BOOK REVIEW - "WITH ALL ITS TEETH: SEX, VIOLENCE, PROFANITY, AND THE DEATH OF CHRISTIAN ART" BY JOSHUA S. PORTER

The Bible is a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path." Does this mean that there are times it only lights a foot or two of that road? Can the Bible be clear one moment, ambiguous the next and some mixture a little further on? Is it blasphemous to consider that the Bible is art, or is that view consistent with God being the Master Artist? And is it possible that a novel or painting or other form of artistic creativity may be highly offensive to one believer and a comfort to another?

"With All Its Teeth: Sex, Violence, Profanity, and the Death of Christian Art," written by novelist, art-punk musician, and pastor Joshua S. Porter (odd combiniation, isn't it?) deals with these questions and others. 

The preface and "Act I: What is Art?" deals with the difficulty of defining art, that God is an artist and the world and Scripture are among His works of art, and the fact that art is not always beautiful or comfortable. At the end of chapter 1:1, Porter states, "To take issue with art is to take issue with God,. To devalue art is to devalue God." (p. 33). The remainder of the book has sections on what art is for, what to do with art, and dealing with concerns we have dealt with by art such as sex and violence. He concludes with how to move toward a Christian Appreciation of Art.

There aren't many books I consider rereading. This is an exception. It gave me things to think about, and some of those themes will come out in my blog. For example, most of my novel reading and music listening is focused on the Christian market. He hasn't changed my mind about my approach, and I'll be glad to tell you why, but  I am stronger on that being my opinion and calling, and applaud those who take a different direction.

I recommend this book very highly. I think pastors should read this, as well as artists and relatives of artists who wish they'd get a real job. I will give put an advisory on it - there may be parts you consider offensive. For example, when quoting someone using cuss words, he includes cuss words. 

ALBUM REVIEW - "HOUSE OF MOURNING" BY ANGEL MACHINE

"The heart of the wise in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." Ecclesiastes 7:4

"House of Mourning," the most recent release by Angel Machine, can be considered a concept album, based on the theme of the title, with lyrics, vocals, and keyboards creating a heavy mood. 

Angel Machine consists of Wayde and Apryll Seraph. This project begins with "Prelude: the House of Mourning," consisting of spoken word backed up with the electronic keyboards, and concludes with the radio edit of "Sea of Glass" (a longer version is the 3rd cut). 

At the halfway mark of 2026, this is my favorite album of the year. It definitely is thought provking and has memorable songs. My favorites are "Sea of Glass" and "Belief Divides." The instrumentals (title track, winter song) are both excellent as well.

LOOKING BACK AT THE '26 INDIANA GOSPEL MUSIC FESTIVAL AND A COMPARISON BETWEEN IGMF AND KINGDOM COME FESTIVAL.

Eric Shaw, emcee of the '26 IGMF, center, flanked by Revival Road Quartet

Becky and I moved to Indianapolis in '95, and for a while, we had no knowledge of two different music festivals. A little over a month ago, I gave you a pair of blogs dealing with the Kingdom Come Festival (aka KCF), which I was unaware of until '21 and didn't attend for another two years. Now, I attend most of it on the third weekend of June. The event is Thursday night and goes from 10am to about midnight Friday and Saturday; since I don't like driving after dark, I avoid the Thursday night set and leave the other nights no later than 7; earlier if I start getting sleepy. It is located at the Howard County Vietnam Veterans Grounds, and I drive the hour long trip back and forth.

Around that time, I also became familiar with the Indiana Gospel Music Festival (referred to as the IGMF). Actually, that familiarity was more with the Indiana Gospel Music Association (IGMA), and there is an overlap between the two. This event is, I believe, the 4th Saturday of July at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall, half the distance KCF is.. 

This year, IGMF was hosted by Eric Shaw, and included Ginny Spellman, Revival Road Quartet, Victorious Trio, Jeff Shelburne, the Worthen Family, Witness Quartet, By Faith Quartet, The Riddells, and the David Melton Family Singers. I'll admit I got drowsy, so I missed the final act and the finale. I first attended the '24 IGMF, and returned after missing last year's.

I wrote a summary of the '24 IGMF, and promised a blog of comparing the two festivals. That promised blog was posted... uh, now. I forgot all about it, so I'll mention the comparisons between the two.

