How would Jesus rock these days?
Music | Cornerstone is not your mother's Christian concert
Each summer as the Fourth of July holiday approaches, the tiny western Illinois village of Bushnell balloons to seven times its regular population. Local businesses post signs welcoming their returning guests as if they're the swallows of Capistrano, and the community seems to mount garage sales en masse.
Sarcastic rumors suggest that speeding tickets issued during this particular week may support the local sheriff's office for the bulk of the year. The buzz of activity comes courtesy of the Cornerstone Festival, a destination concert held annually on a 500-acre farm owned by Jesus People USA, a Christian community housed in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood.
(Brian Behm/Sun-Times)
Now in its 24th season, Cornerstone long ago eclipsed its humble origins at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake, Ill. These days, it rivals major festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza.
But don't expect clean-cut, Sunday morning worship music here. For that sort of fare, there's always the much larger Creation Festival, held each summer in Pennsylvania, which emphasizes mainstream pop acts such as Casting Crowns and Barlow Girl. Cornerstone is loud, and it can rock hard.
Cornerstone Festival director John Herrin recalls a conversation with an artist who once performed at both events. "She said that Creation Fest was the Gap, and Cornerstone was the thrift store," he laughs. "We're happy to be the thrift store. If Jesus was physically walking the earth today, I think that's where he'd be shopping."
In addition to a dozen music stages, Cornerstone offers programming that reflects JPUSA's focus on God, community and the arts. Seminar topics include "A Sustainable Future: Design as Devotion" and "Joining our Voices as ONE: Becoming Activists Who Fight Global Poverty." Presentations by faith-based charitable organizations including World Vision and Compassion International run alongside lectures from speakers such as fantasy author Stephen Lawhead.
Cornerstone's music and talk schedule also is augmented with art exhibits, sporting events, craft and activity workshops for the kids, as well as the Flickerings International Film Festival. This year, New York City-based documentary filmmaker Rob VanAlkemade will present his first feature, "What Would Jesus Buy," produced by Morgan Spurlock (of "Super Size Me" fame). VanAlkemade hopes to encounter "an audience that won't be found on a typical festival circuit." More specifically, he jokes that Cornerstone may actually harbor "believers with good taste."
But VanAlkemade recognizes his film's satirical sensibility may offend some Christians. During one scene, protagonist Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping exorcise cash registers along the Magnificent Mile, to the profound befuddlement of the consuming elite.
A Cornerstone rookie, VanAlkemade imagines (fairly accurately) the festival will be "a smaller Burning Man festival without the nudity and drugs, and probably with better music."
In 2007, Roe and company remain a reliable draw, but he remembers the days when they were decidedly hip. "There was a time when, literally, from the moment I stepped out of the van, I was a celeb -- mobbed by people. I could sign autographs and take pictures for hours. Now, we're just old guys," he laughs. "Cornerstone is a place where the old-timers won't let it die, but it's also a place where they get it. I appreciate that there are still people who want to hear us."
Also appearing at the inaugural festival were groundbreaking rockers from the 1970s such as Resurrection Band, who drew musical inspiration from acts like Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane. Glenn Kaiser, former frontman for these rafter-rattling "Jesus music" rockers, was an original member of JPUSA. He currently serves on the community's pastoral staff. After returning from dates in Iceland, the blues-based Glenn Kaiser Band performs Wednesday at Cornerstone.
Kaiser says Resurrection Band's experience with international festivals fueled the desire to mount a stateside event -- one that welcomed people on the cultural fringe, and included "teaching on issues many churches seemed to either overlook, or didn't know how to dialogue about."
Today, Kaiser helps cultivate Cornerstone's inclusive atmosphere. "The festival is for everyone who is seeking Jesus, even if they don't know it," he explains via e-mail. "Our job is to present the rich diversity within the larger body of Christ in such a way that pre-believers and longtime followers alike can appreciate Him and one another more."
Members of Pilgrims Covenant Church of Monroe, Wis., voiced objection to Cornerstone's apparent consent regarding styles of music, dress, tattoos, body piercing, and its taste in films. Referring to his experience at the festival, pastor Ralph Ovadal's blog warns that attempts to "lure the sinner to Jesus with worldly devices is bearing some very evil fruit among the young of this nation." Cornerstone staffers and volunteers brought water to their detractors during the oppressive July heat, which was refused, according to JPUSA sources.
"Showing respect for everyone, regardless of who they are or what they believe," Herrin adds, "is a big part of following Jesus."
Jeff Elbel is a Chicago free-lance writer.
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Jeff Elbel