Tour Day 15 – Decatur IL to St Joseph MO – HOMECOMING!

I was a lot as a teenager. I can just imagine the conversations that my parents and teachers had about me. The eye rolls at the stupid stuff I would say. To put it lightly, I was a very religiously zealous guy at that time, and I had this idea that I was going to cut out on the road, travel from town to town as an itinerant preacher, and rely on the church to house me as I preached the good word. I can still remember having this conversation with my dad in our kitchen. He was (and is) a great dad and he just listened… and told me that was a stupid idea.

Well, guess I showed him, didn’t I?

I was just a dopey kid who thought I knew better. What a goof. But Bemo said something this morning that made me think back to that time, “New G is really a ‘Big Church’ idea”. He meant that New G tries to distill the Christian message to its basic pieces that no one can refute with a straight face. It gave me a moment of reflection and compassion for that skinny 17-year-old in the kitchen. I was misdirected, but the core was something good – that there is really an overarching set of ideals that bind us as Christians and, I would argue, as people across religious and philosophical thought (my dad taught me that).

New G, in its innocent presentation, is actually shockingly radical at its core. He it is that binds us together? No way. For headstrong teenagers who haven’t been adequately smacked around by the world yet, sure, they can say that. But reasonable, experienced adult people? No. Definitely not. This radical idea is put into a package that is palatable to the masses: kids. It hits our audience when they’re unsuspecting. Matt had a fellow come up to him in Macon, GA and thank him for such a “balanced” message. Of course, Matt had to find out what that meant, and the man said [to the effect of] “You didn’t try to make me believe what you believe. You brought a message of hope that we can accept no matter where we are”. New G takes the energy that is built up in the callous, jaded world and lets it dissipate. Hard hearted energy evaporating and transforming into soft hearted hope.

That radical ideal hits at something deep that so many of us have forgotten. Maybe this is why Jesus was so passionate about the faith of the young (remember, “Get…off…me, Will!). New G, in the whole scheme of things is small potatoes.  We’re not changing the world on a great scale or anything, so I don’t want to overstate it. But maybe we are. Jesus was obsessed with the small, the intimate, the power of just 12 men, the power of children, mustard seeds, eyes of needles. He started small to end big. I like to think that Jesus understood energy, I mean creator of the universe and all, and that when it is put out into the world, even when small, the only option is transformation.

And here we are one more time. Homecoming’s over, and if you went out after to El Maguey like we did or celebrated being with your peeps somewhere else, you are stuffed and sleep deprived. We have once again “kicked the can down the road” and Byron and Bemo have been wont to say. New G is no longer this group of kids – it is this group of kids AND those to come.  New G is no longer 55 years in the making, but 56. Going on tour is never a given, and in some regards it’s a miracle every time it happens.

New G is us. It is me.  It is you, kids, churches who never dreamed that we existed, churches that are like family, bus drivers, random homeless people we met at the Salvation Army. And to all of us that are New G, once again, it is my great pleasure, to bid you adieu. Our beautiful friends and family, thank you for making this tour happen.  Thank you, thank you for helping young people embark on a journey that is a little absurd so that they can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that their lives matter.

On behalf of the Sponsors and all the singers, we love you and are so grateful to have all of you in our family.

Signing off one last time…

Until year 56.

Joseph