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The unforgettable Journey of a music Promoters Transformation
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John WilsonChristianitytestimony
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The unforgettable Journey of a music Promoters Transformation
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The unforgettable Journey of a music Promoters Transformation
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In the summer of 2019, the speaker heard about a free Christian music festival in Missouri and was excited to attend. During the festival, they witnessed powerful ministry, including baptisms and prayer. They were impressed by the testimony of the event organizer, John Wilson, and eventually got to meet him. They have since worked together and have been inspired by John's passion for seeing people saved and set free. In an interview, John discusses his difficult childhood, his love for music, and how writing a book helped him understand himself better and find healing. He also talks about his past in the music industry and his desire to reach people who, like him, seek acceptance. Going back to the summer of 2019, we were living in Missouri, and I was working for a ministry in Branson. And while I was there, I heard a radio ad for an outdoor Christian music festival going on in Springfield, Missouri, just down the road. And to top it off, it was a free event. And though this event was free, this was not bands and artists you had never heard of. And while we're talking, I carry Job, We Are Messengers, Danny Gokey, and others. Both Beth and I attended summertime Christian music festivals growing up and have great memories around these events. So we were pretty excited that there was one near us coming in July. During the event, we were amazed at the ministry that went on during the festival. Not only was there great music, but people were being baptized, and there was a large prayer tent that people were going in and out of the whole time. About midway through the event, there was a video played on the two big screens that was about John and Beth Wilson. John and his ministry were the ones that were putting on this event, and this video showed John and Beth's amazing testimony and how they were saved out of drugs, alcohol, and a life of partying. I was so impressed at what John and his entire ministry vision was about that I thought someday I would really like to meet John. A few months down the road, through a mutual friend, I was able to connect with John and meet him for coffee in Springfield, Missouri, and the rest is history. The next couple of years, I was able to work with John in a few capacities, including being on the board of Light the Way for a time and even being in the prayer tent with my Beth in the 2021 Summer Music Festival. You will never meet a person with a bigger heart to see people saved and set free than John Wilson. And with John, it is not just talk, but he puts action to his faith and now holds multiple events each year. And this is why Beth and I are super excited to have him on Faith Moving Forward today. Hello, my name is Kevin and I'm with my co-host Beth. And you are listening to the Faith Moving Forward podcast. Today's episode is brought to you from The Russell, a historic East Nashville church transformed into a one-of-a-kind boutique hotel. The Russell's mission is to give back to the Nashville community through their Rooms for Rooms program by donating a portion of your stay to local organizations who provide a safe haven for those experiencing homelessness in the Nashville community. Visit russellnashville.com to book your stay. Welcome, John, and thanks so much for being on Faith Moving Forward. Yeah, thank you both for having me. I'm excited to be on today's show. Oh, we're glad to have you. I'm excited for everybody to hear your life story. Can you give us a glimpse into your childhood and how lifeless were you growing up? Oh, absolutely. You know, I've always had to think back a moment or two of, like, where did my love for music come from? And it wasn't until actually recently when I had just finished my book where I found that love, where that love came from. And it came from when I was a young, young child growing up in a home. I was raised in an atmosphere where, you know, we were poor. There wasn't a lot available to us. And I lived in a pretty strict home. My dad was a truck driver, and I had a stepmom who was home-bodied. And, you know, it was a rough childhood. And for majority of my years, all the way up to about the age of 17, I was always stuck in a basement where my room was. I wasn't allowed to do any of the outdoor activities or even much less go outside and play or any of those things. And it was just so dark. And it was, you know, I was beaten a few times. I wasn't allowed to eat much at all. It was just a really, really tough childhood. And really the only thing that I had at those times was a little radio, and it would always play music. And it would be those moments when I would just push play on that radio and then just listen to the song that would be coming through the airwaves that would just literally take me out of that moment that I was in in that basement, and it would take me in another world. And I feel like that until I got my book done, that it was just like that was the moment for me that captured my love for music. And honestly, that's what it still does. Music