Seeing MercyMe live is far from a Christian concert; it’s an incredible
moment of worship. Soon into the night, the beauty of worshipping Our
Creator becomes the focus of the evening.
“We’ve always believed in our faith and the whole concept of worship,”
says MM’s lead vocalist Bart Millard to Apostles That Rock.
“It’s something that you can kind of describe it as when you just got
married or you have a new girlfriend or something like that, and you’re
so excited that you can’t really not tell people about her, you know?
As much as you may want to hide it or not talk about her, she seems to
just come up in conversation, even involuntarily; it’s just there, a
part of you. So what we do on stage as a band is the same thing.
People are like, ‘it seems so real when you talk.’ Well, it is real,
and it’s something that we’re very excited about.
We’ve done shows where we’ve tried to tone it back for mainstream events
and we’re just not capable, I mean it came out whether we wanted it to
or not because it truly is who we are.
You know, if you tap into, ‘hey, we may have an answer here to what people are
struggling and going through,’ well, it’s hard to keep that quiet, so the
easiest thing we can do is to be real and just share our hearts.
It may not be the most perfect thing or the most rehearsed part or well
thought-out portion of the night, it’s just our hearts.”
Many people don’t realize MercyMe spent eight years together touring, recording
and worshipping before a national record deal came their way. At times, they
were caught up with the thought of a record deal, but they always realized their
hearts should do the talking.
“You never take where you are for granted, and you never treat it like a
stepping stone as if there’s something bigger waiting around the corner, because
God wants you to take advantage of the moment that you have at hand and not do
it until something bigger happens. I just don’t think He’ll bless you with
something bigger with that attitude.
We’ve always had the mentality that there may be ten people out there and this
night may be the very moment that God has raised us up for that. Everything
before this moment has lined up and we’ve gone through the big and the small
crowds and it could be just for this moment, and so you take it with the
attitude that every night could be the defining moment of our lives and our
careers and our ministry instead of taking it for granted.
So sure, when we were an independent band, we thought this could be the biggest
we’d ever get because we thought every night was that important. Did we dream
and hope? You bet we did, but we didn’t let it consume us to where we starting
blowing off the ministry opportunities right in front of us hoping for something
bigger. Every night we had to convince ourselves that this it, this is what
it’s about; this is what He’s called us to do. If it ends tomorrow and we never
sing another note or anything else, tonight’s the night. And so sure, we hoped
for bigger times, but I think we always thought this could be it, God blessed us
more than we thought we ever deserved, and so this could run out really soon.”
MM’s determination to speak
from their hearts was birthed from their obedience to Christ. It was very
simple in the beginning. They were releasing records on their own, selling them
at local shows, online, and through PO boxes, and mailing the CD’s from their
garage one at a time.
In the beginning they were seeking a record deal, but as they released their
records, one after another after another, they were content in Christ touring
the country playing to a few hundred people in a nearly three-hour worship
session. Soon into it, their expectations never depended on the success of a
national record deal; they were worshipping from town to town, one by one, and
that’s what they were seeking.
Maybe their content lies in a childhood experience that brought Bart to the
realization of his talent.
“My dad was an All-American football player in college, my brother was a
football player, and with my build I had no choice but to play football.
During my sophomore year in high school they moved me to tight end for a game
and they threw me a pass too high and I got sandwiched between two linebackers
and broke both my ankles at the same time. I had ankle problems in the past and
the doctor said I was done playing football.
School already started so the only class that was available for me to get into
and get out of sports was choir. So, reluctantly I got into choir, didn’t want
to sing, and didn’t want to participate.
The teacher was just as reluctant to have me because she just hated having
football players in her class because they didn’t want to do anything, as much
as I hated going in there. So we made a deal that I wouldn’t cause any problems
and I think she was going to just let me glide through at first because she
assumed that I didn’t have a voice or anything.
When everybody comes into the class they have to go to her room and sing so she
can see where to put you in what section. I sang for her and she flipped out
and all of a sudden I became her project. She’s one of my best friends still,
like my favorite teacher that I ever had. I think on every album at some point
I’ve thanked her. She’s a big part of why all this is happening.”
“I was the guy whose voice didn’t drop when he hit puberty so I was still
singing with the girls, you know, a football-sized player guy having a high
voice just wasn’t the coolest thing on the planet and so that was a struggle.
But the more I got involved and the more my teacher made me realize that I had a
talent, I just started focusing in and really working on it and excelling as
much as possible because I definitely have a competitive nature regardless of
what I’m doing, and I just wanted to be the best I could whatever I did.
Now when I was 5 years old I used to stand in front of my mirror and played a
tennis racquet and dreamed of doing this one day, that was my dream, but I think
that was every kid’s dream is to make a living singing and to be a rock star or
whatever you call it, but you get to those adolescent teenage years when you
start realizing, man, good luck, it’s not gonna happen. Somehow your dreams
fade and you’re thinking what college am I going to go to? How am I going to
get a real job and support a real family? For whatever reason, you know, the
doors just kept opening, I really didn’t make any effort to make this happen
it’s just these opportunities kept coming up and I was more surprised by it than
anybody else. The opportunities just kept snowballing into something bigger.”
“I think that every Christian band, every ministry, has a specific purpose for
why they exist. We could say it’s vague and just to glorify God, which is
totally true. But I think, just like the body has different parts to do
different functions, I think there’s the ministries, especially bands, are the
same way.
I think that Casting Crowns, their calling is of the prophetic, and they call
out the church, and there’s a conviction. And I think I struggled for awhile
but our role in this whole thing is to bring aid to the hurting, to help those
that are in need who hurt with I Can Only Imagine and Homesick and
Word of God Speak. That’s our role, and we embrace it whole-heartedly.
And Hold Fast was the
moment I realized that because a friend of mine had put it that way. I never
looked at it as specific duty like different soldiers in the army have different
roles, but he was talking about this whole Christian music thing shouldn’t be as
much of a competition because bands like Third Day and Casting Crowns and us
have specific purposes in their ministry. And he said, ‘I think your purpose is
people who are in need and in pain, they come to you guys, and they look to get
through these hard times.’ That’s where the first few verses came out of:
To
everyone who’s hurting
To those
who’ve had enough
To all
the undeserving
That
should cover all of us.
And it was just this kind of
this message in a bottle just throwing it out there saying, you know what? I
kind of acknowledge this is our part and this is what we’re here for and for
everybody who’s sent me an email saying how Imagine brought them through
something and for everybody that’s written a letter there could be thousands
that were never able to tell their story to anybody, they feel like they’re
completely alone and so this song was out for the masses. Hopefully it will
apply to people and say, hey look, if you know Christ, you know that there’s
nothing too big for Him and you’ve read that last page of the book and you can
make it through this. And so just hang on and hold fast. And so in a way, it’s
kind of like an anthem for who we are as a ministry and our role in this whole
thing.”
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MercyMe
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