How a risky experiment turned an empty Riverbend night into one of the festival's defining features

It was really through some God-orchestrated events that I couldn't put together that it did come off that year (2006), and the community has been wonderful to support it.

Staff Photo by Doug StricklandHeadliner Chris Tomlin performs on the Coca-Cola Stage during Riverbend's Faith and Family Night in 2012.

There are some who criticize Riverbend Festival organizers for being too set in their ways and not taking enough chances in its decades on the riverfront. But occasionally, Friends of the Festival will nod at the curve.

Fifteen years ago, organizers agreed to transform an otherwise "dark" evening when equipment languished in disuse into a celebration of Christian music and family values. In the years since, organizers say, the annual Faith and Family evening has become one of the festival's defining features, a flourish that sets it apart from other events almost as much as the iconic Coca-Cola Stage barge.

"It's unique in our business that you would dedicate a night to contemporary Christian music," Friends of the Festival Executive Director Chip Baker said. "Usually, you'll have that as part of one stage on one night with everything else. For us, it's all stages will be used for it and nothing else. That's different."

But beyond its novelty value, organizers and festivalgoers say the community-supported event has long since established itself as a pillar activity, and its longevity speaks to its appeal to fans of Christian music and a more laid-back atmosphere.

"It became its own being," Baker says. "To be able to sustain an event like that takes some doing. It's just like building any festival. Usually, it takes three to five years to see if it's wise, and it's [Faith and Family Night] continued to do well for 15 years."

For its first 20 years, Riverbend took a night off on Tuesdays. After performances on Sunday, the festivities moved down to M.L. King Boulevard for the Bessie Smith Strut, then kicked back up on Riverfront Parkway on Wednesday evening.

This entertainment vacuum attracted the attention of local Christian music fans, who in 2001 approached festival organizers with the idea of hosting an alcohol-free evening that would see their favorite genre better represented during the event. Largely by passing the offering plate, the Chattanooga Resource Foundation, an ad-hoc coalition of community churches, raised about $137,000 to fund the first Family Faith Night, which attracted an estimated crowd of 80,000, according to a Times Free Press story in 2002.

Set precisely in the middle of the nine-day event, Faith and Family Night represents a marked change of pace for festival. Two of the festival's stages - Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union and Unum - shut down, effectively dividing the festival grounds in half; only the Coke, Bud Light and Chevy stages are running this year.

Beer and liquor vendors are similarly shuttered, and the less-raucous atmosphere tends to attract families in droves.

"The alcohol vendors probably miss it being open that night, miss the profits, but for those families, those people who have a problem with that, they know it's a safe environment," says Ted Gocke, an on-air personality for Christian radio station J-103 who helps book the entertainment for Faith and Family Night.

"It really does pull people in," he adds. "You'll definitely see so many more kids and families out here that night than on any other night of the week."

Brainerd Baptist Church's Josiah King, 27, says he appreciates that Faith and Family Night offers worry-free entertainment with cross-generational appeal. During most of Riverbend, he says, he won't bring his children - Liam, 4, and Breyanna, 2 - to the riverfront, but Faith and Family Night is a welcome exception.

"It's is a safe environment for families," says King, who's missions logistics coordinator at Brainerd Baptist. "I think it's important to continue on that tradition they've got going on down there."

In the past decade and a half, Faith and Family Night has hosted numerous artists whose trophy cases are brimming with Grammy and Dove awards, including Kirk Franklin (2002), Jars of Clay (2007) and Casting Crowns (2011).

"The hard part now is that there have been so many acts we've featured, so the question becomes, 'How do you not duplicate?'" Gocke says. "We haven't had to do that yet."

Tonight's headliner, singer/songwriter Matthew West, has twice been named the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Christian Music Songwriter-Artist of the Year.

As has been the case from the beginning, the "lion's share" of funding to pay the artists at Faith and Family Night is provided by the community. However, the reliance on communal support hasn't been without the occasional financial falter. In early 2006, Friends of the Festival announced that fundraising efforts by the Chattanooga Resource Foundation had fallen short, throwing the future of Faith and Family Night into question.

In response, John Zeiser, president and CEO of Southern Champion Tray, stepped in to spearhead a new sponsorship model by reaching out to private donors who responded enthusiastically. Their support, he says, is what has made Faith and Family Night possible for the past decade.

"It's businesses and some professionals - there are several doctors in there - who really give it to the community as a gift," Zeiser says. "I don't think anybody expects a return from it. It was really through some God-orchestrated events that I couldn't put together that it did come off that year (2006), and the community has been wonderful to support it."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.