And lightning in His fists. I Wish We'd All Been Ready. That all this is done in nonjudgmental language and in a musical style that reaches young people is clearly important to McKeehan and the group. In an era when pop songs are often criticized for negative lyrics, it's ironic that DC Talk's positive messages make some labels nervous. People are tired of being preached at, of words speaking louder than actions. "All generations try to make up their mind on these issues, and it's not Toby, Michael or Kevin's answers. We make mistakes and a lot of the things we stumble with, we write songs about. Growing up, he was a great fan of the band New Edition, something that's clear from listening to "Free at Last" -- "I saw them four times in one summer in the D. C. area, " he recalls.
With wisdom, power, and love; Our God is an awesome God. "Before a missionary goes to Ecuador, he learns the language and the culture of the people and takes the Gospel to them according to the way that they live. T. - Take It To The Lord. According to McKeehan, a couple of labels "have asked us if we could change this or that, ever so slightly.... We're not willing to do that. "I think people at first would hear the grooves we were creating in the dorm room and not really understand. "ForeFront does a great job but they don't have the mass media at their fingertips. Even less surprising is that DC Talk is being courted by a number of major pop labels (the group now records for a small, Nashville-based Christian label, ForeFront). Business Partnership. A. C. - Can I Get A Witness. You don't struggle with these things because you're a believer in God or not -- the whole world deals with what to do about sexually transmitted diseases, with what's going on with social decadence and the decline in America's morality, with racism, with abortion.
"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyles. God is in this story - God is in the details - Even in the broken parts - He holds my heart, He never fails - When I'm at my weakest - I will trust in Jesus - Always in the highs and lows - The One who goes before me - God is in this story. We know a God that loves us as we are, not as we should be. There Is A Treason At Sea.
"We do want to move on and we're looking forward to having a deal that will promote us more intensely on a national and international level, " says Toby McKeehan, the 29-year-old Annandale native who fronts the group and is its principal -- and principled -- lyricist. The Lord wasn't joking when He kicked them out of Eden, It wasn't for no reason that He shed His blood, And his return is very close so you better be believing. A two-song demo tape sold 1, 000 copies and caught the attention of ForeFront, which released the "DC Talk" and "Nu Thang" albums before "Free at Last. " Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above. Last month, DC Talk's hip-hop-flavored "Free at Last" won a Grammy for best Christian album, hardly surprising since it spent 33 weeks atop Billboard's Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart and sold more than 500, 000 copies, a figure seldom attained in that market. As part of a 56-city tour, DC Talk will be playing at the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro tomorrow night, but a week later, it'll be doing its first full-fledged concert at Liberty, "at the Vine Center, where the basketball team plays, " McKeehan notes proudly.
Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg that he teamed up with Michael Tait, from Northeast Washington, and Kevin Smith, from Grand Rapids, Mich. On a campus where rock music and dancing were banned, hip-hop was not exactly welcomed either. At first they were taken back, but as we ventured out and shared the lyrical content at the heart of what we were trying to do, they were more open, and finally completely open, to the point we performed the song in chapel service. We're three guys that stumble and fall every day. Sometimes we scream, sing lead, do harmonies or rap -- we try to throw the vocal style that best fits the passion of the lyric.... As we mature, our music's maturing with us. When the sky was starless in the void of the night, (Our God is an awesome God), He spoke into the darkness and created the light, Judgment and wrath He poured out on Sodom, Mercy and grace, He gave us at the cross; Hope that you have not too quickly forgotten that. "All we're trying to do is shed a little bit of light on these issues, " McKeehan adds. "Now they know that we see ourselves essentially as missionaries to our generation, " he adds. L. M. R. S. - Say The Words.
"Our focus has become more introspective. I don't call us a ministry, I call us a band. Part of the lyrics on the album, Jesus Freak, by dc Talk. If you're going to stand up for free speech, you're going to have to take the good with the bad.
Children Can Live (Without It). That means a two-hour show featuring a four-piece band, three dancers, a light show, fog machines, a good sound system and even an acoustic set that includes U2's "40, " based on the 40th Psalm.