This day in age, being a successful independent Christian band isn't all that uncommon. And being an independent band that has a production company and a global charity is impressive, but not unheard of. But being an independent Christian band that has a production company and a global charity that is operated not by staff or liaisons, but by the band members themselves, while self-managing North American tours with major artists is a rather rare thing.

 

And the Iowa-based quartet Bread of Stone is just that--rare. This anomaly in the Christian music business is affecting lives from Sioux City to Indonesia and back, and audiences are just starting to become familiar with one of the hardest-working outfits in the industry. 

 

In advance of the upcoming Music With a Mission Tour (co-sponsored by NewReleaseTuesday), and the band's latest album, The Real Life, I spoke with lead singer Ben Kristijanto, guitarist Bill Kristijanto (his brother), bass player Tim Barnes and drummer Wesley Holt.

 

The interview came about as I was using the facilities near the Worship Stage at Creation Festival NW. As I entered the restroom, I noticed something you don't see every day: someone brushing their teeth in a random bathroom, far from the campsites. Initially shrugging it off as an oddity of the festival life, I asked the teeth-brusher if he was having a good time at Creation.

 

"Having a much better time now that we're here," he said, noting that he was rattled a bit after an accident with his bus on the way to Enumclaw. It didn't sound like he was part of a youth group, so I asked, "Are you part of a band?"

 

That's how I met Barnes, the bassist from Bread of Stone. Apparently a truck driver had drifted across a median late into the night, and a God-inspired swerve at the opportune moment spared the band and its passengers from any serious injury, leaving just a damaged equipment trailer. 

 

"God was totally watching us," Barnes said. I later met up with Barnes' three bandmates to find out more about this up-and-coming group from the plains.

 

Here at Creation, this is the introduction to you guys for a lot of people. You're not with a major label or anything. You guys are in-house everything--production company, charity, all of the above. How do you do it? 

Wesley: We all have many hats. We're not wearing any of them right now, but you should see it when we do wear our hats. It's quite a few hats. 
 

Ben: It's like when the Lord leads you onto something, you think, "Oh, this is what He wants you to do," so you start doing it and the next thing you know it's like, "Oh, He wants you to do this as well, and this." Sooner or later all of these of these opportunities for us to be able to minister just keep opening up. The Lord says He'll never give you more than you can handle, and He hasn't given us that. So we keep on doing it until we reach a limit. We're ready for that. (Laughs)
 

Wesley: I've thought of that moment! I don't know how to juggle, so maybe that'll be when.
 

Bill: I think the biggest encourager in our life for us--my dad--has always brought us up in an encouraging environment. He said, "Do whatever is in front of you to the best of your ability." I think that's why we end up doing a bunch of stuff.
 

Ben: Because when we started it was my brother and myself, and it was a calling from the Lord to our dad to start a music ministry. At that time we didn't know anything about music.
 

Bill: And we're in Iowa...
 

Ben: So for us to do anything, we didn't know you get a producer to produce your songs and then get a CD. So what we did do is we became the producers. We built a studio. We didn't know anything and we wanted to know how everything worked. It was just the spirit of the Lord guiding us through every step of the way.
 

Tim: Bread of Stone is based out of Sioux City, Iowa, and I actually live there as well. I live over the border in South Dakota. My older brother worked in a music store in Sioux City, so they were going to the music store they knew my older brother. I was with my older brother every now and then. I met them kind of. 

Bill: He didn't like us. 
 

Tim: I liked you guys. It was just more of acquaintances type thing. In 2008 I heard they needed a bass player from a friend of mine at my church. I knew of Bread of Stone, that they traveled and stuff like that. I didn't really want to do it at first because I was very, uh, comfortable. I was very close with my family. I have five other siblings. My other brother is a pastor at my church so I was basically there all the time doing that with him. So I pushed it to the wayside and it just kept coming back to me. I felt like the Lord was calling me to do it. I called Ben up and two weeks later I was on the road for like two to three months, away from that comfort zone I told you about. 

You're the newest member then?
 

Wesley: No. That's me. I joined two years ago and I'm from Texas. I'm not even close to Iowa. I'd never even heard of them before, but I always did music locally. There's a band from Tyler called Luminate, and I'm good friends with those guys. I went to church with them growing up and stuff. 

I worked in the welcome center at the local college, but it was like the sweetest job ever. It was a good job because basically I just sat in the welcome desk and if somebody had a question, I answered it, but other than that I just watched YouTube videos all day. I got a call from my friend Aaron and he's like, "Hey. I know you're not doing much right now, but there's this band from Iowa and they need a drummer. I thought you may be interested." Four days later I flew out to Nashville and they picked me up. We went to a camp in North Carolina, so that's where I tried out, and I've been on the road ever since.
 