1. MUSICAL GENRE. KCF is eclectic style wise, though it's mostly metal/hard rock (there also was rap, country, and pop. IGMF is Southern Gospel. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was the only person who attended both events. (In fact, I'd be shocked if I wasn't.)
2. THE GROUNDS. KCF currently has three stages: The outdoor Main Stage, an indoor stage in a metal barn, and an acoustic stage under a tent. Only the Acoustic stage has seats set up in the area. IGMF, on the other hand, is indoors, with seats set up for the audience, who help put up those chairs when the festival is over.
3. DURATION. I mentioned KCF's duration above. IGMF is four hours.
4. SCHEDULE. KCF's sets mostly are half an hour, with some of the Acoustic Stage's being 20 minutes, and the bigger names having 45 minute to an hour sets. The Main Stage has 15 minutes between sets, while the other stages have a 30 minute break. This year, each IGMF artist had 4 song sets (the final act, which I missed, may have been longer). The emcee gave a few announcements and jokes, but there probably was no more than five minutes between acts. The reason why follows.
5. INSTRUMENTS OF CHOICE. Here, I'll start with the IGMF: the accompaniment of choice most of the time is back-ground tapes. When I left this year, the only live instrument was Jeff Shelburne's trumpet; in '24 one act had a piano player, and soloist Curtis Pruett played both guitar and keyboards - in one case, on the same song. The performers at KCF were mostly bands, and I believe that any who used tracks also had live instruments.
6. TIME TO VISIT WITH THE ARTISTS. Simply put, if you want to mingle with the artists at IGMF, plan on getting there at least a half hour early, because the transitions between acts aren't long enough to do much moving around. As for KCF, they have a large merchandise tent separate from the stages, where it's easy to get merchandise and talk to the artists, with time to spend in that tent.
7. FINALLY, THE FINALE. I've been to three IGMF events (one of which had Eric Shaw as emcee and three artists performing), and I left early for one, but my hunch is they always end with all the artists getting on the stage and the emcee leading the singers and audience in singing a few traditional songs everyone knows. I've always left KCF hours before the final act, but the logistics seem to be against them having the same type of conclusion (KCF has 50 or so different artists in the three days, IGMF has approximately a dozen).

Allow me to close with a few photos from the IGMF Festival.

EmCee Eric Shaw and Ginny Spellman

Victorious Trio

Justin Riddell of The Riddells with his wife and children. Not pictured is the rest of the group - Justin's sister and mother.

The Worthen Family 

By Faith Quartet, with Eric Shaw emceeing.

The Witness Quartet. The young men in the back row on the left are brothers, and took turns filling in for their normal bass singer (one commented they never had a normal bass singer). 
  

Jeff Shelburne

BOOK REVIEW - "FRACTURED, FRAGMENT 01" (DARK TRENCH SHADOW SERIES, BOOK 3 OF 4) BY KERRY NIETZ

 What is the greatest danger facing Threadbare the debugger? Anti-tech terrorists threatening to destroy the status quo? A sadistic representative determined to enforce the status quo? Or his girl-friend Damali, which is the opposite of a debugger's status quo?

After a multi-year break working on other series and a stand-alone, Kerry Nietz returns with book 3 of his Dark Trench Shadow Series with "Fractured, Fragment One." At the time of review, "Fractured, Fragment Two" is published and available. In his acknowledgements, Nietz mentioned that when he was writing the latest installment of the Dark Trench Shadow Series it was getting to long for one book, so he divided it up into two parts.

Nietz's first novel was "A Star Curiously Singing," the beginning of the  three part DarkTrench Saga. Later, he introduced the DarkTrench Shadow series, which starts at the same point of time the earlier series did, but took a divergent route with some of the same characters, and ends before DarkTrench Saga does. If you haven't read any of his Dark Trench books, my suggestion would be to read the first two DarkTrench novels ("A Star Curiously Singing" and "The Superlative Stream," and then read the DarkTrench Shadow Series ("Frayed," Fraught," and "Fractured" both Fragment 1 and Fragment 2), and then conclude with "Freeheads," the last of the DarkTrench Saga.

For those unfamiliar, the DarkTrench stories fall into the distopian category, a world where the planet is under Sharia Law and a part of the populace are debuggers, with head implants. The books are full of plot twists, as well as interesting characters.

I highly recommend all of Nietz's books. I've read 14 of his novels (I'll be starting Fractured, Fragment 2 in a couple of days), his autobiographic "Fox Tales," and "Just Dumb Enough," a collaboration by the March Lords, including Nietz. 

BOOK REVIEW - "I WISH YOU JESUS: THE LIFE & MUSIC OF SCOTT WESLEY BROWN" BY KEITH MANLEY WITH SCOTT WESLEY BROWN

 My adult life has been blessed by listening to Scott Wesley Brown. Many of his songs have been a constant encouragement like "Learning To Live Like Jesus," "Keep the Son In Your Eyes," "Within His Joy," "Look What God Is Doing," and "He Will Carry You." Some leave me feeling back I've just hearing a sermon, such as "This Little Child" and "Yeshua Hamachiah." And my favorite Scott Wesley song (and in the top ten of my all time favorite songs, quite possibly the top five), "Out on a Limb" is a superb motivator.

