By Allen Allnoch

Ten years ago, bluegrass music legend Ricky Skaggs released an album, “Salt of the Earth,” with his wife, Sharon White, and her family band, The Whites.

​The title song described the honest, selfless, genuine people who embody that phrase:
 
They’ll all come runnin’ if there’s someone in need
They’ll reach out if someone’s hurt
Diamonds and gold could not match what they’re worth
Good people are the salt of the earth
 
Shane Clark is one of those salt-of-the-earth kind of people. It’s telling that he was reluctant to have photos of himself made for his new Shane Clark Music Facebook page. Actually, he was reluctant to have a Facebook page, period. For this humble servant of God, life is not about drawing attention to himself, but rather about fulfilling Jesus' Great Commandment – love God, love your neighbors.
 
On his newest CD, “The Hymn Awakening,” Shane has surrounded himself with a whole company of salt-of-the-earth folks – including Skaggs himself – who also happen to be world-class musicians and vocalists. The result bears out his purpose of using his gifts to serve God and other people.
 
Shane, a Columbus native with close ties to Christ Community Church, leads Camp Laughing Child, a Christ-centered therapeutic adventure camp for institutionalized children living with terminal illnesses in southern Mexico. Sales of the CD benefit the camp, which provides creative nature-based and animal-assisted therapies on seven acres of beautiful mountain surroundings.

​“The Hymn Awakening” is a collection of traditional hymns anchored by Clark’s rich vocals and flavored by a diversity of guest artists. It features a lineup of contemporary bluegrass all-stars, including fiddle virtuoso Andy Leftwich, singers Sonya Isaacs and Claire Lynch, guitarist Ron Block (a member of Alison Krauss’s band, Union Station), five-time Grammy winner Rhonda Vincent, and rising star Sierra Hull.
 
From Leftwich’s elegant opening notes on “Lead Me to Calvary,” to the toe-tapping rendition of “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” with Skaggs and Jimmy Fortune (formerly of the Statler Brothers), to Shane’s chill-bump harmonies with Vincent on “My Jesus, I Love Thee,” the CD is a delightful new take on a timeless set of familiar church songs. 
 
Just as Shane and his guests have poured their hearts into these songs, he’s pouring his life into the lives of sick children 2,000 miles across the continent.
 
Those kids – and we, too – are richer because of these good, salt-of-the-earth people.

Our guest speaker next week, Mark Nysewander, recently penned a blog post, "What Humility Has to Do with Revival," that fits right in with where we're headed for A Call to AWAKEN.

“Revival comes to humble places," Mark wrote, "because they house humble people. Humility is the best conductor for God’s power. To be an instrument of revival, seek the posture that conveys such power."
 
Click here to read the full text of Mark's post, and consider these questions in your prayer time:

1. Ask the Lord to reveal where you may depend on your human effort.
2. Would you accept the Lord’s invitation to radical transformation in your life? The life of your family? The life of our church?
3. Is pride hindering Jesus’ Lordship in your life? Let the Lord root that out today!
4. Consider to whom the Lord is asking you to give the goodness He has given you.

 
If you’re interested in going deeper into this topic, check out Mark's book, "Revival Rising: Preparing for the Next Great Wave of Awakening," available here.

We’ve been talking a lot about revival at CCC in 2017. In fact, our theme for the entire year is AWAKEN, which we adopted with the prayer that God will bring a fresh move of His Spirit and reveal to us a new and fresh vision of what He wants to do in and through this local church body.
 
Mark Nysewander, teaching pastor at RiverStone Church in Kennesaw, Georgia, has some thoughts on revival, too. A key component, he says, is humility.
 
Writing for Seedbed, Asbury Theological Seminary’s media platform for gathering, connecting and resourcing the Church, Mark says “revival comes to humble places … because they house humble people. Humility is the best conductor for God’s power. To be an instrument of revival, seek the posture that conveys such power."
 
Mark will be at CCC during our next Call to AWAKEN gathering, set for April 30-May 3. You can read the rest of his blog post, "What Humility Has to Do with Revival," right here.
 
And if you’re interested in going deeper into this topic, check out his book, "Revival Rising: Preparing for the Next Great Wave of Awakening," available in the Seedbed store.

We look forward to Mark joining us this spring as we continue to be awakened by an exciting move of the Holy Spirit here at CCC.