just takes me out of my current situation or whatever I was dealing with then and helped me get through it. And that's what generated my love for music in general. Wow. Now, when you're writing your book, did that bring back a lot of those feelings that you felt when you were in that basement listening to the music? You know, it really did. You know, when I wrote my book, I started my book, well, when I ended it, it was eight chapters long. It wasn't very long because I'm not a book reader myself. So I had to think, OK, like, how am I going to get this in the hands of people like me who don't want to read a book? Right. And I so wanted to make it short. And when I made it short, I stopped at eight chapters. And then when I got it to my editor, my editor, she was reading it and she's like, John, we need some context. Why do you love music so much? Because I didn't put any of that part in there because I didn't want the readers to think I was bashing my parents or, you know, my childhood. I didn't want them to, you know, because they're still alive and we still talk and things like that. And I didn't want them to feel that I was going after them. I didn't want the book to be about, you know, those moments. Right. But I had to say those moments. I had to write those moments. And I have to say, Kevin, it was it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do was to write those, you know, write those moments down. Because not only was it was I trying not to make it a book about bashing them, but man, was it flaring up some stuff. It was really I didn't I didn't think a book editor was going to be a counselor. Little did you know. Yeah. Wow. That's really cool. But including that is going to probably bring some freedom and exposure to some people of their own hearts. Things that maybe have been suppressed. Yeah, no, absolutely. And it really what it did for me is it made me realize why I am who I am today. Why do I do the things that I've done and still continue to do? It really opened up my eyes. You know, and I'll have to say, too, is writing this book has really just generated something in me that I mean, I can't even tell you everything that was written in it right now, because I know it was being written by the Holy Spirit. It was guiding my pen every page. And I even go back and read it. I'm just like, wow, this is, you know, this is amazing. And what it had to do, it had to break some stuff off of me, too. You know, I had some stuff, maybe even some built-in bitterness, maybe even unforgiveness that was there. You know, there were some things I'm like, OK, I've got to I've got to I've got to release this and move on. And by writing it out helped me do that. Wow. That is so good. It's powerful. Yeah. And, you know, it is good that it's a short book. And one thing I like about your ministry is you always are thinking, what would the old John do? What would the old John like? You know, you talked about a short book, an easy read, but still powerful. That's what you've come up with. And, you know, your ministry is about church outside of the wall. So we can talk about it in a little bit here. But I think that's why you're so effective is you're you think back to the days when you before you were saved. And you're like, what would John, that John, pre-Jesus, what would he go to? What would he like? What would he want to do in this situation? And you just reach people so easily. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, being and I've been in the music business for over 18 years now together. And a large part of those years was in the secular music. I was a country music promoter. Yeah. And, you know, I managed local artists and country artists and book them in nightclubs and bars and doing that. So I built relationships with those bar owners where they asked me to bring in bigger artists. And I would just kind of weave my way into the Nashville scene, so to speak, and build relationships. And now now I'm an entertainment buyer. And then as that career was escalating, so were my drugs and alcohol, because I always was just feeling like I wanted to be accepted. I wanted to be welcomed. I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be I wanted to feel like I had a purpose. And writing the book to make me feel like like when I was that young boy stuck in the room and I didn't have anyone around me, when I got released and when I moved out at the age of 17, I was free. So what did I do? I spread my wings. I was going after anything and everything I could that would be an be accepting to me. And the only thing at that time that I felt that would accept me was was partying and drinking. And and I was feeling like I was on top of the world, so to speak, like building relationships with Nashville, becoming one of the biggest promoters in the area, doing some big shows and then having fun with the artist and drinking and smoking all my profits away from every show that I would do. And I was feeling like I was being accepted. And it wasn't until writing this book that, wow, that's that's what I've always been chasing after, was just wanting to feel accepted. Only because I didn't feel accepted when I was a kid. Sure. Yeah, right. Wow. That's insightful. That's great that this book brought that out. Wow. Yeah. So I know. Was it your junior year that you actually left home? It was. I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was an argument with my parents. It was something in