Reaching Communities with Creativity and Purpose: Tommy Kyllonen’s Story

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[00:00:28] Casey Cease: everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Casey Cease show today. I’m here with my good friend, Tommy Urban D Kyllonen. And Tommy, so good to have you on the show, man. It’s been a little while since we’ve had a chance to connect. Why don’t you just take a minute and introduce yourself and give a little bit of your background to our listeners.

[00:00:43] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah, man. Casey is great to be here with you. You’ve been a blessing in my life. Coached me through a bunch of stuff that we’ll even talk about today. Some of the stuff that you helped me navigate through. And so, yeah, so a little bit about me. I’m an artist, I’m a Pastor at the same time. So I wear both of those hats.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Tommy Kyllonen: I’m originally from Philly. So you hear a little bit of that East coast vibe in me. But I live in Tampa, Florida, and I’ve been here in Tampa now for 28 years. So I am officially, I’m even going for the Bucks now. I mean, Tom Brady kind of helped with that though. That kind of pulled me over, but anyways, grew up as a Pastor’s kid, had a rebellious streak for a season.

[00:01:20] Tommy Kyllonen: And then I really felt a calling to do urban ministry and specific on my life. And so I went to Southeastern and Lakeland, and I thought I was going to go back up North and God took me to Tampa and I’ve been here ever since. And I love it, my wife, she’s also from the East coast, from New York City and Tampa’s home.

[00:01:39] Tommy Kyllonen: And I started as Youth Pastor at our Church and I got pushed into being the Lead Pastor about six years later, cause the youth ministry was going so well, they’re like, man, you’re killing it with the youth ministry, why don’t you just take over? And I’m like, no, I don’t want to do that, at the same time, I’m also, like I said, an artist.

[00:01:55] Tommy Kyllonen: So, this wall behind me has all my albums. I’ve [00:02:00] actually done nine Christian hip hop albums over the years and this wall is actually like the wall of all the artists that have been here at Crossover Church at some point. And at our leadership conference and at concerts, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that, I’m sure.

[00:02:14] Tommy Kyllonen: But but yeah, it’s been an amazing journey and I’ve been here 28 years and watched the Church go from just a handful of people to now impacting thousands of people. So it’s been awesome.

[00:02:24] Casey Cease: What I love about your ministry is that you are intentionally bivocational and you serve in a congregation that affirms that and supports that. But talk to us a little bit about what’s a typical year of life ministry? Business, things like that, I mean, you know, tell us a little bit about flavor fest, how that got started.

[00:02:43] Casey Cease: Tell us a little bit about your writing background. We’ll dig more into those specifically, but I want to give context to whether they’re viewing on YouTube or listening on a podcast channel, you’re being very humble and somewhat discreet about all that you’re actively involved in and I’d [00:03:00] love to unpack it and not to brag, but just to say, like, Hey, you know, because you have a lot of lessons you’ve learned on empowering and working with a team, you have a lot of lessons learned and really focusing on areas that you are uniquely gifted to serve in.

[00:03:15] Casey Cease: And so, I’d love for you to share a bit of in general, you’re typically like me. You have three to five different projects at least going on at a time. And it would love to just unpack that a little bit.

[00:03:28] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah, Casey, I think that’s why we connected so much. Our friend, Greg Atkinson kind of put us together and immediately I’m like, wait a minute, this guy was a Pastor, but he is a publisher, he’s written books, he speaks, he does. Oh man. You know, and I’ve learned a lot from you to help me kind of navigate the being a three and the three to five projects for real.

[00:03:49] Tommy Kyllonen: And so,

[00:03:50] Casey Cease: Cause that’s like normal. It almost feels lazy. If I only have three to five projects going, it’s like, what am I doing?

[00:03:55] Tommy Kyllonen: I know, right?

[00:03:55] Casey Cease: Yeah. Stresses my wife out though. Cause she is not wired the same way. But we’ve grown [00:04:00] to appreciate each other.

[00:04:01] Tommy Kyllonen: She’s a one and she’s very like focused on one thing and very structured and organized. For me, it’s a kind of some organized chaos, that’s the artist side of me as well. But yeah, so, I generally have several different things going on. And my Church it’s an urban ministry.

[00:04:21] Tommy Kyllonen: So economically we’ve always never had as much as a suburban church of our size, even though we’re larger now. You know, we see close to a thousand people every Sunday in person and about another thousand people are watching online. So we’re in a good place, financially the Church is doing, we’re healthy, we’re okay.

