For three years Steve Morrison was literally homeless, touring Australia with his band, the grunge outfit Aroma.
It was a hand-to-mouth existence for the then full-time musician from the Blue Mountains.
"God would always provide," he said. "The day after we started, a guy saw how overloaded our van was and gave us a truck. We learnt to trust God to give us what we needed. But he never gave us more that we needed, which was interesting."
The adventure took them up and down Australia's east coast, as well as 4,000 km across the Top End to Darwin. Along the way their van lost its wheel "that went flying off into the bush, never to be seen again'. They arrived for the gig and just 50 people turned up.
"We lost thousands of dollars on that gig" but it didn't seem that unusual. You can't live as a musician in Australia " even in the secular music scene," explains Steve.
Over the years Steve has had to work as a session muso playing everything from jazz-fusion to pub rock in order to earn a living.
But Aroma was different. There were never any dreams of fame and fortune. This three-year tour was a well-thought-out strategy to run seminars in high schools which otherwise would have had no effective Christian ministry. They played at up to 400 Australian high schools during that period.
"We were never going to be popular preaching about Jesus," explains Steve, who is currently employed as a youth minister at Willoughby Anglican Church. "My passion is as an evangelist. That's where my heart is" It was awesome " the best ministry I will ever do. But you can't do that forever. Now I've got kids it's not really sustainable."
Eventually Aroma folded when key members, including Steve, decided they needed to go to Bible college.
Now out of the ashes rises Steve's new project Qurious: "It is picking up where Aroma ended. But we understand that we are one generation on. We are doing something new " something that has never been done in an Australian context before."
Formed in late 2008, Qurious " which also features singer Matt Mulready, Cedric Tang, Andrew Pearce and Calum Henderson " have already played live gigs in Sydney's north.
On first bite they may taste hard and edgy, a lot like Rage Against the Machine. But the sound is sweetened by electronic keyboard that recalls early Daft Punk. Overall, the listener is left with the lingering flavour of dance-punk duo The Presets.
But this project is much more that just a band. In short, Qurious is also a video-based high school seminar that churches can run "off the shelf' featuring the band along with talks and celebrity testimonies from people like surfer Damien Hobgood.
"It will be a lot harder working through DVD. To gain credibility the buzz about the project has to be a whole lot higher."
And yet Steve, who has some financial backing, says money is not a barrier this time.
"Teenagers are really expensive to produce for" But money is not our obstacle. God will provide that. The question is " do we have the right people on the bus? And are we doing this for gospel reasons?"
The answer seems to be "yes'.
Top industry professionals are already on board in producing the DVD, including Richard Smead, the Australian series producer of The Biggest Loser.
Three-pronged strategy
Andrew Nixon, who heads-up planning for Connect09, describes Qurious as the "x-factor' in Connect09's three-pronged plan to contact young Sydneysiders.
However, this "x-factor' is undergirded by what Andy Stevenson from Anglican Youthworks calls "strand one: Peer evangelism is the key to youth ministry [and] it is the basis of Connect09. Teenagers are the most natural at it and the most connected to their culture and community.'
Youth groups are being encouraged to use the new XEE because it is based on peer evangelism and is designed for Australia's "post-church' culture. The launch pad for strand one was the Leaders in Training conference held last week from January 11 to 16.
The high school seminars form the core of second strand of this strategy.
"Using Qurious as well as other youth-focused musicians and live testimonies from Christian sports stars, we are targeting around 50 high schools that are seeking to begin new ministries or are rejuvenating existing ministries," says Andy.
Strand 3 unfolds later in the year and may see Qurious headlining live music festivals at key venues across Sydney and the Illawarra.
But is there still a place for Christian events that are designed to attract young people?
The National Church Life Survey found Gen-Y Sydney Anglicans invite more people to church than any other age group.
On the other hand, says Youthworks CEO Zac Veron, only a small percent of adult newcomers see their children also join that church. "There exists a largely untapped group of children whose parents have recently joined a church. Each church should consider how to connect with this group, that they already have indirect contact with, through the family networks."
Andy Stevenson says the Connect09 youth strategy has been intentionally designed to be "less structured' and "more organic'.
"Qurious will be doing some of these shows which could be anywhere anytime," says Andy. "You can't force big events, you can't make people do things, especially youth. So, these could happen if people are keen in a local area. The purpose they will serve would be to have something fun to invite friends where the gospel will be presented well."
