About a year after I became a Christian, I was sitting on the back bench of the van on one of my last tours, listening to the album Captured by Grace, when I let the idea of quitting music, marrying my girlfriend and serving the church creep in. It was a life changing moment. In my mind, if I were to quit the band that I was in, I would be done playing music forever because I found it as a source of pride.

But God had different plans for me. He knew the desires of my heart and gave music back to me. This time, it was for something and someone much bigger. This time it was for Christ and His saints. When I first started playing for The Rock Music I was very shy and timid with the parts I would come up with because I didn’t want to seem prideful, flashy or distracting. When I would decide to keep a part that I felt was challenging, I would feel insecure about it and even guilty at times.

God has shown me a better way. Instead of being prideful or insecure about my musical skill, He has shown me that it is about so much more than any of that. It is a gift from Him. It’s not a result of practicing a lot, because I don’t. It’s not because I learned every cover song I liked, because I didn’t. All glory be to God for every bit of creativity that is in us all. I’ve come to realize that I have so many more musical weaknesses than strengths and it feels great to admit that. I can say that boldly because I know that the strengths that I do have are a gift from God, given to glorify Himself, bless the saints and win the lost; and if I downplay it, dumb it down or don’t use it, then I’m not being a good steward of His gifts.

This doesn’t just go for music though. I have been challenged and encouraged to cherish all of the gifts He’s given me: my salvation, a beautiful wife and kids, a job that I love, a great church, amazing friends, my health, a roof over my head, a method of transportation and much more. If I don’t steward these gifts well, I am not giving God the thanks He deserves for giving them to me.

What gifts has God given you that you need to cherish more?

Billy J

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.
-Martin Luther

I love Luther’s thoughts about the power and importance of music. When we write new songs, we think a lot about our musical collective’s overarching mantra: “Rooted in the local church, our sole desire is to: Love God, Bless the Saints, & Win the Lost.” If Luther is right, then music is uniquely equipped to do all three of these things. As a band we can’t miss it.

When we wrote the Son of Man, we knew we wanted to focus in on these ideas in ways that we hadn’t tried before. We wanted to write a song that did a number of things: First, we wanted the lyrics to be completely about Jesus (Love God). Secondly, we wanted to write something that was passionate, explosive, and reminded the church about their relationship to Jesus (Bless the Saints). Lastly, the song is meant to tell the Son of Man’s story in a way that communicated the gospel to non-Christians powerfully and effectively (Win the Lost).

Even with these intentions, the songwriting process for the Son of Man started accidentally. We were setting up for practice one Tuesday night (we had planned to rework a few old hymns), when Justin started fiddling around on his bass with something that caught my ear. He was messing around with a line that turned out to be, what is now, the introduction and backbone for the entire song. Immediately Tim and I turned to Justin and said “Don’t stop playing, don’t forget what you are doing, and run with it.” Almost without talking, our entire band latched onto the flow of what was taking shape and a few hours later we had the entire structure and nearly all of the lyrics for Son of Man done.

The lyrics for Son of Man are designed to tell Jesus’ story in three parts, beginning with his death on the cross. The first verse (the Lamb) focuses on the fact that Jesus spent his life to pay our debt so that we could have salvation-

Jesus died, like a lamb he went.
For you and I,
God’s. Life. Spent.
The great exchange,
A debt’s been paid.
The Son of Man who came to save.

The second verse (the Groom) is about Jesus’ resurrection and consequential marriage proposal to mankind-

He said, “I am coming soon.”
The carpenter left an empty tomb.
He stands and knocks, put out your pride.
He’s the Groom,
You’re the bride.

The last verse (the Lion) both warns of and celebrates Jesus’ return as prophesied in the Revelation of John-

From His mouth is a two-edged sword.
“HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD!”
The Lamb has gone,
The Lion comes!
Jesus you’re the only one

Lastly, the choruses echo the collective cry of Christians everywhere as we wait for the King’s return-

You saved our souls.
Jesus you’re my home.