[00:04:39] Tommy Kyllonen: But I’ve always chosen to say, Hey, I want to have a lower salary. So I can be a blessing to the Church. And there was seasons where I really didn’t even get a salary earlier on. And I was depending on my music and going out and speaking and just different side hustles that I have that really kind of fit in together.

[00:04:56] Tommy Kyllonen: I saw, I never was like, Oh, I’m doing real estate on the side. No, it was always like [00:05:00] ministry type stuff. And I think one of the reasons we also connected is because we’re connectors and I’m always trying to help other leaders win.

[00:05:08] Tommy Kyllonen: When I do something at my church that works, I’m coaching some other guys, I’m showing them a resource I found, or, you know, some new thing that we developed. I did a coaching network for during the pandemic called the Innovative Pastors Network because we’re constantly having to innovate and pivot, do new things like every month. And so I was sharing what we were doing at our church that was working and bringing some other people on and guys in the group were sharing.

[00:05:32] Tommy Kyllonen: And I love to do that, I love to help others. Obviously, we can’t help everybody. But when you’re doing some coaching in a group, you can get a big group of people that you can help at the same time. And so, yeah, so I’ve done a variety of those different things with coaching, with writing ,with doing music, with doing some consulting with different Churches as well.

[00:05:52] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah, I just have always had that entrepreneur hat, plus I have a clothing line cause I’m an artist. And so I’ve designed some different [00:06:00] merch, which is like denim jackets and of course, shirts and hoodies and stuff like that.

[00:06:04] Tommy Kyllonen: So when I go out and speak at places, I’ll have some of my merch there as well and my clothing. And we also have a store at our Church, a merch store that my stuff is in as well as we have a bunch of different other Christian clothing brands and books and Bibles and stuff like that. It’s not your typical Church Bookstore. It’s really pretty cool.

[00:06:22] Tommy Kyllonen: So, yeah, it’s cool that I get everything here at my ministry and we have a lot of entrepreneurs by the way, it has that whole vibe and that flavor. And I think in this day and age, like if you’re going to be a ministry that’s going to be thriving and growing and be successful you’ve got to have that entrepreneurial edge to some degree.

[00:06:41] Tommy Kyllonen: And if that’s not who you are as a leader, which I know a lot of people watching this podcast, that is you but you need to surround yourself with some people that maybe that’s more of their strength. Than it is yours and I think I told you this Casey, but our Church actually launched an entrepreneur ministry.

[00:06:56] Casey Cease: Yeah. You told me in head of like it’s an outreach type thing, [00:07:00] right? Cause you bring entrepreneurs from your community in to empower and help entrepreneurs.

[00:07:04] Tommy Kyllonen: Our group is they’re called the crossover preneurs. And we do an event every year called the innovation summit. And we bring in some of the best people from within that are doing like Ted talks and workshops. Then at the same time, we’ll bring some different people in our city that are known to be big in crypto or real estate or investing.

[00:07:22] Tommy Kyllonen: And, you know, some of those sexy buzzwords that a lot of entrepreneurs are trying to learn more about and get into, but that’s been great outreach for us to reach a lot of new people. And at the same time, then as we mentor them and we start to build with them and coach them, it becomes discipleship.

[00:07:38] Tommy Kyllonen: And so my dream has been like, as we’ve been launching this thing, we have almost 200 entrepreneurs that are actively in the ministry now. It’s like, what if the Church could be known for the place where entrepreneurs could go, it could be the hub where they could get networking and coaching and resources and even funding.

[00:07:57] Tommy Kyllonen: I don’t know if I told you this, I think I did. Yeah. Last year [00:08:00] at our innovation summit, we had a partner that raised a hundred thousand dollars of venture capital. And invested that into three minority owned local businesses in our community. And our name was on it, they wanted us to be like the face of it, you know, like it wasn’t them, you know, it was, Hey, Crossover Church, they’re the ones that helped put this together.

[00:08:20] Tommy Kyllonen: And so they wanted to see us be like the heroes in the community, which was really cool. So yeah, it’s been a lot of great stuff with that’s happening and yeah.

[00:08:29] Casey Cease: Well, and yeah, I mean I’m in several different entrepreneur groups and I was talking to a bunch of Christian entrepreneurs and it wasn’t a Christian entrepreneur group but they were just lamenting that most of them don’t really have a place at Church. Right?