the sense of I didn't I didn't clean an ashtray or something because my parents are smokers and I always had to clean up after them, which explains why I'm a clean freak now. You come to my house, it's going to be clean. But there was an argument that just exploded. And I was 17 at the time and I was just coming into my junior year, the summer of my sophomore and junior year. And I just told my parents, I'm done. I'm done. I'm leaving. I went and grabbed a couple of trash bags and filled them up full of clothes and left and never returned back. And that was that was my junior year. And that was very hard. I mean, trying to figure out if I was going to finish school, trying to finish, you know, what am I going to do? Where am I going to live? How am I going to eat? You know, I didn't have a driver's license. I didn't have anything. And I moved out and, you know, fast forward going into school, going into high school. I was the only kid in high school in my junior year to have my own house. And guess where the parties were? Yeah, it was back and forth on the streets. Yeah. Wow. So you finished high school then? Yeah, yeah, I did. I ended up finishing high school and I actually got a high school diploma. And, you know, it was tough, but I barely did it. And I got enough credit and I just, yeah, I was able to graduate. And I would say I was I'm still very proud of being able to have that diploma on my wall. Yeah. So did you work and go to high school at the same time so you could have that house? I did. I did. I had at least a couple of jobs going at once. I was a manager at Sonic at one time and still still going to school. And fortunately, my senior year, I was only able I didn't have to go a full day of school. So it was just a half a day. OK, so you went in the morning and then had the rest of the day to work. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So when did music come on the scene? When did that start percolating in you? Yeah, I would say probably my senior year when I started to get involved in a lot of the music programs at the school, whether it was band, show choir or choir. Again, it goes back to trying to find that group that would accept me. Right. And so I would try to go in the band and I wasn't that good. I played the trombone, but I loved the music. And I'm like, well, I don't think that's for me. Then I got into choir and was able to train my voice and sing quite a bit. I was quite a bit of a singer through high school, through junior high. I'm sorry, junior in my senior year, I was a singer. I actually went to state and got a lot of awards and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol ruined my voice. But one thing I hated was I hated being on the stage. I hated being in the spotlight. There was one point, too, that I was in a group called a show choir group. It was dancing and singing because back in those days, that's when like NSYNC and Boyz II Men and Backstreet Boys, those boy bands were really popular. I was one of them. I wanted to be them. Really? With blonde tips and everything, you know. So it wasn't hard when you were with the other guys on the stage, but you didn't want to be up there by yourself? That's right. That's right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That really was bringing up music and singing and dancing. Of course, we graduated from high school and we all just kind of went our own way. I still kind of had a passion for music. I never had been to a music festival or a concert ever. I would say probably fast forward another couple, two or three years, maybe even more, I met my wife, Bethany. I was working for a magazine company delivering magazines to Walmart and stuff. I always had the radio blaring and just driving down the road to my next stop. I'd always hear about this big music festival that was coming to Springfield, Missouri. It was a country music festival. I remember it was Tim McGraw and One Republic. I'm thinking I would do anything to go to that concert. I didn't have no money. We didn't have nothing. We were spending all the money we got on drugs and alcohol, but I wanted to go to that. I heard an ad that the radio station was offering for people to come and volunteer and they can get in for free. All you had to do was hand out flyers. I don't think I could have dialed the number fast enough. I dialed that number and I got in. I said, sign me up, we're in. The day comes and we're walking in and we meet up where we're supposed to meet up to get our flyers. I'll have to tell you, I feel bad about this, but we got our flyers. We handed out two or three, threw the rest away and jetted to the front of the stage to watch the show. The truth comes out. The truth comes out, yeah. It was that moment that even though Tim McGraw and One Republic and all those guys were all right in front of us, I was not even focused on them. What I was focused on was what the stage was, what was going on behind the stage, all the lights, all the components. I was just so distracted by it all. Not in a bad way, I was just memorized by it. I looked over at Beth and I said, I want to do this. The next thing you know, I just started like, how do I do this? How do I start? That's how I just kind of threw a series of conversations and meeting people. I found this artist that wanted to be a country music artist. Got him into bars and then worked my way all the way up. Wow, okay. Now you made mention of Beth. Where did Beth come in this