Nicole Lee • Staff writer • March 1, 2009

God isn’t just a heavenly, far-away being who is the foundation of Christianity; he’s also a cool dude you can talk to intimately and have fun with.

At least that was the sentiment of thousands of teenage girls who packed the Blue Cross Arena on Saturday for the Revolve Tour, a two-day conference of music, dramatic skits and faith-based speakers.

A junior version of the Women of Faith tour that’s popular with adult women, the Revolve Tour primarily focuses on girls in middle and high school.

No teen can escape the trials of adolescence, but Revolve stresses that a relationship with God can help girls struggling with their self-esteem, friendships, living a Christian life and other issues.

The event’s 16-city tour also includes stops this year in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Orlando.

Oh, and it’s a blast, too, said attendees.

“It’s really fun. You get to talk about what happens when you get into your teen years,” said pre-teen Riley O’Flynn, 12, a sixth-grader at Honeoye Falls Middle School.

Read full article in the Democrat and Chronicle

Tags: blue cross arena, democrat and chronicle, rochester, The Revolve Tour

By JAMIE GUMBRECHTThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionSaturday, December 06, 2008Whatever.A 7,000-person crowd, mostly teen girls, took over Gwinnett Center in Duluth on Saturday for The Revolve Tour, a weekend event of music and motivation — and lots of screaming. The lineup included pop-gospel acts like Hawk Nelson, Natalie Grant, Group 1 Crew and Nicole C. Mullen. And the discussion? Faith. Plastic surgery. Guys. Sex. Weight. Self-esteem. Self-acceptance. “I’ve never been around so many girls like me,” said Jocelyn Amaker, 17, of Columbus. “We all have something in common.”And not just that they shriek whenever someone on stage mentions Facebook, or “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” or really, pretty much anything. Jocelyn and her sisters bumped into some of the same people they go to high school with, but never talk to. That changed this weekend.“I never thought about it — I just thought about what I was going through,” said Makayla Amaker, 14. “You don’t know everybody, what they’re going through. You can’t judge.”Long lines stretched from merchandise booths selling books, CDs, T-shirts and posters and autograph tables stationed by the tour’s headliners. They lined up, too, to meet Austin Gutwein, a 14-year-old student from Arizona, who started a non-profit that helps children orphaned by HIV and AIDS. When he spoke, one voice bellowed “I’m in love with you!” Austin blushed and kept going — the Revolve Tour is hitting 16 cities; he’s used to the screaming, and the arena’s where men’s bathrooms have temporary signs up for ladies instead.The audience was silent until he finished a short, you-can-do-it speech. Then his non-profit, Hoops of Hope, became the new buzzword on the floor, along with another organization, World Vision. Karen Mizell and her daughter, Karson Mizell, 13, of Griffin, signed up through World Vision to sponsor a 1-year-old Peruvian child named Camila. Karson says she’ll send the infant toys and her own weekly allowance. That, and the music, made for a wild girl’s weekend.“Raw,” is how mom describes the weekend. “Pumped up,” daughter says, in a good, voice-losing way, with a mix of girls in heavy black eyeliner and girls barely old enough to color inside the lines.If it were any different, “I would try to hide some of me,” Karson said. “Around girls, I can be myself.” 

Tags: All Access, Atlanta, The Revolve Tour

Revolve: Rockin’ The Road World Premieres Friday, October 17

ATLANTA, GA (October 15, 2008) – Gospel Music Channel (GMC) television network will take viewers on a unique, behind-the-scenes journey in its first-ever unscripted reality drama series called Revolve: Rockin’ The Road. The five-episode series — set to premiere Friday night, October 17 — is GMC’s first foray into dramatic reality programming as well as its first original series targeting teens.