[00:08:41] Casey Cease: Because if they’re not like deep theologians, then basically they only get spoken to if the Church needs money. And I don’t think that’s all nefarious because these people are typically generous. They’re typically highly driven. And they’re happy to give, one of them was saying like I feel bad because [00:09:00] I feel like they’re getting the easy part, but not my real strength that I could bring to really build the Body of Christ.

[00:09:07] Casey Cease: And what you’ve done is you’ve turned that around saying like, you know, well, whether you give money or not, we want you to give your expertise, your experience, and we value that highly. And I think you’re heading the right direction there.

[00:09:18] Casey Cease: Talk a little bit with us about Flavor Fest and how it started, what it’s grown to, and what you’re seeing God do through that outside of the walls of your own congregation?

[00:09:28] Tommy Kyllonen: So FlavorFest started out of a need, and I’ll go back to the wall back here. So, right there, that pink CD. Which I didn’t choose that to be the color, that was my very first album that came out in 1996, it was independent, did another indie album in 98.

[00:09:44] Tommy Kyllonen: And one of the songs on that album landed on a compilation, know, if you remember populations were, you know, compilation CDs and it was nationally distributed and that song actually charted on some obscure christian [00:10:00] hip hop charts on the internet that were out back then in the late nineties and some record labels started to call me. And I ended up signing a record deal with seven street records, which was a new label.

[00:10:10] Tommy Kyllonen: And that album right there was my first national album that was actually in the stores. And I remember that when we used to have to go to the stores to buy music.

[00:10:20] Casey Cease: Blockbuster music.

[00:10:21] Tommy Kyllonen: It was like, We’re so spoiled now, you know, we just, the click of our phone, everything is there and you can listen to whatever album you want.

[00:10:29] Tommy Kyllonen: You just have to actually go and buy, find the CD and buy it. And it was, you know, CDs were 15 to $18 just for one album. So anyways, but that first CD came out in stores nationally around the country. It was called the missing element. Inside of the CD jacket on the inside, I had a picture with my youth group and there was about 200 kids behind me, very diverse group of kids.

[00:10:53] Tommy Kyllonen: And you know, a little paragraph under it that talked about our youth ministry that we were using basketball [00:11:00] leagues, hip hop concerts, break dancing classes, art classes, drama classes, all kinds of stuff to reach these unchurched kids. And suddenly like we were the experts. Everybody started calling our church, emailing us. Everybody comes to Florida on vacation.

[00:11:16] Tommy Kyllonen: So we started the literally every week. And even till this day, we have visitors every Sunday that come from around the country. They’re like, yeah, I was here in Florida and I follow you. And so they come on vacation. They’re like, and we’re going to go to urban D’s church, Disney and urban D’s Church.

[00:11:28] Casey Cease: There you go.

[00:11:30] Tommy Kyllonen: So, all these people were asking these questions about how we’re doing it, how we started. They want to start something in their city like that. They want to revitalize their youth ministry, their church.

[00:11:39] Tommy Kyllonen: So, you know, those conversations we have with people were helpful, but they didn’t really do it justice to explain fully what we were doing and teach them and it led to even more questions sometimes. So we just came up with the idea, said, Hey, what if we did a weekend when we could invite people to come down? And we just did workshops. And they were able to like, you know, [00:12:00] experience a service they were, we do an outreach, you know, in the community as well.

[00:12:05] Tommy Kyllonen: And we do a big concert because at the time, like some Churches didn’t know how to do concerts, you know, especially like a hip hop concert. And I know that because I was now a national artist and sometimes people would, you know, pay several thousand dollars to have me come to their city, fly me and a couple of other guys out and put on a concert.

[00:12:26] Tommy Kyllonen: And they put all that investment into it and we get to the Church or the gym or the room that the concert was in and all the lights were on. And they got this little like boom box with the microphone connected to it. And we’re like, are you serious? Like, I thought you had a sound system.

[00:12:41] Tommy Kyllonen: And, you know, so we had to really begin to teach Churches like, no, we got to do this in excellence and you need to have good sound and you need to turn all the lights out and you need to have some stage lighting and maybe some intelligent lights and, you know, and have a good DJ and have someone that’s going to host the event.

[00:12:57] Tommy Kyllonen: That’s going to keep it flowing so there’s not awkward [00:13:00] moments between the artists like there’s a two minute gap before the next person comes out awkwardly, like, Hey guys, you know, and so they were able to come and see how we were doing these.