Writing the Son of Man was a spiritual experience that is only eclipsed by the act of singing it with the body of Christ. My band all agrees, playing music for the local church is one of the greatest honors we have ever had. Each time we practice or play we pray “Lord, no matter what else, help us to lead the saints into worship in a way that allows You to completely change our lives.” We pray that God will persist in his blessing of the Rock Music so that we can continue to “Love God, Bless the Saints, and Win the Lost” as long as we have the breath to do it.

Ben

When I came across these verses the other day, they jumped out at me. Was that really all it took for these disciples of John to drop everything and follow Jesus? One sentence? I started thinking about those words and wondering if they held the same power in my life. When someone I know points out Jesus in a situation, or shares truth about him, or relays an answered step of faith, do I respond immediately by giving more of my heart to Him and following Him more passionately? It’s all too easy to be completely *unlike* those disciples. I want reasons. I want convincing proof. I want coercion. Jesus wants us to trust Him.

I was thinking about these verses in the context of leading the saints in worship. It’s the job of the Church, the job of leadership, the job of disciples of Christ to proclaim: “Look, the Lamb of God!” It’s our job as followers of Christ to respond with trust, faith, and worship. I encourage you, next time you hear someone proclaim Christ in some way in their life, to follow Jesus. Just like the disciples.

Dan

There are two things that seem to stick out in my mind whenever I lead worship. First, it’s a big step of faith for me personally. I’m kind of a socially nervous guy, and so getting up in front of a crowd people is a big challenge. My hands are so sweaty every time, that I can barely play my guitar! But it’s been good for me because when I am nervous, I find myself relying more on God in my weakness and asking, in faith, for his help to play skillfully. In fact, there is a particular song that we play that I always screw up on in practice. The rest of my band can attest to this: I’ll always hit some awful note no matter how many times I practice. I’ve gotten in the habit, though, of asking God to help me with that song every time we lead worship, and by God’s grace, I always play that song perfectly when we get up on stage! It’s growing my faith to lead worship.

Secondly, I just think worship is beautiful. During our set on Friday, I remember looking around at people in the audience, raising their hands and singing loudly. There was authentic joy in that room, despite all the brokenness in the lives of everyone there (including me). It was and is all because of Jesus. We have something amazing to sing about! We are no longer hopeless in our sin. God has died in our place and given us hope and all eternity to be with Him. I never want to forget that.

Chaz

One of our bands and several people from The Rock were at Gateway Mall last weekend, playing some music, giving away free download cards, and inviting people to church! Here is a glimpse of what happened.

It’s funny to me because the more and more I share with others, the more encouraged I am about God, truth and the coming back of our King Jesus!

Next month will be my four year anniversary of giving my life to Jesus in Steele’s basement. After this I lost my band, my girlfriend, and my house and God tore down the world that I knew within about two weeks. I tried rebuilding it on my own, got a new band, got the house back and convinced the girlfriend to stay.

God was still passionately encouraging me to stop living the way I was, so he stepped in. Came home one night from a sermon Steele had preached on David and Saul. Pride vs humility before God. I had resolved I wanted to be a man like David and headed home to confess my sins to everyone and get my heart clean. When I walked in I found about 100 people in my house I did not know. They were all drunk and most of them underage.

They had ripped the doors off my rooms and were playing beer pong with the doors in my kitchen. When I went down stairs into my room everything had been stolen including all of my music equipment. The walls also had holes punched into them. All that remained was a few t-shirts, my bed and a stolen laptop I had bought for $100.

In this moment like a loud speaker in my hear I heard God say, “Will you be a Saul or David?” I ran upstairs to the other room where my drummer had been and found my girlfriend Laying in bed next to my drummer.

In this moment I had lost my band, my girlfriend and my house all over again. God was desperately trying to pull my heart away from these things that would destroy me and bring me to him.