picture? Yeah, my Beth, we were actually both bartenders. Prior to us meeting, we were both bartenders at two different bars. Again, trying to feel welcomed and fit in, this bar that I would bartend on, if I wasn't working, I was karaokeing or singing or dancing. Just kind of making a fool of myself just to get attention, right? There was always this young lady, I call her young lady, but everyone called her Grandma Shirley. She would always come to the bar and she didn't drink one sip of alcohol. She would come and have a Diet Dr. Pepper. She would just love on everyone and she always loved on me. She loved watching me sing and dance and make a fool out of myself. She knew I was single. She knew that I was looking. She knew Beth from the bar we were in the other town. She ultimately connected us. Beth and I got connected at the bar that she worked at in the other town. There was kind of like a county fair going on. I met her and took her out in the parking lot where the county fair was. I was teaching her how to two-step and dance. We fell in love. We both loved music and Beth was a singer herself. We would both do karaoke and sing and things like that. Like I said, the common factors we had was music and drugs. It was a match made. For what town was it? You said a small town? Where was that? My hometown was Stockton, Missouri. Her hometown or where she was living at that time was El Dorado Springs, which they were 22 miles apart. Okay. Wow, that's cool. Wow. What is the story of how you received Jesus? Where does Jesus come into the picture of all this? How did it play out? Yeah, well, you know, one of the factors that Beth and I had was not only where we had in common was music and drugs and alcohol, but we also hated Christianity. We hated church. We didn't feel belonged. We didn't feel welcomed. We always felt that Christians were judgmental, just hypocrites, and, I mean, just everything you can think of. That was one of the third things that Beth and I had in common. And, you know, we would intentionally, if we saw a Christian walking down the street, we would cross the street to the other side just to avoid that person, you know. Really? Yeah. And there was one gentleman, his name is Bo, and I went to school with Bo. He was younger. He was a grade younger than me, and I knew Bo. Bo, I knew he was a Christian, and I knew he was a super nice guy. He was probably really the only guy that, I could really talk to and just have a normal conversation and not feel preached at or the Bible would be thrown down my throat. And he was just a genuine guy, and every time we talked, he would always ask about my wife and how Beth and I are doing and all these things. And, you know, we grow in our marriage, and we have kids. We have our two kids, and then one day I get invited to go play soccer. One day I get invited to go play softball in my hometown of Stockton. I go, and I see there was a bunch of Christians, kind of hesitant there at first. But Bo was there, and I'm like, okay, well, you know, they're all kind of having fun with one another and bad-mouthing each other in a fun, clean way. And I'm like, I can dig into this. And through that, Bo passes me going out to the outfield as I come into the infield, and he just kind of shrugs me and says, hey, man, you should bring a concert to Stockton. And that was really the end of that. And throughout the whole evening that night, I can remember, it just pounded into my head over and over again about, I should bring a concert to Stockton. And I ran into him a few days after that, and I just, man, I told him, I said, I can't let this go. It's like, you know I'm in secular music, right? Like, I do country music. At that time in my career as a country music promoter, I'm almost graduated from nightclubs to now arenas and coliseums, right? Oh, wow, okay. And I was telling him, it's like, man, there's, I would love to do like a country music festival or something like that. And I said, but this town couldn't support this. I mean, this town of 1,500 in population, it doesn't even have a stoplight. I mean, I think the highlight of that town was a Dollar General, right? Of course. That was amazing when Dollar General was there, you know? Is that called Stockton? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was saying, well, you should bring a concert here. And I said, there's no way it can happen. He asked me, he said, well, in short, how do you do it? How do you do it right now? And I said, well, I find a venue, I find an artist and put tickets on sale and hopefully make money. He says, well, what if I have a venue for you? And I'm like, Beau, I've lived in Stockton my whole life. There's no venue here. He goes, well, just hypothetically, what if I had a venue for you? I said, well, that's fine. I said, this town won't support it. He goes, yeah, you're probably right. What about a Christian concert, he says. And, you know, I'll keep it PG on what I said to him back then, but I just said no. And he's just like, well, why not? I said, well, one, I don't want to do anything with Christians or Christian realm and I don't know anyone in the Christian industry and plus there's still no venue and I know no Christian artists. He's like, well, I have a venue that I know you could use and I know some Christian artists that I would love to have. And I said, okay, well, who are they? And he goes, well, I'll give you my top ten favorites and then you do your thing and try to figure