Revolve: Rockin’ The Road follows four advance team members of The Revolve Tour, the popular new travelling tour for teen girls produced by North America’s largest women’s conference, Women of Faith. The show will be seen through the eyes of four young professionals working with The Revolve Tour this summer: Chad Eastham, Jenna Lucado, Sean Kelly and Courtney Clark Cleveland. Crammed inside a tour bus and armed only with their faith, the four friends trek across America with an agenda to connect with teen girls and spark interest in The Revolve Tour: All Access that kicked off September 12, 2008. Revolve: Rockin’ The Road will give viewers an all-access pass as the foursome travel to nine different Christian music festivals across the country. The series will capture their collective quest to maintain spiritual peace and discipline amidst logistical challenges, self goals, and inevitable relationship struggles. While some of the cast finds resolution to those struggles at the season’s end, others remain searching.

Christian music artists Natalie Grant, Hawk Nelson, Group 1 Crew, Krystal Meyers and Ayiesha Woods are featured in the series, performing at the festivals and connecting with the Revolve team. A preview of the new show can be seen at http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com/revolve.

“With the success of unscripted drama reality shows like “The Hills” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” it’s clear that television viewers connect with real life dramatic-in-nature programming. We wanted to create a show that was unique and aligned with our network’s vision of inspiring, uplifting and entertaining through music. Revolve: Rockin’ The Road does all those things and more and gives our young viewers a cast they can relate to and music they love,” said Brad Siegel, vice chairman Gospel Music Channel.

ABOUT THE CAST:

• By age 15, Chad Eastham was locked up in a long term drug and alcohol dependency center. Those experiences gave him the first insight into understanding the difficulties and realities that teens can face and today, he has a whole new life. He has been a drug and alcohol dependency counselor, camp director, camp counselor, and teen camp Alaskan guide. Chad has earned two (B.A.) degrees from Miami University, written two books and spoken nationally to over 150,000 teenagers on The Revolve Tour about sexual abstinence, character development, and designing a life built on honor, integrity and respect.

• For a long time, Jenna Lucado was known simply as preacher and best-selling author Max Lucado’s daughter. In the past few years, she’s been stepping out and making her own impact as one of the key teen speakers for The Revolve Tour. Jenna works with high school girls during the week then joins Revolve on weekends for even more teen time. She considers herself a die-hard Texan, but she was born (and lived the first handful of years) in Brazil, where her parents were missionaries.

• After several years on the Revolve Tour Drama Team, Courtney Clark Cleveland is stepping into the spotlight as All Access Tour Guide. Besides being an accomplished actress (she studied Performance at Louisiana State University), Courtney’s been working with teen girls pretty much since she was one herself. Other things you should know: She won the “Most School Spirit” award in high school, she’s certified in CPR and claims to have “serious self-diagnosed ADD.” A native of Baton Rouge, LA, Courtney lives in “town-you-have-never-heard-of” Illinois.

• Sean Kelly has accomplished many things at a young age. Working with The Revolve Tour in promotions and sales. Kelly has had the opportunity to touch the lives of thousands of people. Growing up in Hilton Head Island, SC., Sean discovered his love for culture and comedy at a young age. While his love for the funnier things in life like his pet rooster Diego keep him light-hearted and down-to-earth, his love of culture has taken him to service in Chile, India, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico and Costa Rica. While overseas, Kelly educated the local people about their land, resources, nutrition and sexually transmitted diseases all while attending Lee University in Tennessee where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Revolve: Rockin’ The Road was produced for Gospel Music Channel by ScreenSurge Studios, which specializes in high definition television, commercial and music video production. ScreenSurge creates solid entertainment with positive messages while maintaining the production quality of the most popular films and television shows available today. The company has worked with Discovery Networks, MTV, FOX, Country Music Television, HBO and BRAVO.

The Revolve Tour (www.revolvetour.com) is an event for teen girls produced by North America’s largest women’s conference, Women of Faith. These fun, high-energy weekend events incorporate music, drama, and testimonies from an all-star line-up of artists and speakers. Topics covered include self-esteem, faith in Christ, friendships, and dealing with guys. This year’s Revolve Tour: All Access is scheduled in 16 cities throughout the U.S.

Gospel Music Channel (www.gospelmusicchannel.com) is the fastest-growing network in television today and can be seen in more than 40 million homes on various cable systems around the country and nationwide on DIRECTV on channel 338.