Likewise "I Wish You Jesus," the authorized biography by Keith Manley with Scott Wesley Brown, accomplishes some of those things as it goes through Scott's life. I found myself encouraged and motivated reading this book I didn't know he was involved with CCM since the Jesus Music Days, that he worked with important people in the formation of Christian music like Larry Norman and Gary Paxton, and was part of Sparrow Records when it started. It also shares his heart for missions, including several trips to places around the world, including behind the iron curtain before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and once having his guitar confiscated by the KGB.

There were a few weaknesses with the book. It seems like he has too many "This really impacted Scott's life" to keep me from rolling my eyes some. By the end of the book, what was meant as review ended up being repetitiveness. Still, this book is worthy of 5 stars and a full recommendation.

BOOK REVIEW - "SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH" (COLORADO K-9 UNIT BOOK 1) BY LAURA SCOTT

 

Who murdered rancher Jordan Clarke's missing sister, and what happened to her newborn child?  How about the unknown assailant taking potshots at Autumn Riley, who with her bloodhound partner Bear are part of a task force to solve that murder, two previous similar killings, and rescue another pregnant girl who's missing?

It's an annual tradition, or at least its been the past four years: Laura Scott has the honor of starting Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspence imprint. This year, she's getting the Colorado K-9 Unit series moving with "Searching for the Truth." 

One thing I always try to do in reviewing fiction is to spoil the book (I don't worry as much about spoiling the plot in non-fiction books). Of course, the main story threads are not concluded in the first book, but in my opinion the ending for the first book was not completely satisfying. I see hints that parts of this series will be disturbing for certain readers. 

Does that mean I don't recommend it? No. It's well written, and you can care for Jordan and Autumn through this story (and they'll probably have a smaller but definite part as the series progresses. Thus, I give this 5 stars, and recommend it.

ALBUM REVIEW - "RED ALERT" BY MALCOLM & THE MIRRORS

Red Alert by Malcolm and the Mirrors, which came out in '82, is one of my favorite albums musically, one of my favorite albums ministry wise, and one of my favorite album covers.

No, this album came out before the TV show, so there's no connection with Malcolm in the Middle. Malcolm refers to Malcolm Wild, who in the '70' was part of the Jesus Music pioneer group Malcolm & Alwyn, who had a solo between the two groups (he's currently a pastor at a Calvary Chapel in Florida). For those who are familiar with his earlier items, you need to put on your seat belt - this one is definitely harder.

Some of the songs on this project deal with the threat of nuclear war in the title track and in "Paint Your Windows White." The answer, though, is not politics but in Christ, which are the themes of lead off song "Gotta Give," "Can't Live Without Him" (which was previously on the Back To The Rock compilation), "Sharon O (She's Gonna Go Through Stages)," and "Love Your Love."

For me, though, the highlight of the album is the final two songs. "Look Up! (His Coming's Near)" and "Alright By Me" have encouraged me multiple times in the 45 years since I started listening to them, up till present.

I highly recommend this album.

STUDY BOOK REVIEW - "NOT MY JESUS: RECLAIMING THE TRUTH, REJECTING THE IDOLS" BY SHANE PRUITT

 

The Community Group I'm in (think adult men's Sunday School class) has spent the last 16 weeks going through "Not My Jesus: Reclaiming the Truth, Rejecting the Idols". Yes, this is an 8 week study, but our class tends to take our time going deep into the material each week. Author Shane Pruitt introduces the student to 8 Pseudo-Christs:

1. The Moldable Jesus: a regular human being like us, not Divine, but being molded as we are by circumstances and the like.
2. The Personal Genie Jesus: Quick to grant us our needs and wants, focusing on our will, not His.
3. The Non-Judgmental Jesus: Ready to say, "Neither do I condemn you" but doesn't add "Go and Sin no more."
4. The Participation Trophy Jesus: Accepting everybody into heaven, without us needing to do anything but be alive.
5. The Distant Jesus: A Christ who doesn't pay much attention to our day by day lives.
6. The Comfortable Jesus: A deity who doesn't expect us to get out of our comfort zone or challenge us.
7. The Boring Jesus: A faith that doesn't have much excitement, not as appealing as the world to the believer.
8. The National Jesus: A Savior who's more interested in the U.S. of A. but not so much everybody else.

This book starts with an introduction to the author, how to use the study and Bible study tips and resources, and why we can trust the Bible.Each chapter a group session guide and three personal studies. On the final page of the study book, there's a code which allows you to view a 10-15 minute video with the author explaining the lesson. 

