My Jeremy Camp Story

Years ago, I got a call from an author and speaker friend of mine named Doug Herman. I was developing a church conference with Doug and he had just heard the testimony from a budding new music artist named Jeremy Camp.

At the time, that name meant nothing to me or to anyone as Jeremy had yet to write his first hit song, but I remember calling his booking agency and asking how much for Jeremy Camp. The response was $2,000 for a concert. $2,000! I was blown away.

“How could this guy ask for that amount, I thought?  I’ve never even heard of him.” So I went back to Doug and said, I don’t think this is going to work out. He may be a great guy and a great music artist but he’s way overpriced.

Fast forward a few months and I’m driving down the road listening to Christian radio and I hear Jeremy’s song (I can’t remember which one). At this point, it’s become a big hit so I call back to the booking agent ready to make that deal. The only problem was, Jeremy’s fee had … uh…. improved. It had improved quite a bit. It was now not even in my stratosphere for what I could afford and even more disappointing, his schedule was booked solid.

I thought about how I had the opportunity to book him “before” he broke. I thought about how his first #1 hit song would have been spiking on the date of our conference. It was a lesson learned to try and get artists and speakers “on the rise” if I can.

Since starting Reach Your City in 2009, our ministry has discovered a lot of the budding talent who have seen their demand and excitement grow.

People like Bob Goff, Michael Jr., Jonnie W., The Maze, and Zak Mirzadeh were all on board with us well before they exploded on the scene. (Here’s a fun fact, I even reached out to bring on board Tim Hawkins and Mercy Me back before anyone knew their names.)

The point being, there’s a lot of talent here at Reach Your City that you may not know, but that doesn’t mean they’re not amazingly gifted and, in some ways, quite the bargain to bring in right now.

Our ministry is now working with more music artists who, like Reach Your City, have a passion to make Christ known. Two of whom, Jamie Kimmett and Land of Color, just signed record deals with Sony/Provident and will have songs releasing soon. You may not know their names today, but I’m confident, you’re going to be hearing a lot from them in 2019. I would encourage you to consider them now for your conferences, camps, retreats, Sunday morning worship, etc.  You will not regret it.

Click here to view our roster.