Wonders never cease – dc Talk is touring in the U.S. again!

Though there’s no whispers of a new album, Michael Tait announced last week that dc Talk will be touring on land together for the first time in sixteen(?) years, starting in 2020. The dates and locations have yet to be announced.

The sequence of events when I read this:

1. Yell.

2. Pinch myself.

3. Yell again.

4. Check if it’s April 1.

6. Gab on Facebook about how we’re totally road-tripping for this.

7. “Holy cow, those guys look OLD”

8. Re-download Jesus Freak and Supernatural (the latter was sorely underrated, come at me).

9. Head-bang.

10. Advil.

11. There’s no 5 in this list.

12. You went back to look and are now chuckling at yourself.

13. Consider just how much we Christians might need “Jesus Freak” again.

I’ve briefly opined on the angsty/alternative phase Christian music underwent in the 90s. I wouldn’t call it insincere, but I don’t feel it did enough to prepare young people for suffering. The unexpected nature of suffering – jagged, unfair, isolating, relentless – got under-attended by Christian music in favor of riling people up to stand out against the world. And it’s something that keeps showing up in the autopsies when people walk away (though it’s unfair to lay the entire blame at music’s feet).

But it occurred to me – twenty years later, maybe what Christians need most is a call to stand out.

I’m not just talking about our witness, though that’s a weekly burr in pastors’ shoes. We fall into selfishness, gossip, anger, and tribalism as quickly as the next religion. It was Brennan Manning’s quote along these lines that we remember from the Jesus Freak album (Track 4):

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

I also mean our lost boldness.

We’re so hesitant to share our faith these days. I’m so hesitant. We make so many excuses, design so many shortcuts, apply so many disguises to the issue of sin and repentance. We’re too busy apologizing to the world for a message they’ve deemed unacceptable. In what universe does that make any sense?

The Man with the Tat on his Big Fat Belly would stand on his box in the middle of any American city. But we wouldn’t.

Whether the church earned its fall isn’t the point. Christians have been screwing up since Paul’s days; it didn’t change what he wrote.

The deepest question is, might our security be in the wrong place? Are we drawing our sense of approval from unsaved humans rather than God? If we were utterly free of the world’s opinion, if we were fully convinced of Matthew 10:28’s distribution of our priorities, what would we be teaching?

Well, we probably wouldn’t really care if they labeled us Jesus Freaks, ‘cuz there ain’t no denying the truth.

dc Talk injected a welcome dose of this freedom into our spiritual bloodstream. We’ve lost something since. I pray that God gives Kevin, Toby, and Michael a powerful message for their tour.

And I pray for extra gas money, because people, I’m going. Imagine how many dad-bods will be in that mosh pit now…

 

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