RISE with Rob and Friends
Enjoy a night out filled with hope as Rob brings some of his friends together for storytelling and music. Come sit with singer-songwriters, Jason Gray, Mike Donehey, and Mark Schultz as they share their music, how it's inspired, and more!
Tickets are $18 and Kids 10 & Under are FREE | Save $2 per ticket when you buy 4 or more
Tickets can be purchased at the event.
JOIN US IN A CITY NEAR YOU
March 24, 2023
With Mark Schultz, Mike Donehey, and Jason Gray
The Roof Garden Ball Room | Arnolds Park, IA
March 25, 2023
With Mark Schultz, Mike Donehey, and Jason Gray
Memorial Auditorium | Worthington, MN
The event starts at 7PM, doors open at 6PM.
Thank you to our partners Touch of Hope Haiti, The Bridge 104.3FM, and Worthington Tax & Business Services!
Featured Artists
JASON GRAY
Known in the CCM community for his ability to craft thoughtful lyrics of praise with rhythmic pop melodies, Jason Gray as been providing listeners with inspiring and uplifting music for over a decade. Through his willingness to offer compassionate honesty and authenticity, Gray has produced compelling songs that have climbed the charts and impacted global audiences. His last full album, 2016’s Where The Light Gets In, debuted in the Top 5 of Billboard’s Top Christian Albums Chart. This followed the success of 2014 album Love Will Have The Final Word, which held Gray’s first No. 1 AC radio hit “With Every Act of Love” – also a Billboard Christian Airplay Top 10 track. With his early records A Way To See In The Dark and Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue, he had five Top 5 singles in a row, including the No. 1 Inspo radio single “Nothing Is Wasted.” Gray has won two ASCAP Performance Awards, for “More Like Falling In Love” and “Good To Be Alive.” He has toured with Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Third Day, TobyMac, and numerous others, in addition to headlining tours of his own. Audiences are able to experience not only Gray’s musical talent, but the heartfelt way he shares his gifts to support others.
MIKE DONEHEY
Mike Donehey has seen his fair share of the unexpected. Following a potentially fatal car crash as a teen, Mike learned to play the guitar while still in bed recovering from his injuries. Learning the guitar quickly gave birth to songwriting, and that songwriting quickly led to the formation of a band.
That band, Tenth Avenue North, became one of the most loved and successful artists in Christian music. Beginning with their acclaimed national debut, Over and Underneath, Tenth Avenue North’s audience multiplied with each new album and hit song, like radio favorites “Love Is Here,” “By Your Side,” “You Are More,” “Losing,” “Worn,” “I Have This Hope,” and multi-week no. 1 smash “Control (Somehow You Want Me).”
At the beginning of 2020, despite widespread notoriety and a devout following, Tenth Avenue North’s members began to sense they each had their own unexpected and unique roads to follow. Mike has seized this opportunity, reveling in the excitement to expand as a storyteller, communicator and thought instigator wherever his voice is heard.
Mike’s acclaimed book, Finding God’s Life for My Will, was an immediate best-seller upon its release. It is soon to be followed by his next book, Grace In The Gray, releasing in January 2023.
Mike’s podcast, Chasing the Beauty, looks for the joy of God in the places we didn’t think it could be on the AccessMore network.
Perhaps most exciting has been Mike’s writing and producing new music. His acclaimed solo album Flourish is just the beginning of the flow of new music coming our way.
The unexpected has a way of disrupting our lives in ways we might not have ever chosen. For Mike, learning to embrace the unexpected has been the very thing that has brought forth encouraging and soul-healing art time and time again. Looking forward, Mike is trusting to be led in any way that will allow him to continue to serve and inspire.
MARK SCHULTZ
A lot of artists talk about chasing their dreams but for Christian recording artist Mark Schultz, it’s never been about the chase. Instead, it’s about following God’s call. Incidentally, this has led to what looks like any artist’s dream: two million records sold to date, ten No. 1 singles, a Dove Award as well as multiple nominations. If you’ve encountered Christian music in the last 18 years, when you hear the name Mark Schultz, you will probably begin humming your favorite Schultz hit.
But even for accomplished artists, sometimes following God’s call might mean following it away from music, or, at least away from music as others see it. Mark Schultz is about to release his first full-length album in six years. Where has he been? Following a new call on his life, one that is arguably more challenging, and fulfilling, than releasing records and being a touring artist: fatherhood.
“Whatever season I’m in, that’s the call I’m following,” says Schultz. His first son was born six years ago, “so if you want to do the math,” he jokes, “you can see that once we had our child, for those six years, things slowed down quite a bit for me.”
Perhaps it slowed down on the music and touring side of things, but not on the family side. Schultz and his wife now have three kids, ages six, four and two. And while he is still following the call of fatherhood, God’s call has also led Schultz back to music with a new energy, new perspective and a new album aptly titled Follow.
The live album is set to release August 17. A mix of new songs and fan-favorites—worship anthems “God of Glory” and “I Am” both appear on the album—Schultz says it’s the best of both worlds: “You get your favorites that you would want to hear when you come to the concert, plus the brand new songs.”