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/104268266.html

HAWK NELSON JOINS TOM SHOES
BAND PLANS RONALD MCDONALD HOUSES
AIR1 RADIO AND HAWK NELSON LAUNCH REVOLVE CAMPAIGN

SEATTLE, WA - September 24, 2008: From the band that knows how to make teen girls swoon as well as impact the lives of the youth generation, Hawk Nelson is on target to make a difference with the “One Little Miracle” campaign in multiple facets. The band is partnering with various organizations to urge others to reach outside and be that “one little miracle” that can change someone’s life. The moniker for the newly launched program is based of the band’s newest single “One Little Miracle,” which is currently charting at No. 6 on CHR formats. As the song states:

Not just focusing on one area of need, Hawk Nelson has chosen three avenues to be the “one little miracle” across the nation; however, the band needs the help of their truly devoted fans and following to make an impact. Each outreach will enforce the band’s ongoing involvement with the Hands & Feet Orphanage in Haiti, which the band visited last summer and recently purchased a van from proceeds raised during the spring tour. The orphanage was directly hit in the recent Gustav hurricane, and the band is striving to help provide aid as many others.

Hawk Nelson & TOMS Shoes
Hawk Nelson loves TOMS shoes and the cause they support: providing shoes for children in poverty stricken countries. For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donates a pair to someone in need. Their motto: One for One. Hawk Nelson is joining TOMS outreach as they have recently designed their own shoe. For every pair of shoes sold through this relationship, TOMS will give $8 back to the Hands & Feet Orphanage in Haiti.

TOMS Shoes was founded in 2006 and in their debut year gave more than 70,000 shoes to children in need from Argentina and South Africa. In 2008, TOMS plans to distribute more than 200,000 pairs of shoes across the world. For more information on Hawk Nelson & TOMS SHOES visit Hawk’s site.

Hawk Nelson & Ronald McDonald Visits:
As the REVOLVE 2008 tour gets underway, Hawk Nelson is planning on visiting select Ronald McDonald homes in the tour cities (cities below). The guys will visit the homes on Friday afternoons before the REVOLVE events take place and take goodie bags with CDs and t-shirts. They hope to encourage teen girls and families at these homes to attend the event, which REVOLVE will provide transportation and passes.

For nearly 35 years, Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC) has been creating, finding and supporting programs that directly improve the health and well being of children worldwide. RMHC is making a global impact on the most pressing problems facing families today. As a trusted non-profit for 35 years, RMHC has three core programs that help families in need: Ronald McDonald House®, Ronald McDonald Family Room® and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile®.

Hawk Nelson & Air1
To help support the REVOLVE tour and the Hawk Nelson “One Little Miracle” campaign, Air1 Radio is partnering with the band to giveaway 75 signed records along with REVOLVE tickets. The grand prize will be a fly away package to Orlando (Feb. 6-7,2009) for the REVOLVE event. The winner will go with Hawk Nelson to the Ronald McDonald house as well as the event. In addition, Hawk Nelson and Air1’s Scott Smith will do weekly vodcasts as well as live broadcast with Hawk every Friday night on air from the REVOLVE dates.

For more information on all of these initiatives and Hawk Nelson’s involvement, please visit www.hawknelson.com . In addition the “One Little Miracle” EP, featuring Amy Grant special recording at Creation Northeast, will be available on October 14th at iTunes.

