Recently we had one of those nights when it was hard to see what God was doing in the place. It was a tough show for sure… but in God’s own way He showed me the reason at the end of the night. It’s not that the show wasn’t good… it was just one of those shows where you feel invisible on stage, like maybe they’re not listening to you. The back rows seemed to be having fun though, so that made it cool. You know… 10 years of doing this thing and you learn a few tricks on how to have fun in spite of a tough crowd… and they usually work:
Tip Number:
1.) Try to make Jesse laugh by making stupid faces during the show.
2.) Throw at least 1 bottle of water at Michael
3.) If the front row isn’t into it… use the old spray water over the crowd trick… that always gets people’s attention (and the band laughing too for that matter).
4.) Play a guitar solo, where you never play a solo… preferably over a bridge
5.) Throw down a filter cover… “Hey man, nice shot”… it always makes you feel better… even if the crowd doesn’t get it.
6.) Play a bluegrass version of any song… tonight’s was “Space In Between Us”
7.) Tell the lighting engineer to strobe everything
8.) Concentrate on Jesus… and play for an audience of 1
Ok so the show was over and then it was time for me to talk about World Vision… which is usually a part of the evening that takes on a life of its own. Long story short, even that part of the evening seemed to fall flat. When I asked people to raise their hands to sponsor a child, it felt like 5 hands went up, and I was totally disappointed. After all that was done I went backstage and felt really crummy for a while… wondering… “What did I miss? What part of tonight was wrong?”
Fast-forward to load out: I walked into the room after signing autographs and a tough-looking dude said, “Man, killer set brotha… You guys rocked”. Hmm that was nice. Then another guy with a similar compliment. Suddenly I’m walking through 10 guys who are all telling me how great we were… and I start thinking… these guys look different. Hmmm, I shrugged it off and kept walking… but a guy stopped me and told me that they were ALL from an addictions program in the area.
He had just graduated the program… he was an ex-con with ties to gangs, and big time drugs, but he wasn’t mean or even intimidating… he was cool when he talked about his struggles. How he was adopted, and that he watched he father die in front of him when he was 5. How his step sisters hated him and how he felt worthless which led him into gang life and drugs. His life spiraled out of control until he ended up spending 36 months in prison on burglary charges. He did his time and then got out and back into “the Life”. He enrolled in the addiction program after he was forced to go to a shelter because he ran out of gas and, while there, he went to a service where he heard his brother’s testimony of 20 years of addiction but salvation and ultimate freedom through Christ. SAWEET!!! Drug free for the last 16 months he is a HERO!!!!
After talking to him one of the other guys asked me about how many kids we sponsored… I told him 34 and he just said “cool”. So after a brief farewell I said goodbye and then I realized that they were all loading our junk out for nothing…. And then it occurred to me that maybe I should give them each a CD for helping… but would they like it???? Nahhh they’d probably not dig it… wait a second… so what would be the first song they would hear? “Not Gonna Let You Down”… how’s that go again?
If you could run, where would you run to now?
Where would you hide, now that the truth is out?
And I know, the fear you feel
And I know, this is real
But Please don’t run from me
Cause everyone needs somebody
Please don’t run from me now
I won’t leave you
You’re never alone wherever you go
Please don’t run from me now
Cause I’m not gonna let you down
This is the hope, that you’ve been longing to know
Cause God is alive, and He’s never left you alone
So hold on through your tears
But Please don’t run from me
Cause everyone needs somebody
Please don’t run from me now
I won’t leave you
You’re never alone wherever you go
Please don’t run from me now
Cause I’m not gonna let you down
So come back, come back to life again
Where we can be forgiven
Cause we’re almost home
So don’t you ever let go
This is what we’ve been waiting for
He is the hope that heals the world
We’re almost home so please.
How dare I think that tonight didn’t matter. That was the first song we played in the set… and the first one that they’ll hear when they listen to that CD. God, my attitude has been adjusted.
Jroy!!
