The Way I Was Made

"New York City is quite a place. You can hear almost every language in the world on the sidewalks there. And along with Boston, New York is at the hart of college life in America--I'm told there are 900,000+ college students within a seventy-five-mile radius of Times Square.

"We had wanted to take a Passion Movement worship even into the heart of the city for a long time. Of course, it's one thing to take worship events to college towns in the south and Midwest. These days you know you'll probably get a crowd. But New York is different. It's a world away from the Bible Belt, for one thing, and it's a ton more expensive.

"We prayed, planned, and waited. But the doors to New York remained shut.

"Until one afternoon last April. My band and I walked out of the Newark airport and took a cab to uptown Manhattan. We were headed for the legendary Beacon Theatre, on Broadway and 74th, where the next day we were going to be part of putting on our first-ever worship event for New York City college kids.

"At 8:00 the next morning, when we went back to the beacon to set up, kids were already lining up. Curious drivers going on by Broadway were slowing down for a look, backing up traffic. By afternoon, the line wound around several blocks. And the doors didn't open until seven!

"You have to wonder what other New Yorkers were thinking. An MTV special? A release party for some hot new L.A. Band? No, just students who couldn't wait tot proclaim to their city the splendor of the Lord.

"that night eh place was packed. Thousands of students--so happy to be there, so hungry for God, so ready. And as soon as Charlie Hall opened, it was clear that the crowd knew the songs, and they wanted to sing.

"Loud!

"After Charlie was finished, Louie welcomed everyone, then we broke into small groups for prayer time. Everybody praying at the same time, out lout, for their campuses, for their city. I tell you, that's a beautiful sound.

"Then our band came on for a fourty-five-minute set. What can I say? Wish you coulda been there! It was so powerful. I felt as if the crowd was saying 'Hey Chris, just start the songs. We'll take it from there!' It was a worship leader's dream. I think those students sand better--and with more heart--than any place I've ever been. In fact, Joey, our video guy, told me later, 'that was the first time I couldn't hear you play, Chris. People were so loud!'

"Louie's message that night was about shining a light in the world. But it is a light that isn't our own. 'Be the moon,' he challenged. 'You don't have any light on your own. We only reflect the light of Another. But when you and I get in the right place, Christ shines on us.'

"When the David Crowder Band came on to play the closing set, a theater manager who had been standing backstage came up and wanted to talk. 'I've never seen anything like this,' he said. 'I had to step outside and call my dad.' Turns out his dad runs the theatre, and the guy had worked there for years. 'I just had to tell my dad that in all our years we've never had this kind of show. All the drug-filled concerts that come through here--they cant' being to light up the place like this!'

"He leaned closer. There was something else he wanted to tell me. 'Man, I just went out in the crowd and sang!' he said, grinning self-consciously. 'Course, I don't' know any of the songs. But I just felt something in my heart.'

"Two days later, John Leland of the New York Times wrote a feature on the event. He called it 'Christian Musics' New Wave Caters to Audience of One.' 'The worship gathering for college students reflects a groundswell both within churches and in the Christian music marketplace,' he wrote. 'The musicians--who call themselves 'worship leaders' rather than performers--sing not about God, but to God. The audience sings as much as they do.'

"New Wave? Old Wave?

"Ask Jehoshaphat, or Paul and Silas, or the angels gathered at God's thrown from the beginning of time. I think it's the real music of our past an d of our eternal future, and it's happening now."