by Brad Layland, CEO & Senior Consultant | Author of Turning Donors into Partners

Key Insights:     

• Hope isn’t found in nostalgia or cultural moments—it’s found in Jesus.
• The longing we feel about “what used to be” points to something deeper that hasn’t changed.
• God is still at work—through His people, through generosity, and through everyday faithfulness.

I’ve had Amy Grant’s new song on repeat lately. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I’d encourage you to pause and do that first: Amy Grant – The 6th Of January (Yasgur’s Farm).

It’s one of those songs that sneaks up on you.

At first, it feels nostalgic: ‘60s music, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Woodstock. You can almost smell the vinyl and feel the wide-eyed optimism of a generation that believed the world could be changed with a guitar and a gathering.

But before long, you realize she’s not only singing about the past. As she references January 6, it becomes clear this song is really about now.

She’s singing about confusion. About fracture. About the disorientation so many of us feel as we look at the culture around us and wonder how we got here.

The chorus asks, “Where’s the road to Yasgur’s Farm?”—a reference to the hillside in upstate New York where Woodstock happened, where people once believed community and shared ideals could reshape the world.

And the answer is sobering: that crowd scattered a long time ago.

One of the most haunting images in the song is the grocery store scene: Muzak versions of songs from the ‘60s playing overhead, melodies without the words, while she wrestles a shopping cart with crooked wheels.

It feels painfully familiar. Echoes of conviction without the conviction itself.

But here’s what struck me most: Hope has never lived at Yasgur’s Farm. 

Hope is found in Jesus—not in a place, not in a movement, and certainly not in our ability to make things right. Because of what we just celebrated at Easter, His ultimate victory over sin and death has freed us to know the truest hope and to give our lives to share that hope with others. I see this hope every day as God’s people faithfully show up and participate in His work of making all things new. 

That conviction sits at the heart of why we do what we do at The FOCUS Group.

Every day, we walk alongside ministries, schools, and nonprofit leaders who are choosing hope when it would be easier to retreat. Leaders who still believe generosity matters. That God continues to use His people—and their resources—to bring healing, restoration, and renewal into a broken world.

Hope shows up when a donor leans in rather than pulls back. When an executive director tells the story again, even when it feels hard. When an organization refuses to believe that scarcity or division gets the final word.

I’m deeply grateful that my own story doesn’t end in a grocery store aisle, humming old songs and wondering where it all went wrong. Instead, I get a front-row seat to something better.

I see it in ministries serving vulnerable families and in schools where students are formed with conviction and courage. In organizations pressing forward—not because the moment is easy, but because the mission is clear.

That’s where hope actually lives.

Not in nostalgia.

Not in longing for “the way things used to be.”

But in God’s faithful presence through each of you—right here, right now.

At The FOCUS Group, we’re grateful to stand with leaders who still believe hope is worth showing up for.

Brad Layland is CEO of The FOCUS Group, a fundraising consulting firm serving more than 150 Christian ministries worldwide. He previously served as Chief Development Officer for Young Life and is the author of Turning Donors into Partners (InterVarsity Press). Brad is an avid marathon runner and lives in St. Augustine, Florida, with his wife Wendy. They have four children.

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