I found this an interesting study, and the videos enjoyable. I've had studies before from Lifeway which has personal studies, and I'm never sure if they're supposed to be comvered before the video and class or afterwards - I do the former. 

I recommend this for personal study and more so for studying this as a group as I did, and as this book is designed to.

WHAT IF WE HAD A SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AND NOBODY CAME?

American Flag displayed at Howard County Vietnam Veteran's Grounds, Greentown, IN

One of my favorite memories was sitting in the living room in '75 and '76, watching CBS and especially being interested in the short segment "200 Years Ago Today..." Just as impactful was seeing a sign on a door of a business in beautiful downtown Cottonwood, AZ during that time, which read "200 Years ago today, on this very spot, not a thing happened."

A few years later, I saw a news special on New Year's Eve, 1979 looking at the decade of the 70's, and covering three events that defined that decade. Those were, I believe, the covert war in Laos (I could be wrong about this one), the resignation of President Nixon, and the celebration of the Bicentennial.

Fast forward half a century. I'm still around. But do I see the same attention given that they did 50 years earlier? Do I see "250 Years Ago Today" on TV? No. Thought that might be because I don't watch TV. Neither do I see signs letting you know that nothing happened on that spot 250 years ago.

I'll admit that I don't feel the same jubilation because I'm not where I see it promoted. Nothing got me excited about it. That fact depresses me: I do want to be celebrant of the mile stone (I've heard some state that in 200 years after becoming free, a nation returns to slavery; I don't remember who said this, but I'm glad that hasn't happened at present time.) 

Let me bring up a question, though. Is it possible that many have been deceived into believing our country existing isn't necessarily a good thing? Could it be the unsettledness due to the division in the country that makes the possibility of civil war exists, one where a person will unfriend you because you vote for the wrong candidate, or where someone is considered not having anything worth saying if they they call those who aren't legal residents of this country illegal and who think law enforcement officials should enforce the law? Could it be that we've been bullied and are afraid to speak out and think that our race or religious convictions or gender or gender identity disqualifies us from expressing our views? Could it be that we're afraid we'll be called Christian nationalists if we hold to conservative views?

Is our nation perfect? Uh, the nation is made up of people - are any of our citizens perfect? We have errors. Yes, I see Christian Nationalism (as opposed to Christian Patriotism) as a problem. But it's not the only problem - Progressive Christianity is one I fear just as much.

Lifeway Research has put out a couple of polls recently for U.S. Protestant pastors, with slightly different angles. The first question was if it was important to incorporate patriotic elements into worship services on the 4th of July weekend. The second  was whether their church should do something special to commemorate our country's 250th birthday on July 4th, 2026. Yes, both are similar, but the first talks about patriotic elements and the second sees it more something special to point out the milestone. 

Results?

1st Poll - Should the Church incorporate patriotic elements into worship?

• Total Agree             45%
• Strongly Agree       16%
• Total Disagree        53%
• Strongly Disagree   29%
• Not Sure                  2%

2nd Poll - Should the Church commemmorate the nation's 250th Birthday?

• Total Agree              50% 
• Strongly Agree         16%
• Total Disagree          47%
• Strongly Disagree     19%
• Not Sure                    3%

One item that did make me smile. Google is our platform, and for a week or two the Google home page had a soccer themed artwork on their logo. The 3rd and 4th of July? They had a patriotic theme. I'm grateful for that. The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site was open, but I don't know if they had anything special. Also, the Indianapolis Zoo had a special today, with admission for $17.76. I wonder what the animals did to commemorate the event.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the 250th anniversary  and its celebration. Is it like having a Semiquincential party and nobody came?

NOTE - Question in title and in concluding sentence inspired by my friend Robert Roberg titled "What if They Had a War and Nobody Came?

BOOK REVIEW - "CLASSICAL MUSIC: THE 50 GREATEST COMPOSERS AND THEIR 1,000 GREATEST WORKS" BY PHIL G. GOULDING

 My favorite genres of music are Classical and Symphonic Rock. Do I consider myself an expert on who's the best? Not even close. I like what I like and will give what I don't like a couple of times. There are certain eras I prefer to others: Baroque isn't my cup of tea, I love a lot of the romantic era, and sometimes I think the principal instrument in 20th Century music is fingernails on the chalk board.

That being said, I picked up "Classical Music: The 50th Greatest Composers and Their 1,000 Greatest Works" by Phil Goulding, wondering how much disagreement we'll have. While there are disagreements, I find myself agreeing more.

Goulding started this book as a challenge by his wife At that point, I probably knew more than he did. His approach to ranking the artists was sound, using how many pages of music by the composers as a guide. 