[00:13:09] Tommy Kyllonen: We were doing a hip hop concert every quarter. And we would usually gather three or 400 people. So they were able to come and experience that people from all over the country. So that’s how flavor fest started really, man. We’ve always had the heart to be a teaching Church.

[00:13:24] Tommy Kyllonen: And first flavor fest, we had about 70 leaders and a couple hundred people came to the concert and from there, it just grew to where now we usually see about three to 400 people that come to the conference here and over a thousand people that will attend the evening music festivals between the two nights. And there’s lots of different elements that we have throughout the weekend.

[00:13:45] Tommy Kyllonen: So we do general sessions. And we usually have seven breakout workshops. We have one for Church planting, one for outreach. Generally, sometimes we have an apologetics track, we have a women in ministry track, we have an [00:14:00] entrepreneur track, a track for artists and a track for which one did I miss?

[00:14:04] Tommy Kyllonen: I think I missed one. Artist, women, youth ministry, anyways, so there’s like seven tracks and we have lunch those two days together. The concerts in the evening. So it’s a lot of great learning, a lot of great networking, a lot of people that come from our tribe. It’s very diverse. It’s multi ethnic, it skews younger.

[00:14:24] Tommy Kyllonen: It’s people that are doing ministry in a more urban environment. And they get to come and they’re like, man, I feel like everybody gets me here. Cause I go to the conference room, not my denomination or this conference or whatever. And like, everybody doesn’t really understand what I do, but when I’m here, it feels like everybody’s doing similar stuff and it feels like family.

[00:14:43] And then, yeah, in the evening, the concert’s a lot of fun. We have national hit Christian hip hop artists, and then we have a bunch of indie artists that will open up for them as well. And we’ll have a beat battle one night where producers go head to head and play their beats and the crowd votes over it and stuff.

[00:14:58] Tommy Kyllonen: We have [00:15:00] a 16 bar challenge where rappers will do their best 16 bars and they’ll get voted on to move to whoever is the champion that year. We have a break dancing battle. We’ve done beat boxing battles before, you know, we, yeah, DJ battle graffiti. Like we’ve done, we had a mural festival last year, which we are doing again this year.

[00:15:20] Tommy Kyllonen: We had about 10 incredible graffiti mural artists that come from around the country and they did the entire West wall of our building about 20 feet high. About 250 feet long. It’s beautiful. And there’s like murals the whole way down, it’s amazing. This year they’re going to come and do the back of our building. So our whole building it’s getting tatted up.

[00:15:42] Tommy Kyllonen: But yeah, there’s been a lot of great stuff that come out of flavor fest. Churches have been planted. Church has been revitalized. Great relationships and networking has happened. Friendships have been built, support has taken place. So our next thing like with Flavor Fest, I know I’m explaining a lot, there’s so much to say.

[00:15:58] Tommy Kyllonen: So this year, last year and [00:16:00] this year, we decided to take it on tour because everybody can’t come to Tampa. Everybody can’t afford always to get on a flight and come down and stay for a couple of days, even though we make it super affordable. Still, everything else has gotten more expensive with inflation. Right?

[00:16:14] Tommy Kyllonen: And a lot of Churches are struggling and a lot of urban ministries still haven’t fully recovered since the pandemic. And so we said, man, we feel like God is calling us to take this to some other cities and be right there in the mix. They don’t have to get a flight, a hotel, it’s super affordable, you can just come for the day.

[00:16:30] Tommy Kyllonen: So we’re doing these one day events and we’re doing New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. And then we’ll be back in Tampa this November. So as we’re recording this right now, we’re getting ready to go to New York City this weekend. And so, you know, we’re looking to train a couple hundred leaders in each City.

[00:16:48] Tommy Kyllonen: We’re coming to Texas with you guys the end of June as well. And so, it’s going to be amazing, we’re super excited.

[00:16:54] Tommy Kyllonen: And the last thing I’ll say about Flavor Fest, last thing I promise

[00:16:56] Casey Cease: No, I love it. Keep going.

[00:16:58] Tommy Kyllonen: The next reiteration [00:17:00] as I’m getting older, man, we’re both getting older, Bro. And something about legacy and the conference is great and it’s helped plant some Churches and revitalize Churches and build stuff, and that’s awesome, but we’re going to be launching in 2025, a official Church network for urban Churches.

