The early days... Songs of Jesus!
It all started in the summer of 1984. I had no idea I was about to become a Christian. I never would have dreamed that I'd be writing songs about Jesus.
In fact, I could remember a few summers earlier having a conversation with a friend. He was telling me how some people would go out and do music for the Lord and not even get paid for it, or just get a free will offering. I couldn't understand it!
He explained it wasn't about the money; it was just about telling people about Jesus. He thought that was pretty cool. I thought that was pretty crazy! Who was I to know that less than a year later I'd be doing my first Christian concert at the local park. And for free!
I created my first poster for the event by taping my info to the back of a bar poster from Bruisers Pub. (A nightspot I used to frequent before my sudden conversion to Jesus!)
We photocopied 2000 and pasted them on cars at the mall and around town. Out of the 2000 we got 2 to show up from the flyers, with a total crowd of maybe 50, but hey, I was actually out there telling people about Jesus. I was thrilled!
At that concert was a guy who would become one of my first Christian friends, Keith Glasgow. For fun Keith shot some home video of that concert with an old beta camcorder.
The clips look like old color photos, but you have to remember this was shot in 1985 as a home movie! Click on the thumbnails to watch the clips.
My first concert though happened 3 weeks earlier at Faith Community Church.
During this time I was in a spiritual whirlwind, meeting new Christians left and right! It was fantastic, and for a season I was part of a house church that met at Jim and Janette Wisdom's home. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. It was like everything glowed with God's radiance when we met. My heart was on fire for Jesus!
It was the perfect setting to fellowship with all the new Christians I was meeting. It was only fitting then that I should be baptized in their backyard pool!
During this time I recorded my first cassette of songs and called it simply, "The Songs of Jesus". Later on I decided to call my ministry that because I felt the songs I wrote were given to me by Jesus, and they were meant to be about Jesus and following Him.
My first cassette cover of songs recorded in 1985...
Life today
Today I'm married to my wonderful wife Patricia. (For all you Christian singles out there, I'm proof that God DOES hear your prayers!) I was single for a LONG time, very impatient, and always looking for the one God had for me. Turns out I all I really needed to do was wait for Him to act! She ended up sitting across from me at a Christmas Banquet and the rest was history. :)
Currently I'm working on songs that focus on the amazing mercy, goodness, and love of Jesus. I've been reflecting a lot on that, and it's really in my heart to sing about it. I was just reading one of G Campbell Morgan's books and he said it perfectly...
"Love cannot be weighed in scales or measured with a foot rule. It leaps the channel you cut for it, and laughs it's way into meadows, leaving behind it the track of fertility and the fragrance of flowers. You cannot compress it into mathematical formulae. It sings in poetry, and forgets calculation. It worships in abandonment, and oversteps arithmetic. It is a vestal flame. It is the crowning consciousness of life."
Anyone who's ever tasted of the goodness of Jesus in their first love days of being born again knows exactly what he's talking about! I thought the whole world looked different! The sun seemed brighter, the birds sounded sweeter, the world was a different place to me! Nothing had changed, but oh how I saw EVERYTHING differently! The love of Jesus had changed my world.
Back to first love
So, I'm really excited that God has been wooing me back to that first love. I know there might be some who would say that "mature" love is better. It's not based on feelings and all of that... All I can say is, "God wants both!" I've been married almost 10 years now and my wife and I still have both. I'm glad we have the mature, "through thick and through thin" love, but she still takes my breath away and sweeps me off my feet like the day I first laid eyes on her! Jesus said to the church in Ephesus that he wanted their first love back. They had the mature stuff down, and were practical in their love for Him, but He wanted more than faithfulness... He was looking for passion and first love fire!
I'm excited about doing some of these new songs about His love.
Other recent changes have been in our church experience. Over the years I've been blessed to be a part of many wonderful fellowships as I've traveled and moved about, (a couple of them being some quite large mega churches.) I loved being a part these churches, but my focus right now is more on home groups. We're excited to be a part of a home church at this time, which kind of brings me full circle to my early days in the Lord.
Above all, Jesus should be the focus, not us, or music, or ministries. I realize we're always somewhere in the equation, and God uses people, still I hope that HE will always be the focus of what my music's about, and what I'm about.