Starfield in Concert

After performing several of Starfield's songs in worship, I had my first opportunity to hear the Canadian band perform live at the National Worship Leader's Conference in Kansas City last summer. They arrived exhausted after days on tour. That night I was impressed by lead singer Tim Neufeld's honesty about worship leadership. I remember him confessing his exhaustion and asking permission to just have some fun as he and the band played some great head-banging, hard rocking worship music. It was fun, with lots of jumping and shouting, but very different from the concert I attended last night.

Last night Starfield did an amazing job of leading worship on stage at Dallas Baptist University. This first solo performance in the metroplex was an incredible success. The concert began with Starfield's original song, "Something to Say" and included others such as, "Unashamed," "Hosanna," "Reign in Us," and "Saving One." Although the songs were superb, the vocals were great, the drums rocked, and the lights were impressive, I was most impressed by lead singer Tim Neufeld's skills as a worship pastor.

A short time into the set list, Tim sensed the Spirit moving and allowed his agenda to be flexible. In between Starfield's normal concert fare we sang "Amazing Grace", "Awesome God", and "How Great is Our God", to name a few. The acoustics in Pilgrim's chapel were incredible, allowing Tim and his brother Jon to step away from the microphones and join with the audience in worship. I have many times experienced God's tangible presence in worship, but last night was unique in the effect on the audience.

College students around me were weeping, kneeling, praying together, jumping with joy, shouting with praise, as well as sitting quietly in prayer. What I saw last night was the body of Christ moving under conviction from being in God's presence. It was a beautiful sight. I think we might have turned just a little Pentecostal at one point for Tim's Mennonite upbringing, but I appreciated the opportunity he extended for us to voice prayers together corporately. Too often the only person to pray in a worship gathering is the pastor or the worship leader. It was refreshing to allow the audience to shout out their own prayers, to voice their own praise to the Father.

I enjoyed the night with my 12 year old daughter. Grace is a percussionist, which makes worshiping with her fun and unique. When she is gently moved in worship, she responds like many by raising hands and singing loud. However, when she is overcome with God's presence in music, she turns into a drummin' fool. I looked over at her in the middle of "Awesome God" to see her drumming up and down the back of the seat, while stomping a foot to create a funky groove to express her praise.

At the end of the concert, I was surprised. I honestly thought we had been in worship for just a few minutes, only to look at my phone to see that over an hour had passed. Somehow in the midst of chasing after God in that place, time seemed to stand still. Coming back to reality was challenging. Although impossible to describe with words, it was an incredible night, one in which Starfield did an excellent job of fulfilling their musical mission, "to lift up Jesus so he is impossible to ignore."

Twenty Ten

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to spend 6 hours at the Twenty Ten Worship Event in Grand Prairie. The band line up was spectacular: Jeff Johnson, Caleb, Tenth Avenue North, Toby Mac, and Casting Crowns.

Jeff Johnson is a local guy that I know indirectly through several friends. He has been a worship pastor at a couple of churches in McKinney and has played at lots of youth events that I've heard great things about. However, I had never had the opportunity to hear him before. In his first set, the vocals were a little hard to pick up - just some sound issues that sometimes happen with being the first band on the stage, I guess. But he came back out later to do some intimate acoustic worship time and sounded fantastic.

I enjoyed hearing Caleb - the band with Stephen Curtis Chapman's two boys. They were more of a folksy kind of sound than I had expected, but very excellent. I am curious to see what their musical future is going to hold. Definitely a lot of talent in both boys.

I have now seen Tenth Avenue North many times in concert. Last night they were doing some of the new stuff off their album that is coming out May 11. I loved what I heard and can't wait to pick up the new CD. It is cool to see the changes in these guys in just a little over a year. Their stage presence has matured, their sound has improved, and they are rocking the Christian music scene.

Toby Mac surprised me. I knew a couple of his more mellow songs that I would enjoy, but I was stunned to really love the entire concert. I loved it all - the rap, the funk, the salsa, the reggae. When they broke out the big brass instruments, I definitely felt the urge to dance. All across the arena smiles broke out. Everybody was on their feet, having a party. He cracked me up by doing "Pants on the Ground" sandwiched between a couple of "we love God" songs. He was having fun on the stage, which easily translated to the audience becoming engaged and having fun as well. I was absolutely impressed by his female vocal. She broke off into Rich Mullin's "Awesome God" gospel style, but with a rap/funk beat as a backup. It totally brought that great song back into the modern era. And man, did she have an incredible set of vocals. Wow!

Casting Crowns was phenomenal. I first saw them nearly 10 years ago on their first tour. Over the years, I have seen their progress as musicians and seen them master their craft. I love the humanness of Mark Hall, their lead singer. He is very real and very humble. I enjoyed throughout their concert as they flowed from songs into prayers and back into songs. Prayer was not an afterthought, but was an outpouring of full and overflowing souls. I was also excited to hear that they would be on a 4 a.m. flight back home to be pastors in their home churches. I love it when bands remember the importance of the local body of Christ and use their gifts to dig in deep into local relationships and build up their people.

I had to laugh when Mark completely forgot the words to "Voice of Truth." He scrambled the verses, then he couldn't find his cheat sheet with the lyrics, and had to completely stop the song and start over with the correct lyrics. It was at that moment that I thought, "Yep, I could be friends with him. He was okay with not being perfect in front of a crowd of 8,000 people."

The Twenty Ten event was designed as an avenue for local and global non profits to share information about their ministries. I did not know this until I arrived. I was very excited to discover several ministries that might be able to use a volunteer team from The Crossroads in the future as we look for a variety of outreach ideas.

And one of the best parts of the night? I was ordering a diet drink when the older gentleman at the register paused before ringing me up, looked at me and blurted out, "Why the hell you getting a diet drink? You don't need one." Then he remembered he was serving food at a Christian event and was horribly embarrassed, but it was maybe the nicest thing a stranger has said to me in a long time.

It was a fun night with my daughter, Grace, and with good friends. I enjoyed basking in God's presence and hearing his voice as he poured out his love on me. I loved the authenticity of the bands on this tour, and I am excited to see how God uses them in the future for His glory.