out how to book them. And I go, okay, I can kind of do this, but I still don't have a venue. And he says, yeah, you do. Use my church. And he was a pastor. And I'm like, no, I can't go into your church. I'll probably catch the church on fire. I'm just not going to do this. And he said, well, don't think of it as a church. And what he told me was it kind of flipped the light on for me. He said, think of it as a venue. He says, if you need to tear down a wall, tear down a wall. If you need to pull out doors or make things work, pull out the doors and make it work. He goes, this is a venue. This is not a church. He goes, I said, well, if I do this, though, it's going to be 100% of a joke. I'm going to put very little effort in it, and I'm just going to just wing it, so to speak. And he just looked at me and says, you got yourself a deal. And I ended up calling the first three artists on the list that he had, and it was the third artist that answered their phone. And I told them who I was and what I wanted to do. And they never knew me. I never knew them. It was a group that was actually a heavy metal rock group called Seventh Day Slumber, which wasn't even my style. I couldn't even understand what they were singing. But this was like one of Bo's favorite artists, right? They're like, you know, we'll come. We'll do it. And ultimately, here comes the day, the concert day, and they're out here doing this. And, you know, again, I didn't want to put very much effort into it. And the show's going on, and my wife and I, Beth, we go out in the back parking lot, and we do what we normally do at shows, smoke, drink, whatever we want to do. So we're out in the back parking lot while the show's going on, and you can hear the show inside the church. I mean, this was probably one of the smallest shows I've ever done. 203 people on a July 13, 2016 was the date. And you could hear the music, you know, the beat, the boom, boom from outside. I bet. And all of a sudden, it stopped. It just completely stopped. And I'm thinking, oh, no. This church just, something just happened. You know, this band is known to bring pyrotechnics and stuff, so I was literally thinking I just caught this church on fire. But I didn't hear anyone screaming. I didn't hear anything, but I didn't hear no music. And as I'm processing this, I hear someone say, John, come inside. And I looked at my wife. My back was toward the building, and I looked at my wife and said, who just hollered at me to tell me to come inside? And she looked over my shoulder toward the building. She's like, no one hollered at you. And I said, no, someone just hollered at me and told me to come inside. Really? And I put down what I was smoking, and I went inside. And the reason why I wasn't hearing music was because the lead singer of that band, he was talking. He was sharing a story. He was sharing a story about drugs and alcohol and whatever. At first, I thought the guy was airing out my dirty laundry to my hometown people. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just like I was livid. I was upset. I mean, first off, this was supposed to be a concert, not preaching. And now this guy up here who doesn't know me is telling everyone about me. Oh, my goodness. But ultimately, no. Wow. He was talking about himself. Wow. Yeah. And then he had mentioned something about how he met a man in the back of an ambulance after trying to commit suicide. And I'm like, wait, what? And he was trying to commit suicide. He met a man in the back of an ambulance that saved his life. And I'm thinking, okay, well, now I'm a little interested in what this guy has to say. And he looked in the crowd and he goes, does anyone here want to meet this man? And I'm thinking, well, I'm kind of interested. You know, is he a paramedic? Is he the firefighter? Who is he? And he said, that man's name is Jesus Christ. And I'm like, what? How did that happen? And trying to process this, he goes, I want to see a show of hands that want to be introduced to Jesus. And at that time, I saw 23 kids raise their hand. And all of a sudden, I'm a complete wreck. I just lost it. I was so confused. I was emotional. I wanted to throw my hand up and be like, I want to meet that. I want to have that freedom. I want to meet that guy, too. I was just very distraught, so to speak. And I'm seeing 23 other people that have been facing the exact same thing I've been facing. Really? And they raise their hand. But I had my promoter hand on. I could not raise my hand. I had so much pride. But, man, I was so dying. I wanted to know more. And as I'm processing all this, here comes Pastor Bo from the front row all the way to the back wall where I was at. Puts his hand around my—or his arm around my neck and says—points to the crowd and says, look what you did. And I said, Bo, I have no idea what's happening. And he goes, you want me to explain it to you? And I said, please. And he explained it to me, and he led me through the salvation prayer of my full surrenderance to Christ. Wow. And it was that moment that I said yes to Jesus, and every addiction that I had completely just fell off me. It was like I just got out of the shower. Really? It was just completely clean. And I'm just—I go home, and I'm just like, I'm a totally different person. And all I can think about was what happened and how it happened and what it all meant. But all I knew was I was just—I just felt clean. And then I had a dream that night of an event, a large