Discussing
What the Cornerstone Festival has meant to me

It was awesome for me in 2007 & 2008. Lots of young people, friendly, having fun, lots of activities, and music, music, without any booze or drugs. It was great! I will miss the opportunity of going to another one.

The final moments of the final Cornerstone were just an hour ago. I'm a newcomer to CS so it wasn't a traumatic goodbye for me. But the heart of CS is SO very needed. Yes it's a bit of culture shock for a white collar suburbanite. But while much of today's Church culture is built around focusing on what we dislike, disagree with, and differences -- CS was built on acceptance & all were welcome... The silly-band wearing Jr. High fan of Third Day, and the post-college dread & tattooed fan of Flatfoot 56. No judgements made. No one thinking a differing taste in music, clothes, body art was worse than their own. We need more CS vibe in the Church -- accepting, loving, grace-filled!

Cornerstone is awesome!

But I have to say that I don't think that all of the bands there label themselves as Christian bands. It doesn't matter, either. What you want are songs written from a Christian point of view, you know... with the kind of lyrics that you can interpret for yourself and kind of make your own in a way.

P.O.D. has been at Cornerstone and they more or less identify as a Christian band, but their lyrics are not written specifically for Christians. However you can tell that the point of view is definitely there.

Believer has been at Cornerstone and in the past wrote songs that were about the Bible, and personal faith. They don't identify as a Christian band, and their last album was actually about Transhumanism. A lot Christians were upset by this lyrical change, but I actually did some research into the subject (I'd heard about it, but wasn't that familiar with it) and found out that we should all be very concerned about this technology. So, Believer's lyrics are still without question from a Christian point of view. They just don't want to be labeled that way.

In closing, I'll say it doesn't matter if a band labels itself as Christian or not, playing at Cornerstone or otherwise. Intent is what matters, and making songs from a faith-based point of view to make us think.

Bands like P.O.D. and Believer deserve credit for doing what they do, even if they use different methods to get a point across to the listener.