The Church Basement Roadshow

There are some folks without whom the Church Basement Roadshow would not have been possible. The first is the inimitable Michael Toy, owner of the RV that carried us over 15,000 miles this summer.

The other is the group of sponsors who underwrote the tour in one way or another. I encourage you to click on the logos of any sponsor you're interested in:

Click on a sponsor's logo to find out more!

Yes, Indeed! Thanks to the great folks at Disciples Fellowship in Birmingham:

Church Basement Roadshow from Steve Knight on Vimeo.

Some of the Roadshows were HOT, and by that I don't mean "cool." I mean they were hot, like sweaty, humid, disgustingly hot. Of course, there were lots of comments about how the heat made it feel like a real, old-timey revival, and lots of jokes about us wearing three-piece wool frock suits. The funeral fans from Wesley Seminary came in handy.

Honestly, the worst part wasn't even the massive amounts of sweat dripping off of the revivalists. The worst part was putting the wet frock suit back on after the 2008 monologue. There's nothing like donning a soaking wet shirt.

So, here are my top five hottest stops on the Roadshow:

5. New Orleans (weak A/C in a third floor loft)

4. Oakland (no A/C in a gym/worship center)

3. Minneapolis (no A/C in Solomon's Porch)

2. Dallas (broken A/C in an old church)

And, the hottest show of all....

1. Atlanta!

The Atlanta Roadshow stop took place at the B-Complex, a collection of old warehouses now owned by a collective of artists. Our performance was in the main warehouse, with broken out windows and plastic sheeting loosely hanging from the walls. The whole scene made me whisper-shout, "Derelicte!" (Some incredible photos of that show, by Daley Hake, can be seen here.) The weather that night was hot and sultry, just like you'd expect in Atlanta in late July. The revivalists were hot, the crowd was hot, but, the beer was cold!

And, finally, one of the top quotes of the whole tour came from Troy Bronsink, head the Atlanta revival committee. After the show he said to me, "When I booked this venue in April I thought, How hot can it be in Atlanta at the end of July?"

At every Roadshow stop, people not only were revived, but they also entered a drawing to win gifts from some of our sponsors. Well, here are the winners!

The Story: Erich Miller, Tim Ratzlaff

TNIV Leatherbound: Helen Barrett, Ben Ash

TNIV Study Bible: Chris Salzman, Burke Wallace

The Bible Experience New Testament (CD): Suzanne Schmidt, Nicki Peebles, Rhonda Dueck

The Bible Experience Entire Bible (CD): John Zenkewich, Victor Dingus, Amanda Preston

The Bible Experience Entire Bible (mp3): Glen Lauber, Michael Wonz, Colleen Barrows

iPod Nanos: Sue Bates, Bryan Gower, David Breedlove

Watch to see if you won any of the giveaway items from the second and third legs of the Church Basement Roadshow:

There really is something about facial hair. Since I got home on Tuesday, I took Tanner (8) to see the latest Narnia movie as a reward for having read the book. I noticed that, among the Telmarines and Sons of...

Tim Murphy at the Religion News Service wrote a piece about the Roadshow stop in Washington D.C. Read it HERE....

Doug and I are back in Minneapolis, after closing the Roadshow on Monday in Indy. There's lots to say in recap, but today it's all about unloading the trailer and paying bills. More soon......

It seems that the longer we are on tour the crazier Preacher Withee becomes-- louder and more ferverent and full of spit and revival fire. He keeps giving it a whoop, and a push, and all he's got....

We will have our final two shows of the North American tour tonight, Sunday and tomorrow, Monday. Come and join us if you can in Grand Rapids and Indianapolis. Sunday: Fellowship Covenant Church 1569 44th St Hudsonville, MI 49426 (616)...