For my Cornerstone '05 wrap up, I wanted to share some lessons that I learned from this year. None of these are more important than the other, so the order doesn't matter.

1. Cornerstone was successful, not because of one or two people, but because a community came together to make it successful.

Any event in which any of us are involved in is successful because of the effort put in by everyone. So many people came together to help make Cstone successful. The willingness of each person to be flexible, available, and to do whatever is needed is a HUGE component to a successful event.

There are several examples of this from Cornerstone ‘05. Victor (Hyp0static), Dan (heldbywill) and his wife Karissa, Davo, and Race (John) all pitched in the afternoon of the ambient night to run around and get last minute errands complete. Even that evening Victor had stepped up to MC the event and worked on getting things together for the stations and that enabled me to escape for a few minutes gather my thoughts and get some food. (Which was priceless to me.)

Saturday night Chris and I got back to the dance barn later than we wanted because dinner took a bit longer than expected. In my head I was stressing out about how I needed to sweep, get the chairs stacked up, and other stuff. I jumped out of the UG van ready to go at lighting speed and walked into the barn to discover Pat was basically done sweeping and a crew in the back of the barn was stacking the chairs up. Suddenly, the stress that I was feeling was gone and I could stop for a moment and take a deep breath.

2. It doesn't matter how big or how small "your name" is, you will impact people.

I don't think any of us really realize the impact we have on people. Truthfully I believe people watch each of us. We are watched by people we know and by people we don't know. It seems like I am reminded of this weekly. My attitudes, actions, what I say and don’t say are indicators to people about my faith and me.

One memory that reminds me of this is from Thursday, June 30th. DJ Ellispe, Shelby, had finished spinning and had made his way over to the merch table where I was standing. We had a brief conversation and he was making his way to the dance floor to bust some moves, but some random dude stopped him (well he appeared random to me because I hadn't seem him before.) The random guy had a conversation with Shelby and the next thing I know the random guy is looking for a pen and Shelby has this look on his face and he is motioning to me that the random guy wants him to autograph something. By the looks of things, Shelby was in shock and I couldn't help but chuckle.

3. It's really surreal meeting people in person that you have come to know over the Internet.

I can't tell you how many people over the course of the week made comments about how surreal it was to meet the others and myself, and it is. I was a little better prepared this year because I had lived through the meeting experience two years ago. I knew it was going to be odd, but it would be awesome too.

It is surreal to meet people who you've had daily interactions with over the Internet. Whether anyone would admit it or not, you wondered “can I tolerate the person when we are face to face”? Will the disagreements in the past affect the present? The what if's can bog a person down, but they won’t if you don't let them. Take a deep breath, introduce yourself and enjoy the experience of meeting someone new.

4. When God leads you, obey.

I think this is one of the bigger lessons for me for the week. Several months back I said on the phone to Chris, without really thinking it through, that we should do an ambient/chill out night after Andy Hunter's performance on the main stage. Honestly, I had no idea what I was saying or getting myself into. But over the coming months God took a crazy thought and worked it into something that blows my mind.

There were times that I was unsure how it was all going work out. There were times when I knew dead on what was supposed to happen. There were times where I thought I was crazy for trying. But in the end, I found myself staring down at the small flame on my candle at the end of ambient night and hearing "See what happens when you just obey."

5. It doesn't matter how big or how small "your name" is, you still have to do the grunt work.

I would say out of everything I learned or experienced during the week of Cornerstone, this is the one that bothers me the most.

There were a handful of people, who were flexible, available, and willing to do whatever was needed and there were a handful that were there for their own needs and nothing more. I was blown away when one artist flat out refused to pass out flyers. People who weren't even spinning in the barn passed out flyers like crazy. Heck, even Andy Hunter and Missy his AR representative had flyers on them and were telling people about the dance barn.

Promotion is everyone's job. Before Cornerstone there was a ton of talk about how we need to promote the barn and get the word out and so on and so forth. So several people, Rick, Race (John), and Gabe took time out of their lives to design flyers for the event. And when it was all said and done, there was a ton left over.

If the dance barn is to remain at Cornerstone and really if any event is to succeed everyone MUST be willing to do their share. No matter who you are, how big you are, or how big you think you are - you still have to do the grunt work and if you aren't willing then it's time for a motives/heart check.

Parting Thoughts

All in all Cornerstone 05 was a great experience for me. Is it something I want to do again? Yes. There were lots of moments of frustration and anxiety for me. But at the same time there were far more moments where I just kinda stood back and found myself speechless before God who really pulled it all off.