By Shawn Hogendorf, Staff Writer 

Music has long been a vessel of change and hope.

Music speaks a language of its own and has brought cultures together for thousands of years.

River of Joy Lutheran Church is planning a hunger concert using music to reach out to the less fortunate on Friday, Aug. 15 at Lakefront Park, 5000 Kop Parkway. A picnic is planned for 6 p.m. A concert featuring a musical collaboration of Ben Rosenbush, Micah Witham, Heatherlyn and a variety of their friends will start at 7 p.m. The hunger concert will benefit the CAP Agency and the Community Action Council.Micah Witham, Heatherlyn and Ben Rosenbush

“We are not going to bring local and global hunger to a screeching halt by gathering together, inviting our friends and neighbors and hosting a concert,” said Steve Bonesho, a pastor at River of Joy Lutheran Church. “But perhaps, just maybe, as we come together we can have a lasting impact on one person’s life by providing food for a global or local neighbor. We can have an impact by being a friend, by sharing some hope and by welcoming a stranger.”

The concert will be a collaboration of three individual artists sharing the stage and their songs with many of their friends to perform a mix of music from folk-rock to Americana to classic rock, said guitarist Ben Rosenbush.

While performing original and cover songs, the musical collaboration will include steel and acoustic guitars, drums, bass and cellos. Sometimes the music is more singer songwriter in style and at other times it’s simply rockin’.

“There is definitely a dynamic flow to the show,” Rosenbush said. “It’s music from life that involves social and spiritual issues.”

Hosting a concert is a spiritual, inspiring way to celebrate community, Heatherlyn added. “We’re not blindly celebrating community as if everything were right in the world, but rather to grow as a vibrant, caring community to help others,” she said.

Music gives musicians a chance to create community, Rosenbush said.

“More than musicians we are people in the world,” Rosenbush said. “We are Christians with conviction to help solve hunger in the world both globally and locally.”

Hunger isn’t about just easing the comfort of a grumbling tummy, Heatherlyn said. It’s giving a student the strength to study and a parent the confidence to have a good job interview. It’s giving parents a peace of mind when things aren’t going well to know others around them care, she said.

This type of an event is part of an ongoing creative process of River of Joy to form community around issues of injustice, Bonesho said.

“Musicians create a scene for a life-giving community,” Bonesho added. “They help create a space for life to thrive, while creating songs that are good and beautiful.”

Music opens people up to listen, Heatherlyn added. For some it’s inspiring to go out and do something. For others it can be exhausting because it brings the issue to the forefront through thoughtful lyrics, she said. But what it does do for everyone is give people the resources to become engaged, not just worry about a problem, Heatherlyn said.

“We are trying to bring an issue to light in our community,” Micah Witham said. “People can be aware, engaged or ignorant about hunger. Traditionally churches don’t stand in the gap of injustice, but that’s exactly where Jesus should be.”

There is also an identity part to the reason River of Joy has chosen to advocate for the hungry, Bonesho said.

“This is where we belong,” Bonesho said. “It’s where Jesus took us. It can’t be all about doom and gloom when it comes to hunger. I like doing things like this because when you get a community to rally around an issue, we pick each other up. It’s simply a different way to be in the world.”

This concert isn’t about River of Joy, Bonesho said.

“It’s about being a part of something larger that we are all a part of,” he said. “It’s about the spirit at work in the world engaging us all differently.”

The hunger picnic and concert will start at 6 p.m. at Lakefront Park on Aug. 15. Bring a bag of food to donate and a picnic to set up for friends and family.

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.