by Meg Storm
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at Mercury Radio Arts? Just how do all of Glenn’s crazy ideas get done? Does anyone ever get a chance to sleep? Well, over the next few months we are going to take you inside MRA, giving you the inside scoop on everything from publishing to special events, 1791 to Markdown to GBTV. We will be interviewing members of our New York, Columbus, and Dallas staff, bringing you all the info, so you can know what it’s really like to work for Glenn. Part 1 (Kevin Balfe – Publishing), Part 2 (Liz Julis – GBTV/Special Events), Part 3 (Joel Cheatwood: CCO & President of TheBlaze), Part 4 (Eric Pearce: VP, TV Operation of TheBlaze), Part 5 (Michelle Vanderhoff Network Operations Manager at TheBlaze)
In the wake of what proved to be a truly historic week of service and charity, we sat down with Glenn to get his thoughts on how Restoring Love completes the Restoring trilogy he began two years ago in Washington D.C., how he feels coming out of this remarkable chapter of his life, and what comes next.
Standing just outside the 50 yard line of Dallas Cowboys Stadium waiting to walk out in front of the tens of thousands of people who had gathered to hear him deliver what may have been the best event of his career, Glenn remembers exactly how he felt. “I felt like a caged animal,” he recalled.
Three years of remarkable events culminated in a historic week that celebrated service, freedom, and, most importantly, love. Glenn had a very busy week – attending events like FreePac and Under God: Indivisible, while over 30,000 volunteers from around the world descended on north Texas to serve 305 organizations in the Dallas area. For three years Glenn has been telling his audience to stand where God tells them to stand, and last week it looked like future of America was with the thousands who had chosen to come and stand beside him in Texas.
The idea for Restoring Love came to Glenn just a few days after Restoring Courage. He flew from Israel to South Africa to give a speech to religious leaders. In the short time he was in South Africa, he saw firsthand the poverty that continues to exist in the country. He thought of Nelson Mandela, and the situation he found himself in just a few decades before. Mandela could have called for a bloody revolution, but instead he pleaded with people and politicians from all backgrounds and ideologies to choose love. Glenn, who wears a bracelet with Mandela’s prison number inscribed on his wrist, knew then and there that his next event would have to capture that same spirit.
Like Restoring Honor and Restoring Courage before it, Glenn said he knew that Restoring Love was going to center around God, only this time the theme would call for us to stand together and serve one another.
“The line that I wrote about three weeks ago that I knew would be the biggest line of the speech – ‘Witness the Third Great Awakening’ – is absolutely true,” he said. “That may have been the message of look, if you put God back in his place, and you are serving people, and you are speaking without fear, He will come.”
The Restoring Love weekend had an incredible kickoff with Thursday night’s FreePac event at American Airlines Arena. Conservative leaders from around the globe came together with one message in mind: it is time for us to stand up to the establishment. Glenn’s speech had a similar tone – he read Rudyard Kipling’s “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” and told the crowd that they were putting not only Washington, but the world, on notice.
“Here’s what I want you to know,” Glenn said to those gathered at the arena. “I believe this is the largest gathering of independent-minded conservatives ever in the history of America. I believe that tomorrow with over 30,000 volunteers doing service in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex it is the largest collection of volunteers doing service ever in America. And I hear there are a few people coming to the stadium as well. This should freak out the people in power, not only in Washington, but all around the world.”
The problems we are facing are not ones that political parties can fix, but they are problems that faith in God and strongly rooted principles will fix. “America is great because America is good,” Glenn said.
Following the historic Day of Service on Friday, Glenn attended a gathering of religious leaders that night at High Point Church – the perfect capstone to an incredible day. The meeting called for people of faith to find common ground in order to address the challenges that face us as a nation.
“At the religious event I had no idea what I was going to say,” Glenn explained. “I just prayed in the car on the way over, ‘Ok, tell me what you want me to say.’ And I walked up there and knew exactly what to say. It was – I mean, I never speak for 10 minutes, but it was a 10 minute speech, and it was very good. I just know that God is with the nation, and He is not uninvolved.”
His speech that night was short and succinct, qualities not typical of a Glenn speech, but the message couldn’t have been clearer.
“Did you do what you were supposed to do,” Glenn asked the crowd during his speech. “Believe me. When the Lord comes, anyone who is pointing the finger at the other one is in trouble first. United we stand. Divided we fall.”
By the time Saturday arrived, it was clear that the event was going to be something special. Months of preparation had led to this moment, and as the clock winded down toward 8 o’clock, the energy in Cowboys Stadium was nothing short of electric.
“I think I said to the gospel choir because they were standing next to me like, ‘Come on. Let’s go,’” Glenn said. “I said, ‘You too?! I feel like a caged animal.’ I mean we had waited and waited and waited to go, so it like let’s go! You get yourself so heated up and ready to go and do it.”
After Alex Boye’s stirring National Anthem captivated the crowd, Glenn emerged onto the field in a moment that was nothing short of incredible. The audience erupted in cheers and leapt to its feet as Glenn made his way to the stage.
“There is nothing like being in the round at Dallas Cowboys Stadium,” Glenn said still sounding a little awestruck. “That is dangerous for the ego. I don’t recommend you let any politician ever do that because it will make them do anything for another sip of that feeling.”
The night just got better from there with Glenn intertwining music, history, and charity in ways it has never been done before, and he seems pleased with the results.
“For the first time of the three, I don’t feel like we didn’t say anything that we were supposed to say,” Glenn said. “You know, I worried after each one if we said what we were supposed to say. I am just filled with optimism after last week.”
Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium Glenn delivered what is arguably the greatest speech of his career, and tomorrow we will reveal just how the speech that took 14 drafts and nearly five months to perfect came to be.