event in a big open field where there were hundreds and thousands of people, it seemed. And they were all lifting their hands up and praising and worshiping and doing what I just witnessed in this small church, but a massive crowd. And I didn't even know what that meant. And I called up Bo the next day, and I said, I just had this dream. I've got to explain it to you. And I did, and he looked at me. He goes, you know what that is, don't you? And I said, I have no clue what it is. He goes, I think you're supposed to do a Christian music festival. And I'm like, really? And I've always wanted to do a music festival. And he goes, I think so. And he goes, what do you feel when this happened to you? And I said, God is real, and I want to tell more people about it, but I'm not a preacher. And he says, well, maybe you need to do it as a music festival. And then that's when it dinged in me. It's like, I need to go after people that were just like me, who would never step foot in church, who would never go to a service like that, but would go to a concert any day of the week. I wanted to reach people. I wanted to take church outside the walls. And the moment I said that, he goes, that's it. You do a festival with the focus of taking church outside the walls. And in 2017, I launched our first festival in my hometown of 1,500 people in 2017, where we had over 10,000 people show up. Really? Yeah. That's pretty. No. It must have been the talk of the town, your event. Well, I mean, it was the talk of the century, it seemed like. I mean, it was just like people from everywhere was there, and it just nonstop. And the town freaked out. I mean, this town was, like I said, it was very, very small. It's one of those towns that your officer just walks around and carries a bullet in his pocket. You know what I mean? So, you know, yeah, exactly. So, needless to say, we were all freaked out. We didn't know what to do. But we were seeing hundreds of people come to know Christ at this festival, and it was free, and it was remarkable. And the follow-up plans for the following year, 2018, were like, we're going to split this day up into two days. Maybe that will split the crowd up. Maybe, you know, we won't have as much pressure on the town. Because we just did this in a city park. I mean, it was three acres of a city park. It wasn't big at all. Oh, my word. And 2018 rolled around. Two-day festival ended up having over 23,000 people showing up. And we ultimately totally outgrew the festival. And that's when we moved it to 2019, where you guys attended there, and just outside of Springfield. And that attendance for that whole weekend was pretty close to 43,000 people. Wow. Oh, my word. That is amazing. It's very obvious God's hand is all over this, John. This is definitely on you. God has definitely put this, like, cloak on you of, because when you stepped into it, look at the fruit. Look at the amount of people that are affected by this. Yeah. Since one of the things that I realized that since the moment that I said yes in 2016, and I started and launched Light the Way Ministry, which at that time it was actually called Light the Lake, because Stockton was up by a lake. And when we started this, up until current today, we have seen close to 120,000 people that's heard the gospel since my surrendering to Christ eight years ago. Okay. I think you put a lot of us to shame. Honestly, John, that's crazy numbers. And the other thing that was so impressive in 2019 is it was a lot more than just music. I mean, there was genuine ministry going on there. I mean, the baptism tank was operating, you know, and people were lined up to get baptized, and I just thought it was so cool. I want to thank you for, like, from the body of Christ at large for being so open to letting God just use you, because, honestly, Ken and I probably started in Willmar, Minnesota, at a festival called Sunshine, before we knew each other. It was, like, in Minneapolis, St. Paul. That's where everybody started and went to Christian music festivals. I never saw so much ministry going on as what you... The first time we went to Light the Way, I'm like, baptisms? Prayer tents? People can go anytime and get... This is, like, Jesus Hands and Feet in action, and, yeah, like you said, the church, what do you call it? Church Outside the Walls. Church Outside the Walls. I love this. Yeah, that's an awesome phrase. I love that. It's 2024 now, and Light the Way is really coming into its own and putting on some amazing shows. So what are your thoughts on 2025 and coming into this new year? What do you feel like the Lord is going to have you do? Well, you know, as we're wrapping up 2024, which has been a very interesting year for us, you know, it does sound great, and we're reaching a lot of people, and we're touching a lot of lives. So many people are being broken up, you know, and coming to know Christ, and it's great. And we've seen some struggles. There are some battles that comes with that, right? Oh, I'm sure. And even spiritual warfare on myself because I'm in the music industry, and I come from an old promoter way where I want to be the best. I want to be the biggest. And I'll have to say that after last year's event, which we did two festivals, one in Missouri and one in Mississippi, and I'm thinking I was starting to get a lot of pride growing in me. I'm like, all right, I'm becoming legit now in the Christian music world, and it was about me. It was about bringing in the