[00:17:17] Tommy Kyllonen: Where we’ll provide regular community coaching, sharing resources and 1 of the big things is we’re going to plant Churches together. So we’ll offer residencies assessment, all that stuff and plant churches together. And we’re looking to partner with some other Church planting organizations. We’re in the middle of doing some of that this year, doing some of the relationship building and solidifying some things.

[00:17:40] Tommy Kyllonen: And of course, the people that are part of the network will also, that’ll be the one thing that we all give towards is some new Church plants that we’ll plant together. But to connect with some other Church planting organizations that don’t know what to do with urban. Nobody really does, and a Capital C Church is not planting much urban churches.

[00:17:57] Tommy Kyllonen: And the reality is America is becoming more [00:18:00] Brown and more urban. And I think that’s going to happen even quicker than we thought with all the people that are coming across the border, even more so it’s going to rapidly in the next decade, the country is going to change so much.

[00:18:12] Tommy Kyllonen: And so the Capital C Church has to have strategies of like, how are we going to plant more multi-ethnic Churches in urban environments that are diverse? Because the model, to be honest with most Church planting is let’s plant a Church in the new suburb or in the new gentrifying neighborhood and Church planting has slowed down quite a bit in the last 5 to 10 years.

[00:18:36] Tommy Kyllonen: And I believe a part of that is because they’re running out of the ideal locations that economically work. And so we have to rethink that, I know the model for that works great economically.

[00:18:46] Casey Cease: I mean, it’s a financial play. You want to be a first mover in a new community. Upwardly mobile, plenty of resources for the Church and all that, which, you know, pragmatically and objectively from a business standpoint, okay, that makes sense. From a Kingdom standpoint, [00:19:00] the strategic planting of Gospel centered Churches in urban environments is continually going to provide the hope for the world and the hope for this nation, right?

[00:19:10] Casey Cease: Like to resource it that direction. And I always tell my buddies that go plant in suburbs and get their wealthy people. I’m like, awesome, man. I hope you have like a 30% of your income goes to urban Church planting.

[00:19:20] Casey Cease: And so, but I think you’re speaking to something though, even beyond Church planting, which is, I want to talk about the story behind the story, which is the role of creativity in a local Church. Right?

[00:19:31] Casey Cease: Because you always talk about it. Like, well, of course, right? Because you’re naturally a creative person. You’re a creator, you love to create, but I think so many congregations, especially those who mean very well, who want to be right theologically miss the fact that we worship a creative God and that these creative expressions aren’t just, you know, in a singular line of what’s there.

[00:19:54] Casey Cease: I mean, you’re just talking about, yeah, hip hop and be bopping and blah, blah, blah, you know, just contextual, but underpinning of [00:20:00] all of that is creativity, right? Creative internet innovations with the goal of glorifying God and making much of Jesus Christ, right there. That’s not divorced from it, but I think one of the secret sauces as I’ve known you and watched your ministry expand is there’s no hesitation in trying any, you know, learning from failure and innovating with creativity and you remember what it was like to be rebellious and lost and to then be found by Christ.

[00:20:29] Casey Cease: And

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[00:21:15] Casey Cease: so talk to us a little bit about how you’ve helped your Church moving from the youth ministry to Pastor it to embrace creativity and an embrace innovation.

[00:21:24] Casey Cease: Because you did not plant this Church. Right? You were the youth minister and graduated up. And so there was some culture change, I’m sure that had to take place along the way as you’re doing it. And I know a lot of my friends that are involved either as lay elders, like myself now. So I’m not on staff, but I still serve as one of the Pastors of my church.

[00:21:42] Casey Cease: But those are even, you know, Pastoring Churches that need to do more to embrace creativity. What’s some insight you have based on that and the importance of creativity in a Church?

[00:21:51] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah. Creativity is, I think now it’s even more important than ever because people are able to see creativity [00:22:00] every day. On this thing right here. And so if we continue to do Church the way that we’ve always done it, and obviously there’s some things that we’re not going to change.

[00:22:09] Tommy Kyllonen: We’re not going to change the biblical foundations, and in scripture and the principles, but the way that some of that might be packaged in the way it’s expressed, I think we need to be open handed with that. I mean, I just got out of a staff meeting with my team and talking about one of our assimilation processes, our discipleship processes.

