GLENN'S PODCASTS!

Glenn Kaiser's Cornerstone 2009 Schedule

TUES. JUNE 31
Glenn Kaiser Band Gallery Stage Tuesday 8:35 PM to 9:30 PM

THU. JULY 2
Glenn Kaiser & Friends (Acoustic to Electric) P12/Grrr Stage Thursday 10:35 PM to 11:30 PM

FRI. JULY 3
-Leadership Forum: Friday, noon – 1PM, X4
-Short History of the Blues: Friday, 2-3 PM, tent X4
-Afterglow Leadership Gathering- Friday, 5PM, X4 (bring yer dinner, informal hangout time)
-Asylum (Goth) Tent: Glenn speaks Friday 8PM

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BLUES
Glenn Kaiser (1 session)
Why sing the blues? Doesn't Jesus deliver us from suffering and sadness? Yes and no: in that darkness grows the blues, a way of seeing that keeps us humble, open, ready, willing, and watching by putting us in touch with the pain of others, ourselves, and the crucified Christ. This session surveys the songs and singers of a tradition with roots in the Psalms and at the Cross.

Leadership Forum (Moderator: Glenn Kaiser)
A time of open sharing and networking for church and ministry leaders and their spouses — a chance to get down to the nitty-gritty of leadership, sharing struggles and pooling wisdom and experience to offer direction and support. Moderated by Glenn Kaiser who has served over thirty years on the pastoral team of Cornerstone-sponsor Jesus People Evangelical Covenant Church.

WENDI & I, SHOWS, Etc..

We had an EXCELLENT time of celebrating our 37th anniversary together at Cornerstone Farm (it's getting green, beautiful out there, grass mown, birds and fish moving and flowers blooming for the 26th annual Cornerstone Festival coming very soon now) this past week.

GKB did a Pekin, IL Assembly of God show right before Wendi and I continued on to C. Farm that night. The time of ministry was just a blast and a lot of kind folks came out.

Last night (I'm writing this Sunday, June 14) I did a solo blues set at Watershed Cafe in Frankfort, IL (about an hour south of Chicago) on the way back to Chicago. They have an excellent staff, truly good coffee and snacks and a packed house that were just wonderful. Wendi joined me and led a couple REZ unplugged songs. Very fun indeed.

Church at JPUSA this a.m. was edifying, convicting and so cool (been touring a lot as usual this time of year, just great to be home, see my grand kids, family and be with Jesus and some of His people here at home). Tom preached on the compliant son (who said he'd go but didn't) and the defiant son (who said "Forget it" but afterwards repented and went).

I'm trying to be honest AND compliant... but his point was simple as well as profound and excellent: honesty breeds humility which breeds obedience. This is the "struggle forward" stance of a maturing Christ-follower. I agree and appreciate the truth of it all!

Project 12 is about to hit Cstone Farm to help put on the Fest, then graduation and summer break comes. They've grown a lot, it's been a rocking year.

GKB heads to Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and I think Holland, touring in these places for most of July.

Hope to see some of you- and please just check the Shows section for updates, I get far too much email to answer it all- sorry to say. Thanks for your understanding, prayers and for stopping by.

May you honor God with your summer plans!

For Jesus, Forever, -Glenn

GKB SPRING TOUR BLOG

As I've said many times before, meeting solid followers of Jesus in every rural area, small town, large city and in every sort of local church is just so cool!

This GKB tour took us from Michigan to Pennsylvania, into New York state and back to Illinois. In each and every stop we had sweet local people putting on the shows/services, kind and receptive audiences and great chats at the end of the night.

Such things always encourage me because it's also clear that there is a great divide between Christians who are at peace and those who are not, between this and that "side" of current political parties and various issues, and of course the methodologies that form various comfort zones differ greatly.

When we continue to meet people who are more in love with the Lord and recognize the need to be examples of loving, faithful living in accord with His Word, actually forgiving those who wrong (or who they at least believe have wronged) them, not forsaking the assembling together with others who love and seek to serve Jesus, all of this is fresh air in what sometimes is indeed a bit of a stale landscape.

To be sure, there are divorces, church splits (often over extremely petty matters) and new/old false teachings as well as people who simply don't want to grow spiritually or even in human terms, grow up and take personal responsibility for the sadness and sometimes self-inflicted pains of everyday life. There are still the economic woes, the losses of jobs and various legitimate burdens of supporting families and so on. But it's so good to meet people along the road who are truly focused on the Lord and others rather than simply on themselves... and in each place we've been blessed to meet (or meet again) a number of such saints.

Myself and of course Roy and Ed have traveled many miles for many years with Rez Band, now GKB and with other musicians and ministry teams. We've not been everywhere but certainly over most of North America, part of the Caribbean and South America, the U.K., Scandinavia, most of Europe and through Australia and New Zealand just to name a few places.

There are of course nuances, sometimes large differences of view amongst Christians in different countries but even in their own land, varied positions that people take as their own and disagree with others about. Yet the love of God and the need to love one's neighbor in genuine, sacrificial and personally edifying ways are common to all.

The family of God is vast, wide and growing. May we continue to mature and take the necessary steps to ensure such growth by our individual love and commitment to seek, obey and follow Jesus Christ where ever He places us in His Church.