 2020 has been hard for most of us. It's been especially hard on me and my family. We've had to prioritize how we're going to get through the last few months, and a lot had to go. That includes a lot of the things that I love and enjoy. Unfortunately, the work that I do on this website was one of those things.
I have a few other hobbies, but nothing I enjoyed more than the relationships I built working on Tentmaker Music. Man, I thought we were done for. I thought this was the absolute end of our vision to build Christian community. But then I realized, there's always something I can do. There's always an adjustment that can be made. I don't have to throw in the towel... just yet. So, we decided to go back to our roots. Tentmaker Music was never meant to just be a rehashing of press releases and YouTube videos. It was supposed to be something deeper. Something more than that. So I went all the way back to when I was a new artist; trying to find a place to meet people as an independent artist... trying to find other artists like myself... looking for a place that I can get my feet wet and start competing with other musicians. That's how I came up with Tentmaker Music: CLUB! Almost three years ago I started to get the vision that big tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and other places would either out right stifle our voices, or fall themselves. We've already seen it happen with Myspace, and a bunch of other platforms. The problem I've always had with these platforms is that no matter how zealous you are for Christ, there's always a mob who's ready to tear you to pieces. There's always something to steal our values and tell us that were wrong for what we believe and how we practice our faith. On the other hand, there's always another website who's excited to show us how someone else is doing the same thing we've already seen. More and more of the same. I want something more. Don't you want something more? I don't know what your hometown is like, but my hometown stop having hall shows and open mics a long time ago. The churches don't really open their doors to newcomers to perform their newly written worship music, and we're still singing songs from 5 years ago that were hits on Christian radio. I don't think there's any incentive to become a new musician anymore. New music gets swept under the rug, or tagged with an expiration date (depending on the genre). Today a lot of Christian artists feel like they need to compromise on their beliefs, or they just never developed a deep enough foundation to question whether or not they're even compromised. In this time of uncertainty, I'm not real sure that we have strong enough Christians to endure the coming storm. For the most part, that's my fault, and the fault of people my age. We're the social media generation. We've been so obsessed with gaining followers that we've left our disciples behind. Some of us have never taken on disciples. I want to help ReDiscover what's been lost. I want to help reconnect the parts of the body of Christ better forgotten each other. I want to help raise the next generation of worship leaders. I want to introduce this generations great songwriters to this generations great musicians (not everyone can be all things). I want to challenge you all with contests and writing activities that will help you become greater musicians. I want to pass on what I've learned from my years on the stage. I want to have deep conversations and our discussion forums, and learn about the stories behind your music. These are all things meant for a specific people. They're not meant for the Twitter crowd, or the Facebook crowd. They were meant for the church. Let's ReDiscover. Let's reconnect. Let's create something awesome together! ~X |