Interlinc is "an organization dedicated to linking the resources of the Christian music industry with the needs of local youth ministries. Interlinc offers resources that help youth workers integrate Christian music into their ministry... products and opportunities that make it easy for youth leaders to harness the power of music to attract new teenagers, to teach God's truth using music, and to maximize music events for their ministry." --www.interlinc-online.com Interlinc Director - Allen Weed

Allen Weed: This is a talkback time. How many of you have been at other meetings we've done here so far? (responses) Many of you! Anyway, you're going to get to hear from the guys. You're going to know some of the heart of what's happening up there on stage. You'll be able to interpret that… not only tonight and afterwards, but from now on. This is an empowerment time for you to hear from them. But the other side of this is the back part. There are a hundred things they could be doing today. I want to say these guys are really committed to student ministry. They are committed to the kids in your youth group. They're committed to making music and doing concerts that are relevant to the students in your group. And so what you have to say to them might spark an idea that they've never thought of before. These are extremely creative guys that you say, "Boy, you know my kids are struggling with this. I wish we had…" I don't know what it is… but Matt might come up with something or Dan might write a song about it. So let's don't take this time lightly. Let's use it to the fullest! Therefore, we prayed and asked God to do something. Y'all aren't just coming to a meeting. We're saying "God, use us, speak to us." So please welcome some great friends of mine and soon to be friends of yours… Jars of Clay! Come on guys!

AW: What do you think about this couch? (Couch was definitely '70's, beige with orange, olive, and gold floral pattern.)

Charlie: You're going to want one of these, I think.

AW: I want to ask everybody… What do you think of Steve's hair?? Isn't it lovely??

Actually we had a Billy Graham crusade in town about a month, umm… three weeks ago, and they (Jars) played at the Adelphia Coliseum in Nashville. The official count was 72,000, but there were more like 80,000 people there. They couldn't report them all because of the fire marshal… that kind of thing. Steve showed up backstage and his hair was lovely RED! I go, " Steve what happened?" And he says, "I was washing clothes last night and it sort of just happened to me." (laughter)

So we have Dan and Charlie and Matt and Stephaaan! That's the German version…

Steve: Or Stephano for the Days of our Lives fans! (crowd laughs) Probably, he like died three times! He died when I was like this big. (stoops over)

AW: How do they do that?

Steve: And I think he's fathered Hope's baby! (crowd laughs)

Fan from the crowd: You DO watch that!!!

Steve: It was a tabloid in the grocery store! (smiles)

Same fan: Yeah… right!

AW: When we get him going, there's no stopping… What we want to do is, we want to start like we have in the other meetings. Let's assume you all know nothing about these guys other than that they make great music.

Charlie: And our soap opera favorites!

AW: So I've asked Dan, lead singer and lead song writer… collaborating song writer… to just share some of how he came to know Christ and his spiritual journey. So, Dan Haseltine!

Dan: Hi! I'm Dan and let's see. I was first made aware that there was this person of Jesus Christ when I was about 9 years old. My mom had a youth leader come to our house. I have one brother and the two of us were quite a handful! We were pretty obnoxious. You would call us a discipline problem, I guess, growing up. When I was 9 years old, my mom said, "Maybe if I introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ, then maybe they won't be such a handful." It didn't really work. But I did end up accepting Christ when I was nine years old. Wouldn't really say that I understood what I had done until I was probably a sophomore in high school. I went through a long process of asking some really difficult questions… and putting roots on this faith. I had a lot of good youth pastors and people surrounding me to help me answer a lot of those really tough questions about who is this Jesus Christ and why do I really need Him in my life, and just things of that nature. So it really was in high school that I really felt like I started putting roots on this faith that I had. Then, I went to college and met these guys. And that was also kind of a process of continually understanding more and more about what Jesus Christ had done… even beyond the concept of salvation. A lot of times, I think we think that we have something to do with it. It was in college that I think I recognized that it really takes less and less of me and more and more of God and what the process of that looks like… kind of leading me to the present day. I think that's still one of the major factors in my life… is simply, what do I need to acknowledge what God is in control of and what I have nothing to do with? Because I keep trying to take control of things here and there and putting myself as the main character rather than this person of Jesus Christ.

AW: You guys actually met at Greenville College. Talk about that and how this whole thing got started.

Charlie: We met at Greenville College, which is in Illinois. We were studying music. We all sort of ended up there kind of randomly. I was from New York. Matt and I grew up together in New York. Matt didn't go to school at Greenville. Steve is from Illinois and Dan is from Florida. So we just sort of ended up there and actually met over a Toad the Wet Sprocket concert t-shirt that Dan was wearing. We all had seen Toad and were into their music and that was our first common tie that we found. Steve came the following year. We wrote a few songs on our dorm floor. We hit it off friendship-wise and I think, spiritually. Leaving home and asking a lot of questions, I think. We had a lot of thoughts and curiosities about this decision we made 10 years ago… however long ago it was. So we all hopped on that boat together, wrote those songs and entered a competition in Nashville. We ended up winning this competition and quitting school… dropping out and moving down to Nashville. That's where Matt came in.