[00:22:28] Tommy Kyllonen: And it’s a class and well, is, you know, not as many people have been going to the class lately, but the world is changing so fast. Like, so I’ve just put it out there, I’m like, Is a class for everybody anymore? I don’t know. It’s something that we need to at least ask because everybody’s used to things being so rapid and so fast.

[00:22:49] Tommy Kyllonen: And there’s so many different ways that people are learning now. So it’s creativity, I think is always going to be changing is morphing as the message has to remain the same. And so [00:23:00] I think that we got to be open to it because at the end of the day, we might say as leaders, Oh, I like to change, I love change. I love new stuff.

[00:23:07] Tommy Kyllonen: I think on one hand, some of us do, but all of us on the other hand, no, we like some things the way they are because it’s comfortable. And and so you could be innovative at one point in your ministry and, you know, the whole bell curve thing where you were innovative, you’re changing, and then you get stuck into doing that and then, you know, it starts to go the other way ’cause you’re not continuing, you know, innovating and changing and moving with what’s happening in the world and the culture.

[00:23:33] Tommy Kyllonen: So when I first, a little bit of our story, when I first became the Pastor, I had a lot of advantages. One of our biggest asset was freedom. We only had about 40 adults. I was one of the oldest and I was 28.

[00:23:45] Tommy Kyllonen: So, most of them were youth leaders, my youth leaders that were all in their early to mid twenties. We did have a few people that were older than me. I think about seven or eight that were older than me. And most of them were just a little older. There was one couple that was literally like they were [00:24:00] in their fifties at the time or about 60 almost, they were the old people at the Church.

[00:24:04] Tommy Kyllonen: You know, that was the guy that had been there since before I’d even been there. He was one of the head elders, but even him, he didn’t like hip hop, but he loved to see kids getting saved and baptized and kids getting plugged in. And he saw like so much ministry, real ministry and movement happening.

[00:24:23] Tommy Kyllonen: You know, he would say stuff like, man, this is the most people that got saved in the last year, more than the last, all the history of the Church, you know, and he was excited to see that. So we had some rare older people that really were supportive and loved it.

[00:24:38] Tommy Kyllonen: There was a few people that transitioned out in the first year that I was there, but they left in a good way saying, Hey, we can see God’s movement in the church has grown. Even on Sunday, we doubled, went from 40 to 80. But they’re like, it’s just not our cup of tea. But you’re the guy for the job, we support that, we love you. And so there was good transition to happen with like two or three families, but [00:25:00] there was so many new people that were coming in.

[00:25:02] Tommy Kyllonen: But one of the first things we did Casey was music is a big deal for people. And you have so many people that so many churches that are like you go and they have nobody under 40, hardly. You know, and they’re like, Oh, we don’t have anybody. It’s all older people. And some churches go to, there’s hardly anybody under 60, you know, and they’re just like, we can’t figure out how to reach new people, but you listen to the soundtrack of their Church and it’s totally outdated, it’s not current at all.

[00:25:30] Tommy Kyllonen: So one of the first moves I made when I became the pastor is me and a college student. He had some tools and he was handy. I wasn’t super, but I had the vision. We built a DJ booth on the stage, permanent DJ booth. Yeah. And we had like, you know, the different levels for where like the turntables were, and there was like a hole that we put where the crate, the milk crate could go in where they could put all the records in it and stuff like that.

[00:25:55] Tommy Kyllonen: And so we built this permanent DJ booth out of wood and behind it, you know, [00:26:00] it was like raised. So the DJ was a little higher on the stage and it was pretty cool. Then we had a guy in the Church that did metal work and he came and wrapped it. In this like polished brush steel and it looked really cool. And there was this hole that we put in the front and we put a logo, the Church logo there with a black light on it with black light, paint it glowed.

[00:26:18] Tommy Kyllonen: And so it was like the coolest thing, but the DJ was one of our main instruments for our worship team, for our band, they would sing worship songs to a instrumental R and B hip hop, Christian hip hop instrumental that had a melody to it.

[00:26:32] Tommy Kyllonen: And we would match up worship songs with that cause we didn’t have musicians. We maybe had a drummer, but we didn’t have a keyboard player, we didn’t have any music hardly. So that was a big thing.

[00:26:40] Tommy Kyllonen: And then we started to be creative with how we taught messages. We would tie in illustrations and video clips, and we started using PowerPoint on, we put TV screens up because everybody’s visual, this was, you know, over 20 years ago, but at the time it was still a very, like you know, innovative and progressive at that time.