If you think your show was a bust than I’m sorry. Me and my wife of 22 years were in the center of the crowd and I’ll tell you the Holy spirit was strong. Almost 6 years ago I had my last grandmaul seizure and until the night and even the begining of the night of your concert I was strobe light sensitive, meaning it would trigger tremmers or worse a seizure, but buy repeating the simple words from scripture( Buy Your stripes I am healed) I enjoyed the concert very much with my wife and God. God bless
Both my husband and I were told about your concert late Thursday evening. Immediately I started rearanging my previous Friday night plans so we could go. We left our 14 year old and 18 year old kids at home and went out on a date to your concert. We attend the Assembly of God Church in Benton City and are a very live and on fire for God church. We both thouroughly enjoyed the evening. Your stories and the other stories moved our hearts. Keep in mind that you sang to a very wide rang of people that night and not all people react the same way. My heart was filled with the Holy Spirit and was excited to be in the presence of famous people who love God as much as we do. Listening to your songs on K-Love helps get us and many people through rough days in a negative and cruel world. I felt touched in a positive way and I am sure many others felt blessed too. Go easy on the people of Tri cities. If you ever make it up this way we will be sure to attend. God bless and our prayers are with you and all your families.
Dear Jason,
Thank you for being honest with us. You guys are amazing live, I feel very honored to have seen you in August here in Edmonton. I think about that night a great deal. You blessed me a great deal that night, I am very glad that I got to meet you guys. The pictures that I took of you worked out great. Thank you for sharing from your heart. I love you guys because you are the real deal on stage and off. My prayers are with you and your families as you travel around doing ministry for our Lord. Take care and God bless you all. Love Marjan VandenBrink
Thank you for coming to Mechanicsburg, PA! My husband and I traveled 3 l/2 hours from western PA to see you and what a wonderful evening we had. I have always wanted to hear Building 429, but Todd Agnew and Kimber Rising were added blessings from God. I loved seeing the young people so excited for God. Thank you and keep doing His work.
Jason,
I am a member of Myrtle Grove Baptist in Wilmington, NC. We were so blessed to have you, Kimber Rising, Todd Agnew and many others visit us for Ampfest.
We decided that we would not worry about how many people showed up or how many people got saved. It is worth it even if 1 person heard the message and took something with them. We would never have been able to make it through it had it not been for Gods blessings over us. We ran into several road blocks along the way but in the end God came through in a way we knew he would!
Its never as clear as we want Him to make it. But in the end He always shines through! Thank you again for making it and touching all of our lives through your music and ministry.
WOW! Thanks so much for sharing that story… that is awesome and God is always working even when we can’t directly see it. I think the fans of Christian music sometimes forget to share their stories of encouragement back to the bands, we selfishly forget that we are not the only ones needing ministering too. So I will take this time to say thank you Building 429, as your music, specifically the songs, No One Else Knows and Shadow of Angels, helped me through a very difficult and seemly hopeless time in my life. I clung to those songs and they helped my eyes stay focused on Jesus until I was strong enough to flee from the pit.
Know you always reach someone… God is always using you and your fans are always loving you!
God Bless and stay the course!
Kim
Thanks for blasting this out on FB. How cool is it to read that even those Christians on stage leading so many in worship feel the blahs as well…just as we do in our normal everyday lives at times. What an encouragement to read that we need to keep our focus on Him even when the crowd (be it our family, friends, strangers or even ourselves) seems to have a different focus or that we just aren’t “feeling” things happening like we’d like them to. And I even like the whole doing goofy things to keep yourselves in a good frame of mind. As a homeschooling mom of 4 kiddos I find that I have to do stupid stuff (like make my 7 year old son fall on his butt by simply giving his forehead a little shove. It sends all of us laughing! And he stands up and giggles “Do it again!” But it’s never as good the second time around when they are expecting it). Sometime stupid things helps get us out of our ruts.
BTW, my blog was inspired by KLOVE and you all. I had attended a free concert (KLOVE) in Cincy Feb ‘08. KLOVE had posted their daily Bible verse which was Zephaniah 3:17. Didn’t think I’d be able to go to the concert, but through this verse (which I had never heard before) God reasured me that He’d be singing over me. That night you all sang a song that I had never heard before “Singing Over Me”. My jaw literally dropped and I just stood in awe during that whole song. You just never know what God is up to.
BTW, my kids and I think you guys rock also!
