by David Dodd

       It was the simple start of the Holy Spirit moving in him, but once Stellar Kart vocalist Adam Agee began leading worship for the college ministry at his home church in Phoenix, he immediately felt his calling.

      Long before the formation of the power punk Christian band, Adam spent time absorbing the presence of God during worship.  Armed with an acoustic guitar and a heart dedicated to obedience, Adam’s peace was embedded in the devotion of leading worship for the college crowd anxiously awaiting to praise their Savior. 

      “It was a great time,” he tells Apostles That Rock.   “It felt right from the very beginning.”

       Soon afterward, Adam and Jordan Messer led worship for the church youth group.

      “We started out with 6 kids,” Adam recalls with a laugh, “but we really got into leading worship.  Then we started writing our own music and kept those roots with the youth group which really started to grow.  We saw a lot of people change their lives in the youth group and saw how infectious that was whenever some of the youth kids got on fire.”

       That’s when Jordan and Adam realized the power of music as a method to worship God.  

  “A youth pastor can have all the best intentions in the world and be the best youth pastor in the world, but if the kids aren’t excited about it and if they don’t get out there and make it happen, then nothing’s going to happen.”

      Soon after, Stellar Kart was assembled – under the name Sonburn - and began playing other churches in Phoenix, then the entire state, then the west coast states, and was soon signed to a national record deal.

       “We just want to reach those kids because they’re around a ton of people at that point in their life and they can be a huge example to non-believers.”

       The band was adamant on using music to evangelize God’s love.

       Many of the songs on their latest record reflect personal experiences from both the band and their fans as well as showcasing the group who individually and collectively have grown drastically in the areas of servitude and opened hearts.  

       “We’ve become stronger Christians and we’re getting more into The Word,” Adam says of their growth between the two records, “and also just being influenced by other people and other bands.  Subject-wise we’re dealing with real issues that we’ve personally dealt with or that kids have emailed us about or talked to us about at shows.  I also think it’s just God’s blessing on the songs and the songwriting as well.  He has a purpose for us right now, and we’re trying to do everything we can to make that happen.”  

       “That song was inspired by a couple friends of mine.  I was friends with both the dad and the son.  The dad really wanted the son to be a basketball player because he was really into basketball, so his son was in basketball camps and every day, 24-hours a day, it was basketball, basketball, basketball.  The dad just kept pushing, pushing and pushing until the relationship just broke when the son turned 18 because he didn’t know how to tell his dad no, he didn’t know how to say this isn’t what he wanted to do because his dad just kept pushing him.  So finally he just snapped and they just cut off the relationship.

       I know the how dad was feeling and I know he only wanted the best for his son but somehow along the way, he lost track of what his son was telling him.”

       You know, a great thing about that song Adam, is you can take it in many different ways.  You can take it as a father talking to his child and the child really doesn’t have Christ in their life, that’s how I took it before I knew the story behind the song.  I think there’s a lot of ways you can interpret that song.

       “Totally.  And it’s amazing that through that song and through our band somehow, their relationship has improved.   It’s not back to 100%, but at least they’re talking and it’s pretty amazing that it can be that effective.”