And He set me on fire, and I am burning alive. 

- You Are My Joy

     by David Dodd

      You can’t help but smile when David Crowder enters the room.  Maybe it’s his vibrant zest for life, or his energetic passion for the Lord.  That same sensation is conveyed on stage when his Texas twang collides with a six string guitar, and an ample amount of amplification.

     “The King James Version declares us to Make a joyful  noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and  rejoice, and sing praise,” Crowder spiritually states as he flashes that mischievous grin, adding that other biblical translations omit the word loud from Psalm 98:4.  Crowder doesn’t.

     Fueled by his unquenchable thirst for the truth, the band is soaring with success for Our Savior. “It’s just been a really gorgeous thing that God seems to be breathing through us right now,” Crowder states exclusively to Apostles That Rock    with a grateful nod.

     The Waco, Texas native’s musical ministry was birthed, in part, out of frustration while attending a Christian college.  “There was a survey released that said more than half of the students didn’t attend church.”   So Crowder brought the church to them, in the form of a joyful noise.  “We just want to be faithful with what He’s given us and carry this as delicately as we can because when you’re in the space that God’s carved out for you, it’s a very good affirming thing.”

     Crowder believes part of the job description to model worship is to give people a picture of what it can look like - or be - as the music is used to connect with God.  “What we hope people see is that we’re not presenting ourselves, we’re actually lost in something where there’s an immediate connectivity there.  Then the audience doesn’t connect to us because we’re connecting to something greater than us, and so will they.”

     The band’s infectious beat filled with Scripture-based lyrical hooks offer a worship event driven by the Word of Our Lord. “People attend secular concerts and feel they’ve had a spiritual experience,” he explains.  “I think there’s actually some basis there because you have this thing that’s created by the Maker of everything.  Yet when you have that same thing find its ultimate purpose in glorifying God and you intentionally use it to do so, there’s something that transcends that, there’s something that’s bigger than that.”

     And all the glory, praise, and yes, amplified joy, goes straight to God. “That’s why we’ve put all of our marbles in this thing.  We just feel to use something to its end what it was meant and intended to be used for is just the ultimate gift.” 

     There goes that Crowder grin again: “that’s why we love what we’re doing.”

But a certain sign of grace is this:

- Wholly Yours

   David Crowder’s lyrics not only indicate the majesty of God’s unmerited gift, his words radiate the reflection of Our Savior’s loving gift of grace.

     “The moment you start breathing air here in American culture you’re taught to pull yourself up from your bootstraps.  Individualism and self-reliance is what our culture insists upon.  When you encounter something that says, you’re not good enough, that’s just a hard thing to get our heads around.  When you finally do, and you realize that it doesn’t matter - that grace covers in spite of that - it’s just offensive.  That’s why it’s so difficult to throw ourselves into that and to understand in light of that,  somebody would not care that we’re not good enough. 

     Most of our energy’s spent trying to posture greatness, and to have that not be necessary is something difficult to comprehend. 

     That’s the God that we encounter, our God who throws His arms around us despite ourselves.” 

And the truest sign of grace was this:

From wounded hands redemption fell down, liberating man.

- Wholly Yours