CCM Thursday: Moshing Machine

Sometime around April of 2003 I received a call from one of the talent agencies I had used over the years asking me if I would be interested in having a new Christian band come to our church as part of their summer tour.  The band was called The Swift, and I had never heard of them.  I was not alone.  They had a new album and were touring in support of it, but they were not well known.  The agent told me that they had a piano-driven pop sound and were receiving excellent reviews for their live performances.  And they would come cheap.  Cheap was good.  The students of Graceland at Wesley Memorial UMC  loved concerts, so I booked them for an August date.  

By the time they arrived at WMUMC that August, The Swift had a hit single called Under the Sun.  Their album had received great reviews, and their star was climbing.  We had booked them at exactly the right time, because by the time they did the show for us we could have no longer afforded them!  They turned out to be great guys with hearts for ministry, and they did a tremendous show for us with an awesome message of God's unfailing love.  It was a pleasure to hang out with them, help them set up and tear down, and them take them and some of my youth out to dinner afterwards.  It turned out that the band shared my addiction to the restaurant Chilli's, and we had a blast eating and listening to them tell stories of life on the road.  It was one of those nights that made me LOVE my calling to serve Jesus through youth ministry.

One particular song stands out from that great night of music.  It's a song called Moshing Machine, and it speaks to the often odd experience of seeing an unruly crowd at a Christian concert.  They also had a killer t-shirt based on the song that was a big seller that night.  One line from the song always makes me laugh out loud: "Love your shoes but when they're breaking pews can't you see, it's irreverency!  OWWWW!"  Having once seen that happen at an Audio Adrenaline/Supertones concert in the late 90s, the song really resonated with me.   The band is no longer together, but their music is still all over my I-pod.  So to cap off a great memory shared with some incredible people on one awesome night, here's the official video for Moshing Machine.  Enjoy, and have a blessed day!