This morning, my assistant Beth got the following email in her inbox from Ben Birdsong, the Station Manager. It was completely unsolicited, and 100% unexpected:  

“Harris was amazing! Not only did he adjust his program to meet our needs, he was so easy to work with as a performer.  If more artists were this easy to work with, we would do a lot more events.”

What??  I’ll come back to that in a moment…

Ben went on with an endorsement saying, “You can’t go wrong with inviting him to your station’s event. I highly recommend him to you as aboth a highly skilled and polished performer that will amazing your audience, but also a compelling speaker who will challenge them in their walk with God.”

I genuinely appreciate not only Ben’s willingness to partner with us, but also for his great testimonial.  We have tons of feedback like this on our website, from all kinds of people.  Author John Maxwell, to Mac Powell from Third Day, to North Point, Andy’s Stanley’s church in Atlanta, have all said stuff like this about what we do.  It’s humbling, and a huge honor.  But that isn’t the point of this post.

“If all artists were this easy to work with, we would do a lot more events.” That shocked me.  I mean, I know there are artists, even some who claim to follow Jesus, who are highly demanding and incredibly difficult to work with.  But are there really so many of you out there that there are great people, who already share your same vision, that won’t partner with you because you’re “too hard to work with?”

Clearly, the answer is yes.  So to all of you other performers out there, take note! Get over yourselves, and recognize who’s hiring who.  You aren’t showing up to be served, you’re showing up to serve.  And unless you’re writing checks and paying the people who book you, try to show some gratitude, and be flexible along the way.

Honestly, we go out of our way to be over-the-top easy to work with.  If there’s something I can provide and carry with us on the road, so that an event host doesn’t have to provide it for us, we do it.  If I can design my material so that it can be performed in a wider variety of environments, I do it.  Me, and everyone who works for me, makes every attempt to be as professional and service-oriented as possible.  It’s why we’re here…to serve.

Do we have contract riders and lists of requests?  Of course.  But each one is designed with the intention of being as simple as possible.  And it’s not about our comfort, but about what we could use in order to serve hosts better.  The bottom line is that their event’s success is the driving force behind everything we ask for.

If you aren’t attaching my God or his name to your stuff, then so be it.  Do whatever you want.  (Though I bet this concept would revolutionize your business regardless.)  But if you’re saying it’s about Jesus, that means it supposedly isn’t about you.  So please stop with the side-show.

This isn’t about you.  Or me.  And even if you’re making it that way, I hate to be the bearer of the news, but your approach isn’t working out too well.  It turns out, your attitudes and lack of flexibility are costing you and everyone else not only opportunities, but their platforms.  If you change, “they’ll do a lot more events,” and you might get to be a part of them.

Joining me will be my good friend and world champion circus performer, DonB!, as well as my new friends Everlife, 3 sisters who became Hollywood Records recording artists, toured with Miley Cyrus, and just opened for the Jonas Brothers.  With that kind of resume, as you could expect, these girls are incredibly gifted, and you’ll be blown away by their moments throughout the show. They’ve been given a big platform in today’s culture, and they utilize it with courage and humility.

Three years ago I started telling people, “I’m going to create a production that reaches the kind of people who aren’t interested in going to church on Sunday. And I’m going to do the shows in the kind of places they’re already going to experience entertainment. And, I’m going to charge people to get in.”  A few said, “That sounds amazing! Go for it!” But most just laughed and said, “It won’t work.”

Thankfully, I didn’t listen. But the truth is, most of them were right.  It’s hard. After all, it’s less expensive to host a show in a church’s building.  And it’s safer to book a band whose songs are on the radio, because then you can usually plan on a lot of christians showing up.  And charge people? Maybe, but how could you put a dollar amount on a message about the true meaning of life?

First of all, I’m not. I’m putting a value on the level of quality of experience that audience members can expect.  When those people show up, they listen to my message more intently and effectively than those who come for free.  For some reason, “Free” & “Church” attract a completely different crowd than “$10″ and “Theater.”  Ironically, I was created to reach the latter group of people.  Sure, I could play it safe and create events that I know will appeal to the massive church world, book easily, and rest in the fact that my mortgage will always get paid. But what’s the point? If that’s all I do, but not what I was created for, I might as well change my message to “the meaninglessness of life.”

Most of the time, to be honest, I feel like Peter, sitting safely in a boat but seeing Jesus out on the water.  I think, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. I’m gonna walk on the water.” But everyone around me is thinking, “Are you nuts?! That’s impossible! You’ll fail, and you’ll look like an idiot.”  Well, I decided to get out of the boat anyway. Is my fall tour a huge “success.” In the eyes of some, probably not. There could be more shows and a fuller schedule. And if I were willing to compromise a little on my vision, it could have been different. But I didn’t, and God is honoring the vision, and I am SO excited about this year’s tour!

Our first stop this fall is in Tuscaloosa, AL, only 17 days from today!  We’ll be performing at the Bama Theater, an awesome 1,500 seat venue in town.  We got word about a month ago that a matinee show had been added, because the evening show had sold out all 1,500 seats more than two months away from the day of the show.  I just got word today that the matinee is almost completely sold out also, still over two weeks away!

Every day my team and I work hard to convince great promoters to partner with us and bring in the events we produce, and every day we hear responses like “That’s too risky,” or “That’s a little too out of the box for us,” or my favorite, “Well, I’m a concert promoter, and you don’t have any songs on the radio, so how do I know that people will show up?”

I thank God for people like Luke Stephens at Way Radio in GA & FL, who realized that his listeners actually wanted to come to an event that wasn’t a music concert.  He believed in us, and took a chance, and the event was a huge success. And guys like Steve McCranie at New Life 91.9 in Charlotte, who knows that it doesn’t matter that I’m not a band or musician and don’t have songs on the radio, because he has larger crowds at events like ours than most of the major concerts he does throughout the year.  And even the ministry leaders and pastors just like Heath Cooper in Tuscaloosa, AL who have stepped up, caught the vision, and taken the risk.  It’s unbelievably exciting to see God honor the efforts of those few who live courageously, and not live in the boring cycle of comfort, safety, and the doing of things a certain way because that’s just “the way it has always been done.”  I think God gets excited when we’re actually willing to get out of the boat, and try something that others label impossible.

I’m not bragging, nor am I against the music industry.  Many of my closest friends are musicians.  But I spent much of my life paralyzed by fear, because I wanted to stay comfortable and play things safe.  Yet every day, churches, promoters, and organizations are hosting the same kinds of events, over and over, because it just seems like the safe thing to do.  And other entertainers and performing artists like me are falling into the trap of creating not what God inspires them to create, but what they know is marketable and easy to book.  Now that I’ve embraced a life that requires courage and is filled with mystery, others are slowly jumping in, partnering with us, and joining me on the journey. It’s thrilling and scary, but you’ve gotta admit, walking on water is pretty dang cool.