CCM Thursdays: Concerts Through the Years

Just Me & the Dog, Day 4-  Rays beat the Tigers!  It was great to get comments from Connor (my friend, not the the dog). from Meagan and from Jill Gilbreth Bryant in High Point.  And Carter. I don't know who he is, but he sure said some nice things!  I was out on the bus line for part of the day, which is always exciting (NOT!).  Conner does not ride the bus, but as long as I feed him he doesn't seem to care.  Took myself out to dinner at Winner's, a local sports bar.  I am not a cheap date...  Be sure and check out the WHERE ARE THEY NOW?  page to see if you can help me discover some missing friends!

Concerts became a major part of my approach to youth ministry in the early 1900's while I was at Springfield Friends Meeting, and then really took hold once I reached FUMC-K in 1994.  We saw so many bands and artists over the years, and I wanted to look back at some of the shows we saw together through the years.  These are just the Christian bands; not featured here are my trips to see David Bowie, Billy Joel and Jimmy Buffett (being with Parrotheads can be a religious experience in many ways, but certainly not Christian) with some of the youth.  Although I have to tell you, there were some special moments of ministry at those events as well...

The first major Christian concerts I remember were going from SFM to Raleigh to see Amy Grant at an outdoor amphitheater.  I had been to see Amy and Michael W. Smith in Chapel Hill a couple of years earlier, but that had been an all adult trip.  Amy was wonderful again, but what I really remember were the protesters gathered out in front, wanting us to boycott Amy because she had a hit on MTV.  Totally ridiculous.  Later on we went to Charlotte to see M.W.S. and an opening act called dc Talk.  For the first (but not nearly the last) time, dc Talk simply blew us away.

During my years in Kissimmee there were two primary venues at which we saw great concerts.  The first was Walt Disney World, where each September they host a number of great bands at an event called Night of Joy.  The second was at Carpenter's Home Church, a 10,000 worship center in Lakeland.  Over the years we saw the biggest names in CCM do shows in that place and others- artists like Steven Curtis Chapman, Jars of Clay, M.W.S., Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, Geoff Moore and the Distance, Smalltown Poets, Big Tent Revival, Third Day, PFR and the O.C. Supertones.  The Supertones and Audio A shared billing at one concert in Lakeland, and the crowd got so rowdy some of the pews were ripped from the floor to make room for a mosh pit.  That was one wild night. We also saw what had quickly become the greatest show in CCM, dc Talk, twice in Lakeland and several more times at Night of Joy.  Each show was more amazing than the one before.  We saw both their Jesus Freak tour and the Supernatural tour, and each time they left all of the students who attended wanting more.

Later on, during my 2001-2005 stint in Tampa at Wesley Memorial UMC, we would see one of dc Talk's final live shows in Lakeland.  Actually, it was only two-thirds of the band; Kevin Max was unable to be there.  Shortly thereafter, the band broke up.  We continued to see other acts during those years, including Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band, Hawk Nelson, Toby Mac, Relient K and Switchfoot.  Some of those were at Night of Joy;  others were at Rock the Universe at Universal Studios Orlando.  We also hosted The Swift in our own worship center.  They all put on great shows with a great message.

During the almost 10 years that I took groups to see dc Talk, there was one song that I am fairly certain they played at every concert- Luv Is A Verb.  It was a new song in 1992 when I first encountered the band; it was a popular favorite at every other show we attended.  It is a great song with a wonderful message, and I have included a video below.  I hope you enjoy it, and more importantly I hope you get the message.  It's the same message almost every CCM act we ever saw had for the audience.  Simply stated, it's get out there and give God's love to somebody- TODAY!   So Rock On, or in the words of Lost And Found, "Stein Auf!"  That's German for "stone on top of..."