[00:26:59] Tommy Kyllonen: And [00:27:00] obviously all that stuff continues to change and reiterate, but people are very visual. And I think we need to really tap into that. The visual and the creative is not to be ,don’t be afraid of it. You know, use it for God’s glory.

[00:27:12] Casey Cease: So speaking of innovation and creativity, you’re not just an author. You come up with an experience, a branded experience with your books. And when you and I doing some coaching together, you’re working on your latest project. I asked you to you get one of your boxes available.

[00:27:27] Casey Cease: Why don’t you tell us about your latest book? And you have a lot of books out, but I want to talk specifically about this. And I just want to give imagination to those folks out there of like, what can I do be on the book talking about creatively capturing gospel and it’s an outreach to a very niche group of people that are very committed to what they’re into.

[00:27:45] Casey Cease: So why don’t you tell us about your latest project?

[00:27:48] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah. So I’ll start off with saying like, art work and visual presentation of branding has always been a big deal to me as an artist. So my album covers, you know, I always wanted to have really like [00:28:00] amazing album covers. Now, as I’ve moved more into being an author, man, the artwork on the book and inside of the book is a big deal and even then the packaging.

[00:28:09] Tommy Kyllonen: So I did a book two years ago that had some unique packaging. I put it, if you ever get Casey, do you ever get like a pre order book from somebody, from a friend on a special list and it comes in like a special package and I’m like, I’m going to create something like this for everybody.

[00:28:26] Tommy Kyllonen: Not just for the influencers, not just the cool people that are on the list. I want everybody to get this experience. And so, we did this special packaging with a book that I had called frames. It came in this custom box and there was a pair of frames inside of it and a masterclass came with it.

[00:28:41] Tommy Kyllonen: So then like with my next book, I’m like, man, what am I going to do next? How am I going to level up? And God really put on my heart to do a book about sneaker culture. Cause I’m a sneaker head. I wear Jordans and sneakers every Sunday when I preach. And every day, that’s just who I am. I’ve always been that way. But even before it got cool

[00:28:56] Casey Cease: Preachers and sneakers the website. Yeah.

[00:28:59] Tommy Kyllonen: I was like, [00:29:00] man, they’re ruining everything, man.

[00:29:01] Tommy Kyllonen: This is what I’m doing, man. Now everybody’s, every pass of these to wear suits is now wearing Jordans.

[00:29:06] Casey Cease: come on man.

[00:29:07] Tommy Kyllonen: And ruining this day, right? Anyways so God just gave me this idea to do this book. I wasn’t even sure about which direction I was going to go at first, but the first idea I came up with Casey was I’m going to put the book in a custom shoe box.

[00:29:21] Tommy Kyllonen: That’s really going to grab, I’m going to make it look like a shoe box. And then God began to download in me as I began to study the word and say, what does the Bible say about feet and shoes and steps and direction and man, there’s a ton of stuff. And so then I started to kind of map out what the chapters were going to be about which direction and God began to breathe on it.

[00:29:40] Tommy Kyllonen: But I got a great graphic designer, my shout out to my man, he’ll sway. And so we went through several different covers that we put on Instagram, have people vote over it and whatnot, but the cover that we landed on was very artistic and it was almost cartoonish.

[00:29:55] Tommy Kyllonen: And then we created the box and I wanted that artwork to be on the top [00:30:00] of the box and the rest of the box to be a solid color, to look like an actual shoe box. And so, I’m holding in my hand, this is the custom shoe box and for gotta be the shoes where sneaker culture meets faith, and this is the top of it.

[00:30:14] Tommy Kyllonen: So, I mean, it’s a really cool box. This is actually the bigger box. So if you have another box that just the book comes in and that is black around the sides and it’s a little bit smaller. This is the bigger box that the deluxe box, because when you open it, and by the way, we put sneaker paper in it and everything to give you that real experience.

[00:30:35] Tommy Kyllonen: The book is you can get the hardback version as well. And so see how it’s got, you know, that’s the artwork that was on the top of the box. But we actually did some custom Jordans. And so this is actually the box that you get the shoes and you get the book. And so we put the book cover in the side panel of some Air Jordan ones.

[00:30:55] Tommy Kyllonen: And then we put the logo on the back. They gotta be the shoes and the, Oh, and that is [00:31:00] actually the bottom of an air Jordan one.

[00:31:02] Casey Cease: Oh, wow. Yeah.