I moved out that night with what was left, got a job making $9 an hour and drove from layton to salt lake daily for work. A few months later I was on a budget, living with a brother in Christ and met my wife amanda.

Fast forward to now (four years later) I have a wonderful wife, a two month old daughter, a business that’s doing well, and a church family who I love deadly. God has completely flipped my life and given me a new life full of his joys.

All in all what God has been teaching me is that our testimonies are powerful and effective. They genuinely show the grace and power of God!

I encourage you to be bold and share what God has done in your life! Tell the great story of his love and how he too saved you from sin and death!

Your brother,

Kc Kelly

This song The Insider, was written by Caleb Yetton, Steele Croswhite and Paul Porter on the back of our bus while on mission touring Europe.

The song is written from Peter’s perspective of the Messiah. It begins with question and ends with worship.

Please understand that this was an impromptu, live recording in the back of a moving bus while the song was still being finalized.

It captures the emotion of a team, on mission for the King: To preach the Gospel, Make disciples, and baptize in the name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God bless you.

Steele

P.S., here are the lyrics.

The Insider
Words: Steele Croswhite
Music: Caleb Yetton Paul Porter

I heard some people talking- about a man on the street, some who called him a liar some people called him a king.

But I have seen them before man- yea I have heard it before – they are all faking prophets, hypocrites to ignore!

(Where is God?)

There were deaf people hearing, I saw blind people see, I watched the lame people running and the mute who could sing.

I saw Pharisees silenced, I saw pure jealousy, Heard hosanna in highest for Jerusalem’s king

(You alone are God)

Chorus

AHHH Wash over me- Hallelujah

AHH Sing over me- amen

And I saw you with Pilate- you were covered with blood- It was more than a lashing, you were blackened as mud,

Than I heard them all scoffing, I heard lies and deceit, and I watched them all laughing as they were nailing your feet.

(Where is God?)

Chorus

AHHH Wash over me- Hallelujah

AHH Sing over me- amen

I saw Mary rejoicing- and she cried you’re alive. And She told of us angels, dressed in robes made of light.

And we ran with all fury, what we found in the tomb, was not a crucified body… but a (blessed) empty room

(You alone are God)

The love of God is greater than anything we can ever possibly imagine. He sweeps His love across the stars with majesty and power. He gives oxygen, sight, delicious burritos, the ability to think, cars, shoes, the ability to enjoy, and on and on and on. People who are not saved, get to experience God’s love for a short time. (Rom 1:19-20, 9:22) The fact that He withholds his perfect wrath every moment this world continues to delve deeper into sin and depravity is in itself an expression of God’s love. The fact that the Church – the Saints of God, the People whom He has redeemed – get to approach Him in prayer, or have the divine revelation to understand Holy Scripture, or to sing praises, or live responsive worship is another expression of God’s love. Not only that, but that His love makes us new! (Ps 119:159)

He loves His Church, you and I: Christians. He shows love to His creation – for whatever time there is left. But He loves His holiness even more, for He is a jealous God (cf. Ex 20:5). And has every right to it – all of it. To submit to His love means the submission of all His attributes. One cannot simply choose to focus on, or hang onto just His love. The same can be said about His justice, or His providential blessings. A solitary focus of one characteristic of God apart from His fullness will create a parochial Christian, which inevitably leads to bad theology or even heresy. It is important to approach God with utmost anticipation of seeing all of Him that is humanly possible to see and understand. To begin to try and understand the love of God, you must take into consideration His other attributes.

That makes everything much more meaningful, and God’s love is experienced in a beauty never seen before.

