International Newsletter November 2015
For years, we’ve had the vision to challenge Christian artists to train, equip and release artists as missionaries to share the Gospel outside of the church. We want artists of every kind having an eternal kingdom impact through their art and music.
The following is a testimony of one of our new artist Brett Miller:
I pulled a band together to play a large festival in California. I gave up on entertaining the attendees of the festival and pressed into where I actually felt the Lord pulling my heart. The result, was an honest string of worship songs that I had written from some rather dark seasons in my life. We went and played the festival and I let people know we weren’t there to entertain them but to simply move the Lord’s heart. At the end of the set, I let them know that we were there to pray with anyone who needed it. We broke down our equipment and started walking to the merch hall when a family stopped us and asked for prayer. While we had our hands on them praying what we didn’t realize was the line of people forming waiting for us to pray over them. 2 hours later when we were finished two realities set in:
At this festival amidst a world of entertainment there is a hunger growing for something else.
My lack of striving positioned me to step in line with the will of Jesus.
Stop promoting yourself.
I know that sounds insane but do yourself a favor and go into a quiet place, open up your hands and make a vow to The Lord that you will always pursue His heart above all else. The line we walk as artists on mission is extremely fine. It takes little effort to push us to one side or the other in terms of motivation. Put Jesus at the tip of your spear and always make sure that His peace lies at the center of everything you release into the world.
We are excited to support Brett and believe he represents a type of Christian artist that is passionate about God’s kingdom and dissatisfied with the ordinary. We hope to support many artist like him and believe the impact will be incredible if we do.
For the lost,
David Pierce
On November 1st, we took a big step forward:
The ministry “Come&Live!” officially joined Steiger International
Come&Live! is a non-profit missions community that provides musicians and artists the opportunity to live beyond themselves – creatively, openly, transparently and on mission. It’s founder, Chad Johnson, was an artist relations executive for a top Christian record label, when in 2005, he collaborated on a four day charity tour called “Come&Live!” in partnership with several artists willing to benefit non-profit organizations. Over $80,000 was donated to charity from those four shows. Chad was so moved by the experience of Christian artists living authentically for Jesus, that he felt compelled to leave the record business at the height of his career, with no financial backing or escape routes.
So he founded Come&Live!, which began to have a tremendous impact on the Christian music scene. Come&Live!’s online videos have been viewed over 2.2 million times in 142 countries.
Starting in 2013, God orchestrated various events to bring Steiger and Come&Live! together. It soon became apparent that Come&Live! and Steiger’s “Platform” vision were nearly identical. We felt God was calling us to join forces, so we prayerfully agreed that Platform & Come&Live! should become one initiative under Steiger International with the unified vision of training, equipping, and releasing Christian artists to reach those outside of the church.
This initiative will operate under the name “Come&Live!” and will exist, and move forward, as a part of Steiger’s vision to reach and disciple the global youth culture for Jesus.
Our passion is to provoke, inspire, equip, and release Christian artists and creatives to not only share their talent, but live out their faith and inspire others in doing the same. We want artists of every kind - and in every season having an eternal kingdom impact through their art and music.
We hope to achieve this in two main ways:
- Offering training, pastoral care, and strategic mentorship to our artists.
- Celebrating what God is doing though our artists by highlighting the “fruit” of their efforts to our growing community of followers, fans, and supporters.
We believe God is going to use the new Come&Live! as a major voice for using art and music to change the world for Jesus!
