Published: May 01, 2008 12:28 am            

Christian concert targets teens

Seventh Day Slumber among band on bill for May 9 event

Ashland — There won’t be any sleeping for those in the audience on May 9 when the AWAKE Project brings Seventh Day Slumber and a host of other Christian rock bands to the auditorium of Boyd County Middle School.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the first act will take the stage shortly before 7 p.m. Tickets are $3 and the show is open to all ages.

Brett Nance, founder of AWAKE, an organization he started specifically for the concert event, said he hopes teens and young adults will flock to the event.

“We hope to have well over 1,000 people there,” he said. And Nance is on the way to his goal. More than 300 youths either in group homes or in the Tri-State foster care system have said they plan to attend, along with dozens of area youth groups from various denominations.

Nance was inspired to plan the event after taking his 10-year-old son, Joseph, to a Seventh Day Slumber concert in January. He said he wanted to get his son involved with Christian rock because he believes it is a better influence than some other genres of popular music.

After hearing the band, Nance decided to form the nonprofit AWAKE as a ministry to reach area teens through music. Today’s Christian rock bands span all genres of rock music, he said, ranging from the heaviest metal to softer tunes.

Seventh Day Slumber is one of the most popular and successful bands in the genre today, he said, because it appeals to youths who like the sound of the music and the message.

“What makes Seventh Day Slumber unique is that they put ministry before music,” Nance said. “They just want to see lives changed. The message of their music and ministry is one of acceptance and hope. So many kids today are hurting — they feel anxiety over their appearance, or that they aren’t cool enough, smart enough, thin enough or over having the right kind of clothes or shoes. They might be bullied at home or in school.”

Eventually, many turn to drugs, alcohol, cutting or suicide, he said. The band’s goal is to empower youths to stop looking to television and movies — to what the world tells them they have to be — and instead look to the God who made them, he said.

Nance said Joseph Rojas, the lead singer of Seventh Day Slumber, uses the story of his transformation from a felon and drug addict to a Christian to reach out to the teens. Rojas’ story of healing and the availability of acceptance and salvation, Nance said, is one young people can easily relate to.

Two other groups — Last Day, a Cincinnati-based band, and national touring act Casting Pearls — will also take the stage that night. Nance said all three promise to put on a great show.

“It will be a rock concert,” he said. “It’s not just going to be a concert. It’s going to be an awesome spiritual experience. God will definitely be there, so I think everyone should be there too.”

He hopes the event will not only touch the youth that attend but the adults who bring them, spurring involvement in his project and leading to numerous future concert events.

“We’d like to do it on a regular basis,” he said. “We’d like to do it twice a year. It just depends on the cooperation we get from other churches. Some are getting involved as of late, saying ‘yes we are going to come.’”

“We don’t have a lot of this in this area. It is difficult to get churches to see how this can be used as a ministry event,” he said. “I think once they see this event and what we can do with it, we’ll be able to get a group together and split up responsibilities and get the word out.”

He envisions “a cooperation among people who are like-minded as far as an operation to reach kids. I wasn’t interested in it until I saw it myself. Hopefully that will happen to some other adults there.”

For more information about event or AWAKE, visit www.theawakeproject.com or call Nance at (606) 615-4696.

CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reached at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.

        

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