All that to say, how can learning more of, finding and seeing the fullness of God – in His expressed love to you – intensify and strengthen your relationship with Him? See the old you. Seeing the person He saved you from. Knowing the way you think, or act, or speak, and how much God has spared you; changed you! Knowing that you are fearfully and wonderfully made – as His image bearer. Knowing that He is so massively fierce but so peaceably close to you. Born again isn’t just a contemporary catch phrase, it’s a reality. And it’s only possible by the love of God. (John 6:29)

The lyrics to the song “Your Love” were written with these things in mind. My prayers circled around this: “Your love makes all things new, changes me, is the only thing I need, saved me, gives me the ability to love you back…” And even brought me to a place, to which I still at times wrestle with, to fully submitting to God and believing that his justice and wrath are perfect – and He is Creator.

Realizing the importance of embracing all the attributes of God at this point in your life will make for the fulfillment of having a greater relationship with Him the rest of your life. After all, He created eternity because He saw it fit to be long enough to worship Him. And that is breath taking: to fully experience His love.

Here are the chord sheets tabbed for guitar and piano for “Your Love”.

God often uses one small event as a catalyst for changing lives. What began as a young drummer’s attempt at doing something unique, turned into a booming company, and also led to her life being forever transformed.

Liz Aponte of Respira Drums

Fifteen-year-old Liz Machlitt (Aponte) was a young drummer who wanted a fancy, custom kit.  Not having sufficient funds, however, the tenacious drummer and a friend decided to make their own.  “We took the current drum sets we had completely apart, figured out how to put them back together, and then tried it on our own shells and parts we had purchased,” explains Aponte.  The kits turned out more than sufficient, and Aponte’s ingenuity soon turned into an obsession.  She began her own drum making company while still in high school, which quickly became her life.  “All my satisfaction and worth came from drums and music,” she admits.  But eventually the company “was not going where I wanted it to go,” so Aponte bitterly gave up drum making and went to college instead.

“But,” she muses, “little did I know, my selfishness would lead to God’s faithfulness;” because it was in college, away from her old life of drums, music, and greed, where Aponte heard and received the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This heart change also altered her entire outlook on music.  She still loved music, but began to see it as a tool God uses, rather than a god in and of itself.  As she left behind the desires of the world, she “quickly learned music is not everything and worship is not just music.” While continuing to let God grow her and soften her heart, her two loves came full-circle. During this time, “slowly but surely, God planted the idea of Respira Collective into my head and breathed it into what it is today.” She wanted to fuse her love of Jesus into her passion for music, art, and drumming.  As stated on the Respira Collective website, “We make snare drums built with love and labor.” She is open about her faith and love for community with her clients; seeks personal relationships rather than making big money; and portions of all profits are donated to charities with similar visions.

Matt Greiner of August Burns Red

The Respira Collective began as a grass-roots company. Aponte made her first Respira Collective drum for a friend in 2008, and the word and spirit behind Respira began to spread.  Her clientele includes: Matt Greiner of August Burns Red, Morgan Wright of I, The Breather, Cody Carrier of Fallstar, Kenny Bozich & RK Topper of The Rock Music, Brian Schiedeman of Abandon Kansas, Evan Shubrooks of Free The Fallen, Sammy Vaughan of Forevermore, and so on. “The best part,” explains Aponte, “is that a friendship has grown with each one of these drummers, and they understand Respira is not just about drums.”

It was also during the early phases of Respira where she met her now-husband, who introduced her to The Rock Church, as well as The Rock Music.  A friendship and partnership for life was formed here, as the young couple has joined The Rock Music to continue their mission to “love God, bless the saints, and win the lost,” through the local church.

Kenny Bozich and RK Topper of The Rock Music

“In a world where people take music and use it as a pedestal for their own fame, satisfaction, and worth, I appreciate that The Rock Music does exactly the opposite. Every single musician loves God, and they know music is just a vessel to bless the saints and win the lost.  Using a powerful and emotional thing like music for God’s glory – amazing!”

The name Respira refers to the Spanish verb meaning “to breathe.” Aponte latched onto the idea that God breathes new life into His children once they are saved.  This is certainly true in her life, in the lives of the musicians of The Rock Music, and prayerfully, the lives they touch.