He starts off with a few lists about the performers, including his ranking, the composer's century of birth, and their home country. He goes through his list with a short biography of the composer, focused on their compositions. He then provides a starter list (5 items), a top ten (as you'd expect, 10), and a Master's list. There are a couple where Goulding's Master's list is the same as the top ten; others have enough that he recommends a library.

You don't have to open the book to know his top 10: it's on the outside back cover. The top 10 is: 

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
3. Ludwig van Beethoven
4. Richard Wagner
5. Franz Joseph Haydn
6. Johannes Brahms
7. Franz Schubert
8. Robert Schumann
9. George Frideric Handel
10. Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky

Actually, I have few arguments. I wouldn't have Schumann on my list: I've tried listening to him on occassion and remain unimpressed compared to the others. Plus, with two of my three favorite composers ranked 11th and 12th - Mendelssohn and Dvorak respectively; Beethoven is my other favorite - Schumann would find him slipping to the teens on my list. Having read the book, I doubt I'd get much argument at that point: Goulding commented that if someone wanted to rearrange the order of the top 3, he'd see nothing wrong with that.

He ranks a pair of my favorites further down - Bruckner at 25 and Rimski-Korsakov at 42. Three others are missing from his list: Correlli, Franz Berwald, and Carl Phillip Emannuel Bach, but overall, I think his ranking is more objective while I won't at all claim my rankings are subjective. 

The book is concluded with a section on the orchestra and its instruments and arrangement and a 42 page discography.

If you are interested in learning more about classical music and its composers, I very hightly recommend this book. 

KINGDOM COME FESTIVAL 26 REPORT PART 2 (SATURDAY JUNE 20, 2026)

Photo of the late David Pataconi, in the Subculture Stage area.

Saturday, June 20, was my seventh day of going to Kingdom Come Festival (KCF), but the first day I was not planning on volunteering. A friend from church was going to go, but it didn't work out. While I love to volunteer, the schedule was full of people I wanted to hear, so I kept busy without  helping out. 

Starting at 10:00am, the Main Stage has a rotation where the band plays for 30 minutes, tear down and set up lasts 15 minutes, and repeat. For me, it makes it easy to think of the performances as blocks of four in a three hour period. This year, the first four included True Revival, Melanie Waldman, Natural Grace, and Angel Machine. True Revival started off the Saturday line up the last three years, and I look forward to that tradition. Melanie Waldman performed solo, and was one of the few quiet times (not counting the Acoustic Stage). I enjoy a lot of Natural Grace's songs, such as "Paper Tigers." On that song, she tossed out tiger striped beach balls. She was joined on stage with Kevin Young from Disciple. First time I was able to say. As for Angel Machine, they became my #1 bucket list band after hearing Daniel Band the previous night. 2 bucket list bands fulfilled in two days. 

True Revival on KCF Main Stage

Melanie Waldman

Natural State with Kevin Young of Disciple

Wayde and Apryll of Angel Machine, with D.Z. of Fervor My Dear in the shade on the right.

From 1:00 to 2:30, I went to the Acoustic Stage where I had the honor of hearing another band I had yet to hear in person: Chaotic Resemblance. Considering I wrote a term paper on the Nazirite vow, how can I not be a fan of a group that has an album called "The Nazirite?" I thoroughly enjoyed that acoustic set. Then, I went back to the main stage area where I heard a couple of songs by the rapper Saint Rockstar, had lunch, and enjoyed Tricord, whose set included an appearance by B Wayde, joining them on the song "Liar," a tune that spent multiple weeks at number one on Rock 4 Him's countdown. From there, I went to the Subculture stage for an event I had been looking forward to since they announced the line-up. 

There were two sets I couldn't miss at this year's KCF. The previous blog mentined The Daniel Band being on the stage Friday, which was a time of joy. The other was the David Pataconi Tribute at 2:30, a time  to mourn. David Pataconi and a couple of other people involved with KCF and Always 1 Ministries went home to be with the Lord. I had the honor of hearing David Pataconi twice last year.

Believe it or not, I don't often run across conflicts between two artists I want to hear, so it can be traumatic when it does happen. One band I wanted to hear was Drive Thru Society, who was scheduled for 2:30 at the Main Stage. Some might say, "But wait! Isn't that when the David Pataconi Tribute was scheduled for 2:30 on the Subculture stage? Yep. And the decision was a no-brainer. But then, they announced the schedule for the acoustic stage, and Drive Thru Society had a 6:00pm set. 

However, there are inevitablity changes, and some artists last minute aren't able to make it. One of those artists were the one schedule for 8pm. How did they fill the slot? Well, they moved the 7pm artist to fill that spot. And the 6:15 artist to fill 7pm. And so on, up to... you guessed it. Until the 3:15 slot, so there was no bands performing on other stages when the Memorial Tribute took place.

