impactful campaign to have listeners knit and crochet  clothes for these little babies at a Cure International Hospital in Afganistan.

That made me think, maybe all those years I spent in radio I had been asking the wrong questions. Or at least asking them in the wrong order. I racked my brain everyday to figure out what "she" would be interested in, what "she" would connect to. And while that is a very important thing, perhaps I should have first been asking, "Where is Jesus in this story?"

Because there's something in all of us, male and female, that's naturally drawn to the Father and what He's doing. And it may not always be obvious. Sometimes we have to pull back the spin and really dig in and do some serious research to find where the Father is working.

And it may not always work for radio. But I can tell you, I would have skipped over a lot less show prep stuff if I had been looking for Him in the stories first.

-Kris

Settling in & Hope - The Christian Radio Letters - Episode 4

A month and a half in to this adventure of music promotion and I'm still excited to pick up the phone. There are instresting and friendly people all over the country that make desicions on music and programming that I have the priveledge to communicate with almost every week. That Is a blessing.

Tonight my wife and I finally watched the movie "Precious." I had seen the clips and knew a little about what I ws getting into. That the movie was heavy and even somewhat dark. 

The award shows were right to give Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress to the ladies in this movie.  Thier performances really were art. But the thing on my mind coming out of the film is hope. The movie was a great reminder of the power of hope. It colors the way we see the world. And the movie portrayed that well. In the beginning all the scenes are dimly lit and clautrophobic, and as her life begins to comes together the movie becomes brighter and more open. 

That's kind of what we do in this indusrty too ya know? God works through the songs you play, and the words you say to make your listener's lives a little brighter and a little more open. 

I don't have any great deep revelations about this, but I did think it was a nice way to look at what we get to do.

Thanks for allowing me to serve with you.

-Kris