SKAD Warped Tour Promo Video from Matthew Hogan on Vimeo.
This summer I will be partnering with a nonprofit specifically aiming for trouble teen outreach as a missionary on the Van’s Warped Tour. I was hesitant to accept this offer, as I am fundraising for the World Race, and wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to do both.
My lease in Texas ends on June 1, then this starts June 12th – Aug 3, then I’ll be back for a few weeks before leaving for the World Race. In the middle of Warped I will fly out to training camp in July for one week, then rejoin the tour wherever it is at that time. Training camp dates have not been released yet.
Stella Malone, the director and founder of SKAD heard of me through mutual friends in a couple of bands I know and reached out to me in January. I talked to her about both of the trips, I also discussed this with the World Race people and everyone said it seemed like a good idea to do both. I met with a few of the men that lead our church, the Village Church, and discussed the situations and my concerns and desires in this, to bring hope into a broken world, and they all gave this the go. So, here I am running.
During this period of discernment, I had 4 different people (two in Denton, one in another city in Texas, and one in South Africa) all quote to me the same verse within a few days.
“For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.”
Psalm 50:10 (ESV)
A reformed theologian named John Calvin wrote commentary on this verse,
“God asserts his absolute independence, for while the world had a beginning, he himself was from eternity. From this it follows, that as he subsisted when there was nothing without him which could contribute to his fullness, he must have in himself a glorious all-sufficiency.”
In this original context, the Psalmist is using this phrasing to speak about sacrifices. That the Lord doesn’t need our sacrifices, that sacrifices were never the point; the Lord owns all the cattle on a thousand hills. He has all sufficiency, all money, all things are within his giant, sovereign hands. He is after our hearts. This is a timeless theme we see time and time again throughout scripture. He is after our obedience, not our sacrifice. He will provide a way for us to give or go when called to.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
Acts 17:25 (ESV)
I believe in this nonprofit, I’ve visited them in Tyler, TX and went to one of their youth nights and got to talk face to face with a lot of these kids and they’re broken and need love, and I was in the same situation. It’s like younglife for hardcore kids. I believe in the men the Lord has placed over my head as authority in my life and will submit to their teaching and guidance and if they are affirming this is what seems best, and what seems like the Lord is pushing me to do, and has been affirmed through various means, then I will be leaving for this in June. It lines up perfectly between when my lease ends and when I leave for the World Race, and it will be such a rad experience.
You should come out and talk to us on this years Van’s Warped Tour. Come say hi, and pray for me and Stella’s trip this summer. There are very few gospel-centered Christian bands on the tour, so I will be seeking community while there and needing encouragement. Stella virtually has no community as there are almost no gospel-centered christian girls on the tour. She is seeking a third person (a girl) to come with us on the tour to specifically work the merch table while Stella and I get to talk to kids, pour out our stories and our hearts on them while more importantly listen to them.
Zac Braff once said, “Never underestimate the importance of listening.”
AJ Swoboda said that he wants to be pastor that would be more likely to listen to someone’s story, have his heart break and pray for them than be a pastor that tells people how to live their life.
I think we see Jesus leading by example by going into tax collectors homes, going into prostitutes homes, outcast homes, loving them and listening to their stories. Not rebuking them the entire time either, these societal outcasts LIKED being around him. Children LIKED being around him. What child or sinner likes being around someone who constantly talks about rules or constantly rebukes people? Jesus was loved by people, and changed the world by listening to their stories and loving them well.
He came down in flesh, as a man, and spoke to us in a way we could understand. I haven’t posted my testimony yet, some of it can be found in this video, but ultimately I was a kid who was in the hardcore scene finding value in music, peoples approval, girls, etc. A man with a beard, who looked like me and talked like me and watched the same things I did, and listened to the same music I did, became my friend, and loved me well and showed me a better way to love and a better way to live, and I decided I wanted that same life. It’s been an uphill marathon since then, falling down often but like a modern marathon, you never run alone. When someone falls, the people around them rally together and pull up their fallen friends, dust off his knees and encourage him to keep going. Even the people on the sidelines who aren’t running are cheering that person on.
Steal, Kill and Destroy comes down to teen’s levels. These teens will be more likely to open up to a man who dresses like them and looks like them, these teens are not going to talk to a man in a suit and tie about the gospel at all, that we chose our own way separate from the Lord, causing division from us, and that Jesus lived a perfect life by example through perfect love and obedience to the Lord (despite living a very very broken life where people hated him, tried to kill him, and his own family rejecting him), and died for the very people who murdered him, and rose from the dead so that we could have a restored connection with the Lord. So that our slate could be wiped clean between us. So that whenever God sees us he sees his son’s righteousness. And we have hope that Jesus will return one day to restore all things.
“For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
That’s often seen as a good children story. Jesus is coming back, ya’ll. He is. And we are going to see him face to face, and the time spent here on earth is so stinkin’ small compared to the glory that is to come that why waste any time not serving by encouraging the body, supporting missions, being sent on missions, or serving locally.
I rabbit trailed there for a bit, and thought about editing it out to make it more focused on one thing, but I realized this is all the same message. This summer I am partnering with Steal, Kill, and Destroy to bring hope into this broken world and talk to new friends at the Van’s Warped Tour. We need your prayer and support on this. Help us help those who need help just like we were helped and are continuing to be helped.
To go on Warped, I need to fundraise an addition $3,500 by June 1st. Not sure where that will come from, but I am confident in the Lord that He will provide. If you want to or know someone who wants to donate to provide for me on that mission, please contact [email protected]. SKAD is already sponsoring half of my funding for that trip already (originally $6,500). This goes to pay for my food for the entire trip from Aug 3- June 12th, and my bus costs to and from every city. I will be riding with another band on the tour.
A rad side note, I had to ask off for my best shift of the week to drive to Tyler to visit SKAD one week, where I make about half of my paycheck for a week. I got off and went, and then after getting back the Lord blessed me with so much the next few nights in tips that it was as if I never even asked off work. So rad. #affirmation.
Let’s make a difference, ya’ll.
-J