I needed that time of mourning.The band members and the guest singers (including Asche Relesser, Fyrebrand, Jermaine Nixon of Tricord, Jerrod Cunningham of I Am The Pendragon and XIII Minutes, and Jeremy Brown of the Rock 4 Him Podcast) wore shirts similar to the one David Pataconi has on in the above photo ("I'm Dave Doing Dave Things"), with the first "Dave" replaced by the singer's first name. I had tears when I heard Jeremy sing my favorite David Pataconi song, "My Path To Walk," a song that moved me since I first heard it in '24. I needed to be there.

Chaotic  Resemblance, Acoustic stage.
 

Tricord, including Jermaine Nixon second from left and Charles Martin on right. I was able to hear both their full power set and their acoustic set. Jermaine and Meg Hudson of Drive Thru Society had joined Reclaim the Day. In like manner, rapper B Wayde joined Tricord on "Liar."

Asche Relesser and the members of Autumn's Descent at the David Pataconi tribute.

Drive Thru Society

Matt Moore at acoustic stage.

I mentioned the one conflict that was resolved, but a lesser conflict took it's place. I mentioned I wanted to hear was Drive Thru Society, who had been moved to the 3:15 slot on the Main Stage so they didn't conflict with the tribute. Another artist I wanted to hear was Autumn's Descent, who were scheduled for the Subculture Stage at 3:30, overlapping with Drive Thru Society. So I did what anybody else in their right mind would do: Go to hear Drive Thru Society at 3:15, then after two songs run over to hear Autumn's Descent and then ... you get the picture.

My original plan for Saturday after the Memorial was the above mentioned Autumn's Descent at 3:30, Tricord acoustic set at 4, either a few minutes of XIII Minutes (maybe watching XIII Minutes for 13 minutes?) or wandering around the merchandise tent and talk to artists. At 5, I would have the honor of watching my first Matt Moore set at the acoustic tent, killing more time till 6 to hear Drive Thru Society's acoustic set, and closing out my time with Graverobber. That is a band that I'm curious if it's just a rock band in a horror getup, or if they put on a unique, memorable show. 

Well, I did watch Autumn's Descent, and I did hear Tricord  at the acoustic stage (a real blessing), but that was where plans were changed. After a round trip and a half from home and a lot of standing at concerts and moving from location to location, I realized I was running out of gas. So I did spend some time at the tent and listened to a couple of Matt Moore songs, and then headed to the car to get home while I had my second wind. (Yes, I obviously made it home okay.)  So I'll be hoping to get to hear Drive Thru Society's full set and maybe Graverobber next year. 

So now I'm counting the days until they reveal the KCF 27 lineup.

David Pataconi Memorial with (from left) Asche Relesser of Relesser/Autumn's Descent, 
Jeremy Brown of Rock 4 Him Podcast, Jermaine Nixon of Tricord, Jason Brand (aka Fyrebrand)
Jerrod Cunningham of I Am The Pendragon,  and DZ of Fervor, My Dear.
Jacob Mars is represented by the elbow poking out on the right.

KINGDOM COME FESTIVAL 26 REPORT, PART 1 (FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2026)

 

What was my dream? Seeing The Daniel Band at KCF What was the dream of Concert Foto's photographer Chad Fenner (red hair, lower center)? Photographing The Daniel Band at KCF. 

Last weekend (June 19-20, '26) was my fourth consecutive Kingdom Come Festival (referred to subsequently as KCF, not to be confused with KFC, though both include drumsticks). In '23, Becky suggested I go on Saturday but not use time off. The following three years, she said, "Go to both days. Enjoy yourself." (Note - technically, it gets started on Thursday, but I don't like driving at night, so I only go during the day on Friday and Saturday.

If you've been reading this blog awhile, you'll notice I usually have a follow-up where I cover both days. This year, I'm going to have a separate blog for each days. Several reasons. 

1. It makes each blog shorter for the readers.
2. The more I go, the fuller the days are, so I have more to include.
3. Both days this year have a special activity, and as a result both days and thus I'm separating them.

I started off Friday volunteering at the welcome booth from opening at 10:00am to 2:30. There's an internal conflict - at 10am, there's a prayer and worship time, allotted two hours, While I want to do both, on Fridays I hear a couple of the worship songs led by the , share any requests with The Subculture Pastor Dale Vaughn, and run off to the welcome booth. During that time, I snuck into the Subculture Stage to hear a little of Brightstar, then grabbed lunch from the concession stand, which I ate while listening to rapper B-Wayde, and manage to get back to my post early (that shocked me!),

A year old picture from last year of me at the Welcome station. 

