THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN.

One of the great features of being on the Winterjam tour has been the opportunity to get re-acquainted with the Newsboys. My first adventures in the Contemporary Christian Music industry were with the Newsboys in the UK and Europe in the summers of 1995 and 1996, and they were the guys who first invited me to work over on a tour in the USA in late 1998. One of the support bands on that tour was Third Day...and the rest is history. Besides that, Third Day's current tour manager, and good friend of mine, Lott Shudde was Newsboys road manager when I first met them. So tonight was one of those special nights- involving me stepping on a Newsboys tour bus for the first time in over 10 years- when their production manager Steve Campbell, also a long-time friend, invited me and some of the Third Day guys over for a curry. It was such fun to hang out with Dunny, Steve, Wes, Jody, Jeff, and to have a long chat with recent Newsboys addition Michael Tait (once of legendary group DC Talk). Dunny came back onto our bus for a couple of episodes of Ricky Gervais' Extras. I owe a lot to Newsboys, and to their founding guy Peter Furler who is no longer in the band. They took a risk on me, I took a faith step not knowing what the outcome would be, and my life was immeasurably changed and my ministry experience enriched.

Comments

[Teresa (auntie gomer)]

A curry & an extras dvd - sounds good enough - but top that with the company you had - sounds like a really cool time! :-)

[Ahmed]

I would say that it is there for the shock value, a Christian is supposed to be daatamicrlly impressed with Jesus’ sacrifice, and the more one realizes the sacrifice has a harsh, physical element, the more one might be awed by it.I think you're both right. I think your description makes sense—but in gendered terms, that kind of harsh, physical sacrifice is coded as heavily masculine.I'm actually a little sad about the lyrics. If it weren't for the eyeroll-worthy shilling for Jesus, I might even like this song.And I agree with NFQ about the distasteful tenor of the video (mainly its later parts), and definitely about the Great Commission—but again, the consciousness-raising earlier on about poverty in Mexico would be a rather good thing, if it weren't tarnished by all the convert-the-heathens Commission baloney. If Americans, regardless of our (ir)religious outlook, took more seriously the pain that our economic system imposes on so many other parts of the planet, there might be a lot less injustice in the world. (Not that I think I work nearly as hard as I should to support global economic justice.)