It’s the last day of Kingdom Bound, the four-day Christian music festival at Six Flags Darien Lake outside Buffalo, N.Y. Tens of thousands of teens are gathered to praise God and have fun amid acres of roller coasters and amusement park rides.
Even before the park opens, the strains of music have spilled into the campgrounds, where youth groups have set up homes-away-from-homes complete with refrigerators, microwaves and separate tents for morning devotions.
Bands including Skillet, Sanctus Real and Relient K will perform, and festivalgoers will hear speakers such as Stephen Baldwin and Kirk Cameron share their faith and encourage audiences to remain steadfast in their walk with God. There are Jesus T-shirts as far as the eye can see, and in the merchandise tent any and everything that can be stamped with a Jesus fish is for sale — and selling fast.
It’s an excited, spiritually charged atmosphere where teens, adults and families can wear their faith on their sleeves (literally) and enjoy harmonious fellowship with other believers. It’s easy to be a Christian at an event like this.
But what happens when it’s time to go home, back to school, work and the real world, where Jesus isn’t so cool, and classmates aren’t as eager to hear about the Bible? It’s not so easy being a Christian in the real world.
The guys in Sanctus Real understand.
FIGHT
“You always get so pumped up, and it’s so easy to be caught in the moment,” bassist Steve Goodrum says. But it’s important to stay focused after coming off the spiritual high you get at a festival, camp or retreat. “It’s hard to do it when you’re on your own and you’re not pumped up, but we’ve got to constantly remember to stay focused and keep fighting.”
Fight peer pressure; fight materialism; fight the temptation to go along with the world even if it looks good for the moment. Fighting those battles, in fact, is the theme of the band’s latest release, Fight The Tide.
The album follows Sanctus Real’s wildly successful 2002 debut album, Say It Loud, which earned them two Dove nominations and made them CCM magazine’s 2003 Best New Artist. Their arrangement of the U2 song “Beautiful Day” appeared on the project In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa and scored the group their first No. 1 hit. Their latest album was making waves even before it hit store shelves.
It would be easy for the band to get caught up in the glamour of commercial success. But this Toledo, Ohio, based quartet doesn’t delight ultimately in material reward.
Lead singer Matt Hammitt explains that Jesus taught His followers to desire spiritual riches, not temporary worldly highs. “This teaching goes against everything our culture imposes on us, but if we could really embrace it, we could find true contentment,” Matt says.
Ours is a culture where the hottest cars, trendiest fashions and coolest electronic games are valued above eternal rewards, and where the temptation to live for momentary pleasures often overrides the knowledge that God has a bigger picture. It’s a cultural tide Christian teens need to fight against.
But that can be difficult, especially when the line between the church and the world has become a little blurred as Christian music crosses over into mainstream, artists sport tattoos and piercings, and films like The Passion of the Christ are box-office hits.
Drummer Mark Graalman thinks it’s good that the church has become less stuffy and more relevant to today’s culture. “We’ve seen it be effective in getting the world’s attention,” he explains.
But he’s quick to caution that Jesus said we’re to be in the world, not of the world, which has little to do with what clothes you wear or what your hair looks like. “When your heart starts to look like the world, that’s when there’s trouble,” Mark says.
PEER PRESSURE IN REVERSE
So how do you stay relevant to your friends while maintaining your faith?
It’s hard to hold true to your Christian values if you’re always surrounded by worldly temptations. But if negative peer pressure can encourage you to do things you know you shouldn’t, then positive peer pressure can have the opposite effect. That’s why it’s important to surround yourself with other Christians who are firm in their faith.
“I know a lot of Christians who go out there by themselves and easily become ensnared and swallowed up [by the temptations of the world],” Steve says. He often hears from teens who justify their behavior by saying that they’re trying to minister to their friends, but then they end up doing things they know they shouldn’t.
“A lot of times people use the excuse that Jesus spent time with the tax collectors and the prostitutes,” Steve explains, “but I think a lot of people forget that [Jesus] ministered and fellowshipped with those people, but he didn’t party with them.” Steve encourages teens to use wisdom about where they spend the majority of their time — even if it means hanging out alone.
“I was kind of that geeky kid no one wanted to hang out with,” he laughs. “I’m a pastor’s kid. I grew up in the church, but there were a lot of times when my curiosity was overwhelming.” He says he never partied or drank alcohol in high school, “but I’d go out and get into a little trouble and feel like junk that whole night.” So to avoid giving in, he’d float from group to group rather than hang where the temptations were too much.
Does he feel like he missed out on the fun? “There were times I thought, I wish I would have gone to that party or done that just to see what it was like,” he says. But in the end he’s thankful that he stood strong, and thanks God for protecting him. “Who knows what would have happened?” he says.
As for fun? “I’m in a rock band,” Steve laughs. “That’s a lot of fun!”
TRAINING TIPS
First and foremost, Sanctus says that to fight the tide you have to surround yourself with other believers. Join a youth group, hang out with Christian friends and go to church regularly.
But guitarist Chris Rohman adds, “I’m not talking about having to be around your Christian friends 24/7.” Having relationships with nonbelievers is important in sharing the gospel. And if you’re relying only on the strength of Christian friends to guard you from temptations, you’ll fall for sure. God wants us to learn to rely on Him personally so that we can stand firm in our own faith — and stand firm together.
Another line of defense is to know God’s Word. “You can’t know what the truth is about God unless you read it for yourself,” Mark says. “If you haven’t read the Word yourself, anybody can tell you anything and you have no idea if he’s lying to you.”
He says his favorite Bible verse growing up was Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
“The whole point is not to give to God so He’ll give back,” Mark says. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’s going to put inside your heart the desires He wants you to have.”
Steve says that for months he’s been concentrating on Psalm 51, desiring for God to create in him a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit. “It’s easy to throw in the towel and quit the race because you’re tired, you’re sore and beat up,” he says. “But keep fighting, and keep fighting, and keep going.”
THERE’S A BIGGER PICTURE
Standing firm and fighting the temptation to join in on the worldly fun means understanding God’s bigger picture. Somebody once told Mark to live with the end of his life in mind. That thought has always stuck with him.
“You can be 16 right now and have that choice to just hang out drinking beers and smoking pot, but 20 years from now you’re going to seriously regret that,” Mark says. “And whether you believe it or not — and you probably don’t,” he laughs, “there is going to be a 20 years from now.”
The ultimate goal, he explains, is “being able to offer something back to Christ after everything He’s done for us, being able to lay crowns at His feet and say, ‘Lord, I hope I was Your good and faithful servant.’ Live your life like that.”
“It’s really hard sometimes to live with the end in mind because you’re faced with the here and now,” Steve admits. “But just run and keep running as hard as you can, and when you fall down — which you will, because we all do — get up and keep going.”
In other words, keep fighting the tide.