Jay, worship leader of The Subculture in Illinois.

Rapper B Wayde on the main stage.

Brightstar on the Subculture Stage at Kingdom Come Festival with photographer Chad Fenner

When I finished my shift, I did something not typical. From 2:30 to 4:00 I bounced back and forth between the main stage to The Subculture Stage to the Acoustic Stage and Coffee House (also sponsored by The Subculture), catching one song at one, two at the other, and having a visit or two to the Merch tent. It wasn't as frantic for the following couple of hours. During that time, I found a couple of new favorite band (Oak & Linden, and Jason Wayne from Drown The Planet). Of course, there were other already favorite bands I heard such as Reclaim the Day, Becca Sugg (singer of Reclaim the Day, who also did an acoustic set), I Am The Pendragon, and Chris Bousum. 

Oh, I'm talking about the music. But is the Gospel preached? Yes. Trevor Heyd of xstaytruex Ministries had a set where he shared the gospel. Others did so as well. I mentied Dale Vaughn above? He's pastor of The Subculture in Illinois, which has several ministries in the area as well as church. He brought along a group that he hear called the Castros, and asked them to share. In the above photo, you'll notice photographer (Flash Mob) has red hair. There's a reason, ministry related, which I'll share in Part 2.

Dale Vaughn, of the band As We Are and pastor of The Subculture, at The Subculture Stage at KCF 

Reclaim The Day on the Main Stage.

Me with Jason Wayne from Drown The Planet, in the Merchandise Tent. 
 

Oak & Linden at the Subculture Coffee House & Acoustic Stage

Trevor Heyd of xstaytruex Ministries. He did an excellent job sharing the Gospel (as did other artists).

The Castros at the Subculture Stage.

  

 

Me with Matt Moore. Besides being a great artist, Moore is the emcee for the Main Stage every year.

Becca Sugg, lead singer of Reclaim The Day (l) and her sister Miranda Brown at  the Acoustic Stage.

Kevin (Moose) Bush (white hat, pink jacket) and Jerrod Cunningham (mask) of
I Am The Pendragon on the Subculture Stage at Kingdom Come Festival..

Chris Bousum at the Coffee House and Acoustic Stage.

And then came the highlight of the day.

On the top of my bucket list was to hear The Daniel Band in person. I discovered them when they were in concert twice at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in the early '80's, but never had a chance to see catch a concert. That bucket list item was fulfilled Friday at 6pm, when Daniel Band took the main stage. It was the blessing I expected it to be. That set had several favorites such as "He's The Creator," "Run From The Darkness," "I'm Sorry," "Never Again," "Two Roads," and "Somebody Loves You." I had the honor of hearing the riffs and solos and melodies and the lyrics I've heard on pre-recorded material for over four decades.

The highlight: I was able to take a few seconds to thank Bassist/Vocalist Dan McCabe for blessing me for years with the songs "Spiritual Game" and "Here I Am." 

Tony Rossi of The Daniel Band, on the Main Stage.

There was a voice in my head talking about feeling entitled. But another voice told me that the real reason I'm a Daniel Band fan is not because of Tony Rossi's great guitar (though it is great) or Dan McCabe's vocals (though they also were great), but because the band had a heart for evangelism and also edified fellow believers as well.

Daniel McCabe of the Daniel Band.

ALBUM REVIEW - "RUNNING OUT OF TIME" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 

"Running Out of Time" is the last of the Daniel Band's five studio albums, and it's as strong as the others. The opening song, "Black and White," is one of the hardest songs in their roster: I first heard it as part of the compiliation "Heavy Righteous Metal." 

Once again, there are several strong songs on the album, such as "Hold On," "Long Time," "Party In Heaven," before getting to a double whammy to end things up, with the title track and the bonus track "One."

It's a Daniel Band album, so of course I'm recommending it. 

By the way, this is scheduled to post at 7:00 pm on June 20th, 2026. 24.5 hours ago, the Daniel Band finished up their set for their first appearance at the Kingdom Come Festilval, with me finally getting to hear my all time favorite band live, almost 45 years since I heard them on the radio.

BOOK REVIEW - "THE GOD ASK: A FRESH, BIBLICAL APPROACH TO PERSONAL SUPPORT RAISING" BY STEVE SHADRACH

 A lot of the Christian ministries I'm familiar with fall in the category of faith-supported missions, where the missionaries are responsible for raising (or, as the Conservative Baptist movement puts it, discovering) their support. This can become a joyful training for the missionaries to trust in God even when they are stuck at a percentage of their support. But then, it can be discouraging and the missionaries may give up. 