Wesley: We do everything, anything. Birthday parties. We did one today.

That's right! It's your birthday, Tim. How old are you today?

Tim: 23. 

Bill: Twenty-three and still single. I made sure everybody knew that, too, in the show today. 
 

Tim: Yeah. I saw that. Some girls bought me lemonade. I got a birthday cake. It was awesome. It was probably because Bill said I was single on stage. That's probably what's going on here.
 

Ben: I think the really cool thing about that tour is that they make sure that everybody kind of knows what's going on, like what's the mission. So it's got this uniform vision. Everybody knows why they're there. That's different than most tours.
 

Wesley: A lot of tours you have a nonprofit sponsoring it. You never really know what that nonprofit is. You never talk about it unless the headliner says something, but this one is not really a tour. It's for the cause. I think another cool thing is that the past few tours have been with the same people. We've done like five with Superchick in a row or something like that, and then we did two years straight with the Newsboys. So this is going to be cool because these are all bands we've never toured with. That's going to be interesting too just to meet some new people.
 

That's awesome. Are you guys part of a ministry? Do you have a ministry focus event?
 

Ben: Yeah. The Light Project. That was three years ago we started that, and that was another one of those things that God just opened the door and we said, "OK. We'll take it," not knowing what it would shape up to be. A pastor friend of my dad who was in Surabaya [Indonesia], he's leading a church and all these people that he goes out and reaches out to are these people that live in landfills. 
 

He starts his ministries there and needed financial backing. My dad is like, "Would you guys be able to do it?" Sure! So we just jumped into it and then when we did have the opportunity to go there three years ago as a band, we got to see what was happening and we were like, "There's more to it than just this." 
 

They would meet five times a week in different locations, like underneath bridges, out in landfills and stuff. It would grow from 20, 30, 50, 100 people. The last time we were there it was like 300 people packed into the small little room. People outside just waiting just to hear the Gospel and just to hear what's going on. Half of those people are still Muslims, but just the fact that we'd be able to become a light there is huge.
 

Now it's grown to us helping with Mercy House, which is for women who've been raped or abused, who has kids and needs a place to stay. It's just been an amazing opportunity for us. We really love it.
 

Ben: Yeah.
 

Ben: Both he and my mom are ministers. He started doing his ministry during the time when they were not in a good situation financially. Both my parents had to carry my dad's other siblings debt and had to pay it off. So they were in debt, majorly in debt, and just trying to pay it off, but at the same time God called him to go out and go to the villages and minister and stuff.
 

Ben: In Indonesia. During the hard times he still took whatever he had and gave it to whether it's pastors in the villages or whoever needs the money. So I think because of that God sees that. It's easy to bless somebody when you have so much and you just want to give a little bit, but it's hard when you have nothing and yet you still need to give. From that I think that's where my dad grew a lot and so he's trying to show us, "Hey guys. This is what I've experienced. Here it is." So we pick up a lot from him.

Is he over there? 

Ben: No, he's here. Everybody is still based out of Sioux City. He goes there with my mom sometimes three to four months out of the year. He just goes to Indonesia back and forth.

That's awesome. What's next for you guys? You've got the tour. You've got the album release in the fall.
 

Wesley: September 18th, and the presale goes on sale August 14th. 
 

Ben: We're excited about that. We've been working on that for two and a half years. Imagine that.
 

Ben: Yeah, technically it would be our third album. We have an EP. That EP when it was released, that was supposed to be the record. That was supposed to be the teaser to the record, like the record was coming soon. 
 

Tim: It was a long road for the EP. It was a really early tease. 
 

Ben: I'm just glad that we actually have the CD and we're happy with it. 
 

Wesley: We just released the single to CHR radio and rock. It's called "Hold On" and we've been playing that, so it's pretty cool.
 

Ben: I think for us when we had that call to do music ministry and at first it was like, "Can you be more specific, God?" But I think it was what He wanted us to do is ministry because the word itself ministry means to minister, which means to serve. So in every aspect, whether it's doing production, going out there switching over bands, we're ministering. A lot of times nobody knows we're actually the band that's going to perform later on. They just know there's a tech guy that sits there.
 

Ben: It is really. So there's ministry in that. There's ministry in the band as well, aside from being on stage, but even relational ministry with kids in youth camps. So I think from every aspect what God is trying to show us is, "Guys, you're here because of ministry." It's the same thing as when Christ came down and said, "I'm here not because I want to just be here, but because my Father has sent me and I'm here to do His work." So it's the same thing. We're here because Christ has shown us and has made a way for us to do our work and all we have to do is follow the Holy Spirit. Whatever it leads, we'll do it. That's our ministry.