I came to your show in Wilmington and it changed my life forever. It was nice to get to meet you guys and let you know that. I had been struggling through a divorce and felt so far away from God I thought there was no coming back. But I heard Always on the radio, and teared up and knew that God had never left me. So I rededicated my life. I sing in a local Christian band, and I’m so ecstatic to go out and lead people in worship and see God change lives. So thank you for being a willing vessel…and never stop
Thank you for sharing! I saw you in Joplin MO but was a fan way before. – I always have wondered how you could possibly be ‘UP’ for an every night show – I know ‘by the grace of God’ but I find it hard some days to face the world and I don’t have to represent to thousands like you – Thank you for being human AND showing how Gods works those days into HIS design.
I thought you guys dropped off the facee of the earth. I usually get a newsletter or something. Glad to see you’re still alive and in still ministering to the masses. Sometimes God does this to us because He is trying to teach us that only He can see the grand design. It’s funny to read your story. I’m enjoying my new itunes, Space in Between Us, Iris to Iris, and most recently I started the Rise album. I plan to finish downloading it before Christmas. I think that covers all your albums, except for the Christmas single! Love em all!
Blessings,
Jen G
I attended the Tri-Cities concert and I am ashamed to say that I didn’t do what Jesus wanted me to do….. He wanted me to tell you my story. I don’t know why, I don’t know what good it would do, and I thought no one would want to hear what I have to say because I thought I was a nobody. During the song “He carried me” I saw pieces of my life that Jesus carried me through. The one that stands out the most is Meeting a man that brought me to Calvary Chapel, at that time I fell in love with the people and knew I wanted to be like them, but didn’t know how. Jesus allowed me to marry him which was a big mistake, but looking back now it was all part of his master plan. Once I found out what my husband was doing I had to leave with my 2 precious daughters, a box of clothes and a car, most importantly my children cuz I can’t replace them. Through this time I had friends ask me “How can you smile going through this?” That was one of the best things they could say because that opened the door for me to talk to them about the love of Jesus, how much he loves us, and how much he loves them. With the love of Jesus I was able to smile, laugh and have the time of my life becuase I realized that what ever happens is what Jesus wants. But when I was alone at night after the children were in bed I would spend hours praying and crying, I was begging for Jesus to take me in my sleep because I couldn’t handle the pain anymore, I wasbeing boken!!!! A year later we had to go through a jury trial, the wound had to be reopened and I would have done anything so that my children didn’t take the stand, but I coudln’t take it from them. It was a long 3 days and there was always a chance that the verdict could come back not guilty, and it did. From that time I had to rely on Jesus for every step, every breath, and every thought so that it is what he wants.
I felt all of these emotions all over again in the time of 1 song. You touched my heart and my daughters heart forever, I thank Jesus for the healing and the love it takes to make it through a time like this.
“HE CARRIED ME”
Leaving it at the cross,
Charlotte
Im 16 years old. Im not exactly the smartest person, and i get teased alot in and out of school because im Christian and because i dont follow trends. Your music has always inspired me to be who i am, and not give in. Whenever i need to be cheered up i listen to your music and i rememeber why every day is worht living. So i want to thank you for being who you are! Your music has helped me and a few friends get through some really tough times! God shines through you guys every time you preform!
Gods Peace,
Kellyjean
WOW!!
i’ve just been listening to some of your music and its some of the most meaningful, most inspiring songs i have ever heard.
It’s clear you guys are clearly blessed by God, i pray that he’ll bless your band and work even more
You guys are brilliant
Godbless
Lauren
Hey guys, it’s “Dr. Mike”– I’m the guy who did all the flu tests on you in Northern KY at Main Street Baptist. Have been following your website since then, initially just to see how you all were doing.
I hope you all realize what blessings you are. When I was a teen in the 80’s, the idea of “Christian” rock bands was so foreign. I mean eventually we got Petra and others. But to have guys like you all that have the talent to make it in ANY venue, but CHOOSE to follow the Lord is such an incredible blessing! It may not have taken me so long to discover His grace, and I may not have needed so much of it, had I had guys like you to look up to!
Merry Christmas and keep rocking!
Mike