Kerry Jobes, and I think we even did a Lauren Daigle show in 2020, and it was just, you know, there were so many things happening, and I was becoming so overwhelmed with that. And it didn't hit me until this last year, 2023 festival, when God says it's time to reset. And I'm like, I don't know what that means, you know. Now here in Missouri, it's Missouri's largest Christian music festival, and God says it's time to reset, and you need to be taken back to your first love. And I'm like, what does this mean? And the only thing I can think of was creating what I can think of as like an old school tent revival, and I've never been to one, so I don't even know what they're like other than what I've read and seen. And so this year we've decided, actually, you know, the dates were coming up here at the end of September. We made a big announcement that says we're not going to do a music festival here in Missouri, but instead we're going to do a three-day tent revival because we need to reset. We need to be revived, and not only we, but I personally, myself, I need to step back and be like, Lord, this has not been about you. It's been about me. It's been about the artist. So we're doing a three-day tent revival at the end of September. All I have to say is we're going through a spiritual reset so that 2025, when it comes around, we're not only doing festivals, not only are we doing concerts and going into public schools and doing concert, Christian concerts, but we've been asked to come to several areas. We've got potential places in Indiana and Kansas and Texas and now Missouri and Mississippi and so on and so forth where we're not only going to be able to bring all these concerts or festival opportunities, but we're looking at doing life away crusades as well where we're really going to focus on the ministry and bringing Christ into people's homes. Wow. That is such a need right now with society and everything going on. People need Jesus. They need peace. They need entertaining people. And the world was huge and still people like it, but boy, there's a lot of hurting people that need to know their loving Savior. I love what God's speaking to your heart. Yeah, and we're still trying to play through it and stuff, but music will always have a piece in it. And I've always said this to you. Music has a way of entering your own heart without your permission. What better way to do it than doing it through uplifting and encouraging music? So powerful. Yeah, you're right. So will there be a festival on 25, you think? We've not announced that yet. Okay. There will be in Mississippi. There will be in Mississippi. We do have that in Mississippi, in Olive Branch, Mississippi. There will be a two-day Christian music festival there on July 4th and July 5th. And this will be your second one there? That will be our third year there. Wow, it's gone really well there, hasn't it? It has, yes. We just got off of our second year there, and we already, with this last few months ago, we had a little over 14,000 that attended. Wow, and the city loves it, don't they? The city doesn't want us to leave. Oh, man. Wow, that's awesome. So cool. Yeah. Wowee. Yeah. Well, that's exciting. Well, the good news is we've done kind of a high-level look at your testimony and everything, but John has written a book very recently, and it is available. So, John, what's the best way, if people are interested in getting this book, for them to get a copy of it? Yeah, so the book, the title is called Honky Tonk Nights to Christian Life. It's my story. It's what you've heard already and a little bit more in depth of that. And honestly, it's available through Amazon. It's available at walmart.com, Books a Million, and Barnes & Noble. So if you go on any of those online platforms and just type in the book's title, Honky Tonk Nights to Christian Life, you'll find it. Okay, cool. Or you can go to our website, yeah. Yeah, okay. And to keep up with your events and upcoming opportunities, you know, even for volunteering, what's your website? Yeah, the website is LightTheWayMinistry.com. LightTheWayMinistry.com. Okay, and you said they can get the book on there too. They can, yes. Okay, awesome. And how are you for volunteers this year? Are you always needing volunteers? Oh, yes. We're always needing volunteers at all of our events, and there's an option to where you can click on a volunteer tab in our website, and it shows you all the opportunities for all the events that we have anywhere. Anywhere there's an event, they'll be all listed on there. Yes, sir. Okay, perfect. Wow. Awesome. And does LightTheWay have socials too that can be followed? Absolutely. We are on TikTok. We are on Instagram and also Facebook. Okay. Well, John, thank you so much. I know it's really busy, and we're kind of on a holiday weekend here, so it's probably extra busy, but we really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and for us and our listeners to hear more about the whole story. Yeah, thank you so much, John. It's really cool, and I'm excited for LightTheWay, and the future is going to be amazing for you and your ministry. So thanks so much. Yeah, thank you. Well, thank you both for inviting me on today. I've enjoyed it. Absolutely. Thanks so much for listening to the Faith Moving Forward podcast. Please consider subscribing to our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you're currently listening to.
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