Ronald McDonald House Visits:
Minneapolis, MN OCT 3 - 4
818 Fulton Street S.W.
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Anaheim, CA OCT 10 - 11
383 South Batavia Street
Orange, CA 92868

St. Louis, MO OCT 17 - 18
4381 West Pine Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63108

Sacramento, CA OCT 24 - 25
2555 29th Street
Sacramento, CA 95817

Spokane, WA OCT 14 - 15
1015 W. 5th Avenue
Spokane, WA 99204

Portland, OR OCT 21 - 22
2620 North Commercial
Portland, OR 97227

Oklahoma City, OK JAN 30 - 31
1301 North East 14th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73117

About Hawk Nelson:
This powerhouse, punk foursome hailing from Canada has won the hearts of fans and media nationwide since their debut release in June 2004 with “Letters to the President.” HAWK NELSON has appeared on NBC’s “American Dreams”, had a cameo appearance in the hit Nickelodeon film “Yours, Mine, & Ours,” where they played their original song “Bring Em Out,” as well as had their songs featured on NBC’s 2006 Stanley Cup promo spots, WB’s Smallville, Summerland, & Laguna Beach. Their most recent release Hawk Nelson Is My Friend debuted at #34 on the Billboard Top 200 selling more than 18k units. Hawk Nelson Is My Friend was also the top selling new release on the Christian album chart in addition to the comprehensive chart. The album also successfully debuted on the digital store iTunes with a No. 13 debut on the Top 100 albums chart on street day and remains on that chart one week later. Also the debut single “Friend Like That” sold 25,000 digital copies up to street week on iTunes.

Church teens get games, music, talk

By Libby Perry
Sunday, July 13, 2008

As the bus door swung open, releasing a blast of cool crisp air, three shadowed figures descended out onto the Nashville field, and a dozen girls began to scream.

No, it’s wasn’t a horror story, or road trip gone bad. It was a prelude to the Revolve Tour –an eye-opening weekend trip for high school girls.

In this case, the girls were from Collierville United Methodist Church.

Youth director, Kris Konsowitz gathered about a dozen teenage girls from her church to attend an interview session for the Revolve Tour, a faith-based question-and-answer, concert-convention for girls led by Jenna Lucado, daughter of popular Christian author Max Lucado.

The girls were under the impression they would meet the team from the tour in Nashville, where they would then be filmed playing paintball and discussing questions dealing with the daily challenges teenage girls face.

Little did they know that their indescribably ambitious youth leader had a surprise for them. These privileged young ladies would be playing paintball with the popular rock band Hawk Nelson.

The screams of elation and disbelief filled the paintball arena as the girls identified the three figures from their favorite band. The cameras started to roll as the band greeted their hot and sweaty fans, ready for the paintball experience of their lives.

After two rounds of paintball, or “painball” for those of us with trigger-happy teammates, Jenna Lucado and partner Chad Eastham sat down with the girls, passed out some Popsicles, and asked about what life is like for teenage girls.

As the questions got deeper, and the answers grew more thoughtful, it became evident that the Revolve Tour was there for much more than a paintball battle. The team clearly wanted to let the girls know that there are other girls facing similar issues and people who care enough to listen.

The girls returned to Collierville with great memories, new perspectives, and bruises to brag about.

By Rhoda Fukushima, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Nov. 5–This weekend, Heather Howison, 14, will attend Revolve, a Christian teen conference in Minneapolis, with other girls from her church. As part of the bonding, the 58 teens and their six female chaperones are squeezing in a slumber party at Howison’s Eden Prairie house — all of them.

The slumber party is a way for the girls to keep the momentum from the conference alive and to reinforce its theme — that God loves and cherishes them — away from the distractions of everyday life.

“We wanted to celebrate being women, being together,” says Heather Flies, junior high pastor at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, which Howison attends. “Boys are good. I’m a big fan of boys. But it’s good to celebrate with women.”

The combination conference/slumber party is not uncommon for girls who attend Revolve, says Christy Atwood, an event marketing specialist with the tour. Eighty percent of attendees come in groups of 10 or more.

“It really does have the feel of a church service, concert and slumber party all rolled into one,” she says.

Created in 2005, Revolve is one of a handful of Christian conferences aimed at teen girls. The Girls of Grace conference, based in Tennessee, is a program of Point of Grace, a popular Christian female quartet. On the other side of the pond, Soul Sista reaches Christian teen girls (and older) in England.

Now in its third year, the Revolve tour is produced by Women of Faith. Minneapolis is the eighth stop on the 14-city tour and is expected to draw more than 8,000 girls.

