JTTurner.Net

After church two Sundays ago, myself and the rest of the “band” members received a really positive response. This is great for two reasons…1. This style of music has not been attempted in a praise and worship portion of church (at least, not to my knowledge) and 2. we really had to write music in a very quick period of time. To be honest, I wasn’t as much concerned with the outcome of number (2) because Nate, Roger, and I have all written lots of music before…and all with each other, so it wasn’t that hard to pull riffs together and get back in the flow of song structuring and so forth. However, number (1) was something I was a bit nervous about, and really still am nervous about. Though the vast majority of what I heard in response was good I did hear of two complaints through a 3rd party and that is kinda what I have focused on the last couple of days. That’s a bummer. I don’t know why I’m focusing on that, but I am. The irony of this is that I actually figured the reaction would be far in favor of the negative than the positive and I was still all about giving it a shot. Now, none of this is to say that we in the “band” are going to switch styles or go against our philosophy of music, but that is to say that I need continual prayer for the courage of my convictions. And my particular conviction regarding praise and worship music is that it be talented, energetic, relevant to the times, and above all…scripturally sound and worshipful. So far, I really believe we’ve accomplished all of the above and I think that as we put together more new material (of which we have a few more) that we will continue in this fashion.

It is also odd for me to think of this music as something that I take creative pride in, but I know now that I do. I’m not sure how to feel about that…what sense of pride should I have in this? To what degree must I take a criticism personally…even a small one? A big one? It was different, at least in my estimation, when I was doing this professionally for a label and trying to sell records and please critics… I understood that there was an underlying competitiveness in the music industry, but what competitiveness is there now? It seems that there should be none. So, why does it count against my confidence to hear of people who didn’t like the music at conVerge the other weekend? I don’t know if I have the answer to that…I am still sorting out if there is a deeper issue to be searched for. At the very least it keeps me humble.

I really want the music at conVerge to strike a chord with the Christians of today and to be relevant to non-believers. Of course they will not understand the Who we are speaking about or a lot of the “whats,” but I don’t think a non-believer should walk in and be confused by the sound of the music. Heck, I’m a believer and I’m confused by the sound of other churches music! I believe there is a need, a huge need, for change in the music of the church and I and the rest of the guys, are trying to set the course. I don’t say that in a prideful or boasting tone, I simply say that as a matter of conviction…

Music is meant to be worshipful and for praise in the church….our goal is to do exactly that. If you haven’t been to a conVerge worship experience I encourage you to come out and worship with us. Maybe there is more than two ways (traditional and “contemporary”) to worship God through music, and maybe you’ll really like it. I know I do, but I might be biased…

Sunday, February 10th, 7pm

-JT