School of Rock?

Third Day has fast become one of America’s best and most popular Christian rock bands. Jonathan Carswell picked up his press pass and headed off to Belfast’s Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle to interview the band exclusively for EN.

Five guys; nine albums; three Grammy awards; one common purpose.

One has often been warned not to get too close to one’s heroes — while Third Day are not luminaries of mine as such, I do enjoy their music and admire their ministry. However, as we casually sat round cross-legged in a small semi-circle back stage, I flicked on the digital recorder, and charged my camera flash for the impending photos. I was about to be pleasantly surprised.

Bible study

For these pros, this was a small-town gig. The whole population of Northern Ireland doesn’t match up to even some of the smaller US states, and yet, these five artists were like giddy school kids on a school trip! I made the usual pleasantries a reporter is taught to make, to relax his guests, but was soon reminded that this wasn’t just a job for these guys.

‘We’ll be heading upstairs in a minute for a Bible study with our pastor. He helps us get in the appropriate frame of mind for what we are about to do. We’ll then pray with and for each other before relaxing for a little bit.’

Fans

It was clear they weren’t just here as crowd pleasers, but were eager to minister to those who had ventured out on a typically rainy Belfast evening. The fans were keen and had been queuing round the church for nearly two hours. So how do they respond to such attention?

‘There are definitely times when you can see that somebody’s enthusiasm level or passion is pretty intense. You have to try stop them getting too overawed. We usually try and turn it so we stop making it about us and ask them questions about their lives. If they’re sitting there and can hardly get a word out because they’re drooling all over themselves [which I saw one or two do! JC], then, yes, you pretty much go and say, “Hey, I’m Brad and you’re name is?”

‘This is going to sound really cocky but we’re as big a fan of the band as anyone! We see the band as something bigger than ourselves. We work hard at making Third Day not about us. When we do this we can see other fans and say, “Cool — I’m a fan of Third Day too!” It’s not a thing we own and they are trespassing… we’re all in it together.’

Animated nodding of other band members’ heads confirms to me that this isn’t something they spiel off to impress people, but rather it’s a well thought through solution to a very real temptation.

Put in my place

The interview had started well; I thought we had a good rapport, so I would test them on their views of being celebrities. Was I about to regret the bold move?

‘I don’t mean this critically…’, I began, tentatively, ‘and perhaps it is just different in the UK’, I said, adding a clause, just in case I needed to rescue myself in a few seconds from an embarrassing faux pas, ‘but on your website it says your “car of choice is a Chevrolet”! What is that all about? Perhaps it’s because we’re not used to having successful Christian bands, but, having a “car of choice” and the like — it seems quite swish. Do you find it hard not to be money driven, not to be popularity driven — to be forever pursuing that number one record?’

I braced myself for what I expected to be a torrent of abuse and the abrupt ending of a short interview. How they replied however, was far more gracious than how I would have answered.

‘You know what’, they piped up with a bit of smile on their faces, ‘it’s funny that you should ask that because…the reality is that it’s very expensive to come here. Business wise, it doesn’t make sense for us to come. We certainly aren’t making money from this trip! That’s not why we come.’

Well that put me in my place — but I was left wondering, ‘Why do they come, then?’

‘We come here because we love the people. They want to hear what we have to say. We have people here who support us and bring us in. And then there are our products here too. That’s an important reason why we come here. In the States, like with many things, you can get your mind turned onto money very easily. Really though, it comes down to us being the same guys we were when we started this band. We’re excited about what we do. Obviously we want to do it well and part of doing it well is making wise business decisions — but we also need to make wise spiritual decisions.’

Making mistakes

Ten years ago, the band launched their second album, Conspiracy No. 5, aiming specifically at the secular audience, with more ‘palatable’ songs for such listeners. It failed to sell significant numbers and in time the band refocused their attentions to singing Christian songs once more. I wondered how tough the temptation is to detour from the core Christian message?

‘We feel compelled to give songs to the church — to sing in worship. But we also feel like there are times where it’s important for us to give songs to the world — that talk about our faith. It can be hard when we are praised for being “straight up” with our message.’

Do they acknowledge they haven’t got it right all the time then?

‘All of us are going to make mistakes ...whether publicised or not… having areas in our lives where we fall short. As a band there’s times when we’ll look back on things and say maybe we were off there and need to sort it out. Being a Christian isn’t about getting it right though — just admitting when you get it wrong. Coming to that place of brokenness is what the psalmist tells us. We feel like we have been given a gift in music. We feel like we’ve been given a gift with this band; with our relationship with each other; and with the church; we want to use that ultimately — however manifested — to glorify God.’

Evangelism now

I had learned that they were a pretty tight knit unit with a definite desire to please the Lord but what is their current burning passion for the Lord? Third world debt? Evangelism? Discipleship? Unity in the church?

‘We feel there has been a little bit of a divide where you have certain churches making a priority of social justice but maybe they don’t emphasise evangelism or kind of water down the gospel a little bit. Then you have churches which are very strong for evangelism but miss how that’s tied up in caring for the poor and standing for justice.

‘We’re really getting excited about a time that we feel is now, when those things are not going to be a choice. It’s not going to be an “either/or”, but a “both/and”, where we accept that calling of James 1.27 of true religion being this — to care for the widows and the orphans in their distress and live a life that’s free from sin or live a life that’s blameless.

‘We believe, for this generation, evangelism and people being attracted to Christ is going to be all wrapped around how we care for those that are suffering in the world…how we demonstrate the hands and feet of Christ. We’ve experienced that in Africa with HIV and poverty. We need to keep our eyes open to things all over the world that aren’t just calling for Bono or other celebrities to respond to but are calling for the body of Christ to respond.’

Class act

Who, then, do they most admire? Is it Bono and Geldoff or Palau and Graham?

‘We have many “heroes”. You mention Bono...he’s been very inspiring in just the way he’s carried himself and the way he’s used his platform. But there are people within our industry that have mentored us, like Michael W. Smith, the Newsboys and Steven Curtis Chapman …people we’ve been able to talk to and bounce ideas off of and…all involved in great work.’

A gentle, yet forthright, tap came on my shoulder. It was their tour managers not only reminding me that my time was up, but also that these guys are a class act that rightly has the team around to match their quality.

Time to move on, but I feel it is no accident that Third Day is one of the biggest bands in the industry, for it is a well-grounded, spiritual group, with feet firmly on the ground. I pray that they continue in this fashion, protected from pride, while continuing to bless and be blessed.

Jonathan Carswell is Youth Pastor at Hamilton Road Baptist Church, Bangor, Northern Ireland.

An interview with the band Third Day