One resource for those who need to raise support is "The God Ask: A Fresh, Biblical, Approach to Personal Support Raising" by Steve Shadrach. This book has a lot of great ideas. One is seeing support-raising as a triangle, with God at the top, the ministry-worker looking to God for support on one corner, and the supporter seeking God's supply and blessing in the other. 

The strongest point is to see this as a partnership. Shadrach encourages those who receive support to pray for the donors, have regular communication with them, learn their birthdays and anniversaries, and develop your relationship with them. This is what I despise about multi-level direct sales: That approach makes it seem like that getting you to buy into their business is more important than cultivating a friendship.

However, there were many things in this book that made me cringe. It took me three months to get through "The God Ask," because Shadrach's aggressive "The Wrong Way or My Way" approach consistently made me uncomfortable. Early on, he gives the impression that it's possible to raise 100% of your support in 100 days, but by the time I ended, he made it sound like the reality is it's a never-ending process. 

Two impressions he gave is his approach is 1) Biblical and 2) not high pressure sales. Unfortunately, he didn't convince me on either point.

1. I will admit - I do not consider his views unbiblical (condemned by Scripture), but I don't see a strong in-context and consistent mandate. There are two points where his theory is at odds with Scripture. First, 3 John 7 applauds workers who take nothing from the Gentiles (unbelievers), while Shadrach says there's times to ask non-Christians to support a Christian ministry. Second, Shadrach discourages working to help provide for your support (like the tent-maker model, following the example of Paul) but to put all your time in fundraising.
2. As far as resembling the high pressure direct sales impression, he suggests asking for specific amounts. With a professional double income family, he strongly suggests the monthly amount asked for should be at least $100, and Shadrach stated he felt insulted when a person seeking support  asked for only $35 a month. It sounds like he's promoting asking everybody you know to be a supporter, and if you have a person who has been giving a large amount regularly, ask him to give more.

I'm giving this book a 3 star review. I would without hesitation recommend this book for anyone who needs to raise financial support for their ministry, but I also would emphasize it's one person's theory, and encourage them to modify their application to their personal convictions. 

ALBUM REVIEW - "RISE UP" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 "Rise Up" is the fourth of Daniel Band's five studio albums. As you'd expect if you listened to their other projects, there is a lot of good hard rock songs with straight forward Christian lyrics.

Any song that calls us back to our relationship with Christ - our Bethel - gets my approval, and that's how this album starts. It works its way through several good songs before getting to the equally powerful "Right Heart." Normally, I'd identify all the good songs, but they're all good songs.

One note if you're looking at the Spotify list instead of having the product in front of you: you'll see "Rise Up" listed as both the second and fourth songs on the project. Nope, they goofed - the fourth song is actually "Paradise."

This version of the product has a bonus track - "That's Alright," originally written and recorded by Darrell Mansfield. The Daniel Band has a few minor tweaks to the song instrumentally, and includes the third verse which deals with evolution: Darrell performs that verse live wearing a monkey mask, but it's not on the original recording.

As you'd expect, I highly recommend this project.

BOOK REVIEW - "IS THE CHURCH STILL RELEVANT?" BY JODY BURKEEN

 

Can a person live a strong Christian life without the Church? Or does the failures of the Church justify an isolated Christian life without other believers helping?

Pardon for me spoiling the end of the book - In "Is the Church Still Relevant?" author Jody Burkeen says yes. This book traces the church's history from Pentecost, and point out that while the Church has hurt a lot of people and give its parishoners ample reason to withdraw, the Church also has an important place in other people's lives.

In "Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It" by Answers in Genesis' Ken Ham, pollist Ken Beemer with  Todd Hillard, the authors make the case that the youth who abandon the church do so for two reasons: Either the Bible is believed irrelevant or the Church is believed irrelevant. Burkeen's book focuses heavily on the latter.

One nice thing about this book is it's a quick, easy read. The text is written in mostly one or two sentence paragraphs, with a very poetic style, and enough repition to drive its points home.

I do have a couple of problems with this book. In the first chapter, Burkeen states that Pentecost included literal fire on each head. Technically, no. Acts 2:3 reads, "Then there appeared to them divided tongues, AS OF FIRE..." This is a minor point, but to me, that weakens his point, and it's weakened early. Another is that it doesn't really deal with repentance: it's more like people leave church because one or more people in the church failed them, with nary a message that the person might have left church because they are engaged in an activity either the Bible or the Church (or both) calls sin.

That being said, this book is an encouraging book. As said, it's a simple read, with short paragraphs. I would recommend it for a person who has been hurt by either an individual believer or by a church. It is written with admonitions both for the person who left church and for the church that wants to bring them back.