This year’s tour features names well-known in Christian circles, including singer Natalie Grant and author Max Lucado (and his daughter Jenna Lucado). The Lucados will talk about the importance of father-daughter relationships. After discussing her struggle with bulimia on the first tour, Grant will focus on healthy self-esteem this time.

This year’s conference features Hawk Nelson, a pop-punk band from Canada; KJ52, a Christian rapper; and Ayiesha Woods, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter.

“On our stage, people who are seen as icons really get down to a real level,” Atwood says. “They’re really straight with the girls. They can connect with them at their level.”

Dr. Pamela Erwin, a professor of youth ministry and practical theology at Bethel University, says the conference brings young women together to celebrate being a follower of Christ, which she considers a good thing. But Erwin says the conference takes cues from pop culture, which presents a too-narrow view of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be feminine, she says.

She points to T-shirts for sale on the Web site with slogans like “This Girl Is God’s Princess” or “Take a Giggle Break.”

“I think often a particularly narrow view of femininity limits young women,” Erwin says. “That is what really saddens me — that there are so many young women trying to fit this image that who they are gets lost.”

Howison doesn’t know what to expect at this year’s tour, her second. But if the first tour is any indication, certain teachings may really stick, she says.

“When you hear things from your parents, it’s, like, ‘OK, whatever,’ ” Howison says. “When you hear it from someone else, like your youth pastor or at a conference like this, I kind of think you listen more and don’t blow it off.”

Howison’s mother, Valerie Howison, agrees.

“It gives them an opportunity to hear the message from other people’s perspectives and experiences but often with the same core message,” she says.

Rachel Hockett of Prelude will be on tour this fall with Hawk Nelson, Natalie Grant, and KJ-52 as a guest speaker on The Revolve Tour, the 2007-2008 Women of Faith event for teen girls.

Revolve is a fun, fast-paced, action-packed weekend (Friday evening—Saturday) event when thousands of teen girls pile into an arena to hear about how much God loves them. The first stop on the fourteen-city tour will be Columbus, OH, on September 14-15, and the last on February 22-23, 2008, in Houston, TX. For tour dates, go to http://www.therevolvetour.com.

The talented Prelude trio’s fun, melodic pop debut album Learn to Fly (TrackStar Recordworks/Provident-Integrity Distribution) was released on May 1 to wide appeal. All three girls have powerful testimonies of individual victories over personal life challenges, and bring a mature message of struggle, transformation, hope and joy to their album, Prelude made their first appearance together in April on TBN’s popular “Praise the Lord” show, and were on tour with Christian author Stormie Omartian in May. For more information on Prelude, go to: http://www.myspace.com/preludetrio

Rachel’s music career started early—at the age of three on the road with her gospel-singing parents at the time, Billy and Sarah Gaines. She later shared a Dove Award (Inspirational Album of the Year) with her parents for her part in a project called “Generation to Generation.” A Christian from an early age, Rachel, who is a recent graduate (with honors!) of Western Kentucky University, wrestled with a hidden eating disorder for ten years before finally facing up to it.

As a guest speaker on The Revolve Tour, Rachel will be speaking about her struggles with overcoming her eating disorder: “Even when God speaks to us, it still takes faith to receive it, even more faith to believe it, and extra faith to walk it out, it just takes time. I held on to God’s word in my heart, and tried to look at my weight gain as the slow disintegration of my long exalted idol. I felt like my suffering was for a reason, and that reason was to be the girl that God had in mind when he dreamed me up, a girl who is free of the world’s opinion of beauty, and who knows she has more to offer the world than being size 6!”

The Prelude girls all come from accomplished musical families: Rachel Hockett is the daughter of Dove award winning artists Billy and Sarah Gaines, while Amanda Omartian is the daughter of Grammy Award winning producer Michael Omartian, and Kara Tualatai is the daughter of Dove award winning musical and choral collection writer and arranger Dave Williamson.

