As senior pastor at East Dayton Christian Church, 3415 Linden Ave. in Dayton, Scott VanDyke is always looking for ways to engage his congregation that also will reach out to people beyond the church. And as a musician, he’s always happy if these events include music.
VanDyke’s latest offering is Rock and Worship at East Dayton Christian Church at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 16. The free outdoor concert features Christian bands More Than a Show from Sidney, and Seven, a group with members from Piqua, Greenville and Dayton. “This is our first time doing Rock and Worship, but we’ve done something similar to this in the past with other genres of music,” said VanDyke, who has been senior pastor at East Dayton Christian since 1995. “This past fall we had an outdoor bluegrass concert, but we thought we’d do something that has sort of a contemporary Christian rock. We’ve got it planned for outdoors behind the church, and we’ll have a trailer set up and have it covered. Unless it rains and then we can easily move it indoors.”
Featured performers include Christian rock bands Seven and More Than a Show. Seven, which includes VanDyke, Jeff Pepiot, Nick Combs and Dirk Wideman, is a classic-rock-style band. More Than a Show, a contemporary rock act formed in 2007, includes Thylaar Wolfe (lead vocals), Kyle Inman (lead guitar), Ryan Inman (drums), Matt Jones (keyboards) and Tyler Jones (bass).
“Seven is a group of buddies of mine, and we’ve just been playing some Christian music for about five years now,” VanDyke said. “We perform mostly for youth groups or family groups. More Than a Show are college-age students that just really have a heart for sharing the love of God through music. They share their heart in their concerts. I was impressed by that.
“We’re targeting 50s and earlier,” VanDyke added. “Those who would enjoy kind of a classic rock sound, and then More Than a Show is more for the 20s and teenagers and that demographic. That’s why we have two bands. We’ll also offer concessions, and there will be children’s games available. This is an outreach to our community. We can provide free music to our community that they can enjoy, and also, ultimately, to praise God through our music.”
More information: (937) 253-7965 or www.gracedrivenchurch.com.
