I am attempting to make the case that today, the musician (or artist) is today’s evangelist. Now I can hear one of my friends mentally thinking right now, “Well, it depends what you mean by evangelist”. Indeed it does. For years I have not been convinced that the motivation of every convert at a Billy Graham crusade was forgiveness of their sin and joining God’s narrative of redemption of all of creation. It seems clear to me that each person comes to Jesus from a different context and a different part of the gospel appeals to them more. Those that are in need of healing (physical, emotional) look to Jesus the Healer. Those guilt-ridden from a list of sins that have haunted them for years seek Jesus the Forgiver. The meaning-seeker sees Jesus as the mediator between her and God. Some even identify with Jesus the lover of people and while they acknowledge their sin, they are even more moved by the inspiration of Jesus. And then there are some who don’t care about Jesus at all but know they prefer heaven over hell. That’s probably a very, very, very small percentage but let’s call them “Jesus the free ticket to heaven because I sure don’t wanna go to hell” believer.
Now it is not the purpose of this post to determine which motivations for conversion and discipleship are authentic (although our sarcastic spirits can probably figure some of that out), I do want to equal the playing field here when we question the motives of those like Bono or Jars of Clay or some other musician. But when these musicians’ activism brings clean water to a group of people, is that not true mission work? To some, mission work only happens if there is a “true gospel” presentation and while I certainly believe that we are to share about the crucifixion, resurrection and the way of Jesus, etc., I think too many evangelicals have largely missed the importance of things like clean water initiatives in places like Africa and addressing the needs here in our own communities.
I imagine a conversation with a missionary saying to a thirsty African: “You need Jesus, the Living Water! See, it’s spiritual”.
Thirsty African: “I have no idea what you are talking about. How is a name I never heard of going to give me spiritual water.”
Missionary: “You’re misunderstanding – Jesus has the water”.
Thirsty African: “Oh that’s great! Where’s Jesus, because my family and I really thirsty”.
Missionary: “Well he’s not here he’s …
Thirsty African: “Oh. I got it the first time. Well I wish Jesus would have come with your fancy spiritual water. Listen, some guy from Ireland is providing water and digging wells. Frankly, he looks a bit odd but I’m headed over there.”
Sometimes I feel as an evangelical missions movement saying, “It’s too much trouble to help feed and clothe you, so you will probably die before we can do this efficiently. But die with Jesus. We love him, so should you. He has done so much for us and if you believe in this name that you have never heard of, you will thank us on the other side of eternity.” This is what I am interpreting some saying.
I think that’s a very poor approach to missions, the gospel and the call to the Christian life and I hate to say it (I really do) but I think some of our artists are doing more for the Kingdom than some of our “missionaries”.
Last week, a few friends and i got together and among many things, we got to talking about Billy Graham and Bono. I made the argument that to many, Bono is our generation’s Billy Graham. If you are a U2 basher, just hold on (or go listen to Lady Gaga or something) but hear me out. Admittedly there are significant character differences, certainly Bono is cooler, and certainly Billy Graham was more influential to the Protestant Church but a case could easily be made for Bono inspiring more people outside the church. Is that not huge part of the job description of an evangelist?
The story of “Revelation Generation” begins quite awkwardly for me. I had just begun my second pastorate here and had decided to take the students to this new music festival with a name that I wasn’t crazy about. Long story short – Rev Gen got rained out and headed to Philly. The following year, we attended and the kids loved the Philly Stage and stayed for Newsboys. Last year was exactly the same, kids loved Philly Stage, and the Newsboys did the exact same set list, down to Peter telling the same stories. We left during Breakfast in Hell to beat the traffic. After that, I was fairly certain that we would not return (We have a saying in Texas, “That says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again”). How could we return for a fourth year? Well, we’re glad we did and here’s why.
2. We didn’t do the Friday concert last year but this year, they had Jars of Clay, Matt West, Delirious, and Mercy Me. For most of us, wanting to hear Jars do new songs off “The Long Fall Back to Earth” was the reason we came Friday. The unfortunate thing was we underestimated a couple of things. Some of our students had just returned to school and so by the time we left, we missed most of the bands. Two, Jars wasn’t headlining. Three, Mercy Me was. And Four, it wasn’t really Jars’ best show. Not a big crowd yet, not very energetic either. Then Jars said they lost track of time and were told they had just played their last song. Frankly, I think the concert organizers should have let them play their last song, it was clearly an accident and they are an established band. I don’t know the business of putting on concerts but I’m pretty sure Jars has earned enough respect to play one more. So in the most anti-climatic way, Dan took the blame, apologized for not paying attention to the clock and said something like, “We want to be invited back so we’ll say good-bye here.” I thought it was pretty classy to submit to the stage manager and end their show the worst way possible. I know I’m not being complimentary but it was an awkward moment that Jars handled really well and it spoke to me a bit.
3. Unless you go into the merchandise tent, you don’t feel that you are at one of those cheesy Christian concert events. The production is fantastic from the signs a few miles away directing you how to get this to obscure farm to the numerous workers and volunteers that create a presence of “we know what we are doing so don’t get any ideas.” They have great signage, very professional looking stages, and enough porta-potites to “facilitate the pending needs” of their own feeding of 5000.
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