Kara, Rachel, and Amanda first met almost fifteen years ago at church in Franklin, Tennessee, after being put on the youth group praise and worship team together, and have been best friends ever since. The girls have had individual careers as solo artists, and as session and back-up vocalists for many well-known artists including Amy Grant, Donna Summers, and Raven Symone on the Disney music video “A Dream is a Wish.”

The second annual Revolve Tour, geared toward teen girls, opened its sixth conference this year in Dallas, Texas where thousands of girls are getting the advice they’ve been looking for from relatable speakers and Christian artists.

By Audrey Barrick

The second annual Revolve Tour, geared toward teen girls, opened its sixth conference this year in Dallas, Texas where thousands of girls are getting the advice they’ve been looking for from relatable speakers and Christian artists.

Female Christian artists are often approached by young girls who come to them with their struggles seeking advice. But the artists’ busy schedule doesn’t allow the time for them to stop and talk. Revolve, however, offers the time and venue for artists to give girls the comradeship they seek.

“So many times in concerts, a lot of girls would come up to [us] and say ‘I’m struggling with this. What do I do?’” said a ZOEgirl artist in a Revolve video. “A lot of times we don’t have the time to stop and really spend the time we want with them. But this is the place where that can happen.”

The Revolve tour, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, kicked off last fall. Mothers who were attending Women of Faith conferences were asking for something for their daughters to go to which resulted in the now annual Revolve Tour. Thomas Nelson Publishers is also the parent sponsor of the Women of Faith conferences.

Revolve involves such artists like ZOEgirl, best-selling female artist in Christian music for 2005 Natalie Grant, and Tammy Trent. New this year is Christian hip hop artist KJ-52. Speakers also include Olympic Diving Gold Medalist Laura Wilkinson and US Diving National Champion Kimiko Soldati.

“It’s just been such a feeling of camaraderie, and of family, and of a team where everyone is cheering each other on,” said Grant.

With thousands of girls attending the conferences nationwide at a time when eating disorders are on the rise and less young adults are attending church on Sundays, Revolve’s speakers tackles issues of friendship, boys, image and faith.

“It doesn’t candy coat anything,” noted Grant. “It hits these issues dead on and it also is empowering girls.

“They’re searching for something that would empower them to be able to go beyond just this conference and what they can take with them to go out and change the world.”

By Katherine T. Phan

The publishers of Revolve “Biblezine,” a Bible in the format of a fashion magazine, are now offering a new conference that reflects the same teen-saavy yet faith-targeting approach as their best-selling Bible. The Revolve Tour, which kicks-off for its first run in September, is expected to give teenage Christian girls the inside scoop to sexual purity, growing in their faith, self-esteem, and friendship and family issues.

“The Revolve Tour is a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers who created the biblezine”, said Amy Chandy, Vice President Development. “Much of the same planning and research that helped propel the Bible will be included in this teen conference.”

“[It] will be a place where real faith will intercept real life for these teen girls,” said Chandy.

Thomas Nelson Publishers is also the parent sponsor of the Women of Faith conferences tour, which draws on average 10,000 women to most venues and is expected to draw over 400,000 women during this year’s conferences.

Women of Faith Spokesperson Nicole Masker told The Christian Post in a previous interview that there is a double life that teens are leading. On any given week, teens are fitting in friends, while on the weekends, they’re expected to be good Christians, she explained.

The Revolve conference will directly address polarizing issues teenage Christian girls face and provide ways for them to overcome the peer pressure through lectures and music.

“We often hear statements from teens like, ‘I hate my body’ or ‘I’m thinking of suicide’,” said Chrissy Conway, singer for ZOE Girl. “Our songs don’t skirt the issues and still have great music that teens love.”

Olympic Gold Medalist diver Laura Wilkinson and singer Natalie Grant who both speak at the Women of Faith conferences will also be speaking at the event.

Conferences will be held from Sept. 23-24, 2005 in Orlando, FL; Oct. 7-8, 2005 in Charlotte, NC; Oct. 14-15, 2005 in Portland, OR; Nov. 4-5, 2005 in Minneapolis, MN; and Nove. 11-12, 2005 in Hartford, CT.