[00:31:03] Tommy Kyllonen: If you O in there, so, you know, which has a unique classic design and so it’s on both sides and so it’s super unique. We’re actually going to be doing these in some different color ways and some different colors. We’re going to do a black pair that we’re working on. That’s going to come out, it’s endless with all the different things you can do with the Jordan one.

[00:31:22] Tommy Kyllonen: So the book on the inside of the book, what I love about it is we did full color. So it kind of has like, almost like a magazine type vibe trying to find a good page here, it has almost like a magazine vibe to it, it’s glossy paper. And then we did a photo shoot with several of the sneaker heads from my Church that brought their best pair.

[00:31:42] Tommy Kyllonen: So there’s about a hundred original pictures in the book. And so it’s very visually engaging which especially for the niche audience that we’re trying to reach with it, they need to be visually engaged and to stay locked in.

[00:31:54] Tommy Kyllonen: And then at the end of each chapter, there’s a QR code and you can watch the masterclass. So there’s eight [00:32:00] chapters, eight videos that goes with it. And I really am excited about this project. Everybody out there, you might not be into sneakers yourself, but you know somebody into sneakers.

[00:32:10] Tommy Kyllonen: And this can be like a great gift for them. It’s for believers, but it’s also for people that maybe they’re not there yet. And it’s written in a way that’s very outreach oriented. There’s some stuff in here about sneaker culture, sneaker history. How Michael Jordan first got his deal, but almost didn’t with Nike.

[00:32:27] Tommy Kyllonen: And so there’s a lot of cool stuff that’s tied in, that’ll keep people’s attention. But then yet it has Biblical principles that are tied in every single chapter, there’s stories, there’s things going on. Talks about fake sneakers, bootlegs, they call them reps nowadays. And just how there’s a lot of people out there that they’re faking their fake versions.

[00:32:47] Tommy Kyllonen: And God wants us to be our authentic original self. And so, yeah, so the book it critically, helps people think about purpose, about identity, about materialism, how much is too much and about eternity. [00:33:00] So even though it’s a book on fashion and art and sneakers, there’s some really deep messages in it. It’s been touching a lot of people. So,

[00:33:08] Casey Cease: Well, that’s amazing. I love your heart to reach people. I love that you have a Pastoral heart the way that you engage with your flock, with creativity, with your culture. And you are a true example of growing where you are planted. And so how can people find you online?

[00:33:24] Casey Cease: How can they connect with you online?

[00:33:27] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah. You guys want a copy of the book, The website for that is FreeShoesBook.com. And I’ve been so passionate about getting this message out to as many people as possible that we are actually giving the book away for free.

[00:33:40] Tommy Kyllonen: Yeah, no strings attached. But you do have to pay for the shipping because I own the book, but I don’t own the post office.

[00:33:47] Tommy Kyllonen: So you just have to pay for the shipping. Take care of that. And if you obviously, if you want to get the shoes, that’s not free. So you can upgrade if you want to buy the shoes or upgrade and you want to get the custom box and stuff like that. But the book itself. I’m sure [00:34:00] you could think of somebody that, man, this could be a great gift for them.

[00:34:03] Tommy Kyllonen: Even if you go ahead and get the whole box package and stuff, it’s a really cool thing that will stick out and stand out to them. I know a lot of people that have gotten it. I regularly, see people that are putting it up on their shelf and stuff. I’ve been different places and they got it up on my, got my book up on the shelf with the box and stuff.

[00:34:20] Tommy Kyllonen: So, something for a sneaker head, they could want to display. It’s really cool. So yeah, so that, and if you want to follow me on social media all the platforms urban D 8 1 3 kind of rhymes urban D 1 3 is the area code. That’s kind of a little bit of a hip hop thing. Urban D was taken, so I added the 8 1 3, but yeah, I’m on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook and TikTok and all that good stuff.

[00:34:46] Casey Cease: Well, Tommy, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. I’m sure we’ll be having you back on here again soon.

[00:34:51] Tommy Kyllonen: Definitely, man. Great to be with you, Casey.

[00:34:53] Casey Cease: Thanks, man.

[00:34:53] That wraps up this episode of the Casey Cease Show. Make sure to visit our website, [00:35:00] thecaseyceaseshow.com, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or via RSS, so you’ll never miss a show. While you’re at it, if you found value in this show, we’d appreciate a rating on iTunes, or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show that would help us out too.

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