Recording the album live was appropriate for this musician who thrives in that environment. “Most people thrive in the studio,” says Schultz, “for me, I love the live shows so much…I just love the energy of people. I love to see people smiling when I’m telling stories.”
It was this energy that convinced Schultz to choose “Follow” as the first single. As he explains, “It was kind of a backwards process. Instead of going to the studio first and then taking the [tracks] to the people, I took them to the people, and then took the one that resonated back into the studio and recorded it.”
The powerful title track parallels how Schultz navigates his life, not by his own will, but God’s. Originally inspired by a story Schultz heard about a girl with a rough upbringing and no father-figure, Schultz discovered “Follow” was farther reaching than he knew: “As I lived with the song, I thought, ‘This isn’t just for her; this is for me. What do I follow?’”
The chorus reminds us why we follow God, rather than material and earthly things: I’m going to follow my God / For He is saying, “Fear not” / Through storms that rage / My God will make a way / I’m going to call on His name / For He is mighty to save.
Schultz knows that following God does not always mean you know where He’s taking you. As his second verse boldly says, I don’t need to see what’s up ahead / All I need to see is my next step.
The most recent step of faith that Schultz and his wife have taken is adopting their third child, Maia Mae. The adoption was a full-circle moment for Schultz, who is also adopted. Now being on the parental side of adoption, Schultz says he views being adopted—by his parents and by God—in a totally different way.
“I grew up [wanting] to make my parents think they made a good choice when they chose me, so I wanted to be good at singing, I wanted to be a good athlete, I wanted to be the quarterback,” he recalls. “When we adopted Maia Mae, I spent about 15 minutes with her and realized there’s nothing she could do that could make me go, Oh, we shouldn’t have gotten her. And there’s nothing she can do that makes me go, Oh, we got the right one. It’s just that she is our daughter, and we love her.”
This theological insight, as well as the natural shift in priorities that often accompanies becoming a parent, has added a new layer to Schultz’s songwriting. His lyrics reveal he is not only thinking about who he follows, but who his kids will follow one day.
In the chorus of “Before You Call Home,” which Schultz wrote after attending the memorial service for a father of a friend, he considers the legacy he wants to leave for his three kids and how he hopes his influence will point them to someone greater: I want to live a life of love / I want to give myself away / I want my kids to think of You when they speak my name.
Of course, this type of legacy requires investing in the lives of your kids today, which goes back to the whole idea of what you follow. “Different chapters call for different things,” explains Schultz. He could chase whatever is shiny—the next concert, the next song—but, he says, “the fact of the matter is, my kids and the relationships that we’re starting to build with them right now, the investments we’re making right now—I hope it’s going to pay off when they’re 20 and 25, 30 and 35.”
Schultz credits his desire to invest in his kids to a mentor who invested him. Rev. Mark DeVries was Schultz’s boss when Schultz was a youth director at a church in Nashville, but DeVries was much more than a boss for him. “I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now unless I was under his leading and mentorship,” says Schultz.
DeVries recognized Schultz’s talent for songwriting and encouraged him to write songs about the experiences he was having as a youth director. “He’d say, Hey, why don’t you go write a song about that mission trip you went on with those kids?” says Schultz. “I’d write it and we’d sing it on Sunday mornings.
Eventually, DeVries’ encouragement led Schultz to rent out Ryman Auditorium, an iconic music venue in Nashville, for his very first concert. The show sold out, label people were there and the rest is history.
Schultz honors DeVries in the track “What Love Looks Like,” which Schultz initially wrote for his mentor’s retirement. The song describes a man who sounds a lot like Jesus. As the first verse says, Loved by the young, the old, and the one who needed some help along the way / If you ask anyone who has met him about his life, they would say / This is what love looks like.
“That’s the kind of guy this is,” says Schultz. “That’s who I’ve been following for the last 20 years.”
Now, 20 years later, it seems DeVries’ encouragement is still having an effect on Schultz’s career. While Schultz collaborated with producer Ted T., who has worked with King and Country and Natalie Grant, on producing the single, and he worked with co-writer Jeff Pardo on several songs, Follow is largely an independent project for Schultz. For the first time in 18 years, he is releasing an album sans-label.
Schultz says it’s been exciting to be on the production and promotion side of things, and he appreciates that we live in a time where independent artists can have the freedom to do that. It also allows him to stay true to his calling.
“I’ve always known who I am and what I do,” he says, “so this is an extension of that.”
Spoken like someone who has his priorities in line when it comes to what he follows in his life as well as what he follows in his art. Songwriting for Schultz has never been about trends or staying relevant in Christian music. Instead, he says, “my biggest deal is to write what is real to me…I want to pull it out of real life, make art out of it and hand it back to people.”
This is exactly what Follow is a collection that is equal parts an extension of Schultz and an offering to listeners—listeners who, if they haven’t already, will follow Schultz’s music for years to come and, more importantly, the One he sings about.