inside the heart and mind of todd agnew [an interview]

From the very first time that I heard Grace Like Rain, Todd Agnew has been one of my favorite artists. His music is just so real and raw. So when I had the chance recently to interview him as his new album (Need) is about to hit stores, I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning!

If you listen to Todd’s music, then you probably already know that he’s got a heart for authentic Christianity. His music reflects a man who wants the Real Deal in his life, regardless of what might be popular. Therefore, I didn’t want to just ask him about the songs that he sings, or the tour that he is on, I wanted to find out more about what makes this dude tick.

BibleDude: We all know that you must do lots of traveling and shows. How do you get out of ‘performance’ mode before you play? And if you find yourself in that spot, then what do you do to refocus yourself?

Todd Agnew: I’ve found that I have to stay in contact with God or everything becomes stale. Teaching truth doesn’t work well when you’re not walking with the One who is Trust. One thing we’re doing on the Promise Remains tour right now is we have devotions before the show every night. Each night we dig into one of God’s promises. That way we have encountered Him and His promise in a new, fresh way before we walk on stage. It may not play in our specific set, but it definitely affects our hearts and the place we minister from.

BibleDude: How have you reconciled the need to be an artist with the need to meet marketplace expectations, and what advice would you have for other artists (or anyone else for that matter) who struggle to find this type of balance?

Todd Agnew: Give up. No, just kidding. That balance, if there is one, is probably the most difficult thing in the CCM industry. Years ago, I heard Reed Arvin say, “Any time you put Christ and business in the same term, you’re going to have tension.” And that’s true. Christ gives freely and business makes money. They don’t mix well. For me, I can only walk the path God has for me. I have to trust that He will provide for my family. This record found us in much more of a wrestling match with these ideas than we ever had been before. Everyone had ideas of what would make it “succeed”. But at the end of the day, I can only write the songs God gives me and record them in a way that I hope people hear them.

BibleDude: You’ve said before that while writing some of the music for this album that you sometimes don’t understand all of this stuff, and wish that God would just make it obvious about what He wants you to do. What can you tell me about your personal journey through the process of writing this album? What has God shown you?

Todd Agnew: Well, I got married and became a father. Those are two huge life changes. And we moved across the country. And we had the business tension with the record, from your previous question. So, we had some pretty huge things in our lives. I definitely have been in a place of saying, “God, I want to do what You want, if You would only make it clear what that is.” I have been learning to lean on Jesus. I think at my best I have used Jesus as crutches. I don’t mean as a crutch like people have said before. I mean, the way you walk on crutches. Lean on them, lean on me, lean on them, lean on me. And while that gets you somewhere, it leaves you chafed. Sorry about that picture. But God has been teaching me more and more about depending on Him completely. For being a husband. For being a parent. For being a homeowner. For being a minister. For being a musician. For everything. Only then will you find His path for you. Only when He is all you have will you truly known He is all you need. Or like C.S. Lewis said, “He who has God plus many things has no more than He who has God alone.”

BibleDude: What are your NEEDS? Where do you realize your own frailty as a human and an artist? Where do you reach out to God the most when you realize your own limitations?

Todd Agnew: I think it’s in parenting and husbanding. Is husbanding even a word? Anyway, in those two love relationships, I definitely see myself falling short the most. And I think they are the two most important parts of God’s plan for me. I am learning to lean on Him for every decision, every response. I’m not there yet. But I’m learning.

BibleDude: What’s next for Todd Agnew?

Todd Agnew: Well, we’re out on the Promise Remains tour for the whole fall, with Building 429 and Kimber Rising. It’s off to a great start and should be a great tour. Then we’re off for Thanksgiving and turn around and hit the Christmas tour for a few weeks. I think Rush of Fools and Meredith Andrews are coming with us. I don’t know if that’s official, but that’s what I’m hoping for at least. Then it’s time to regroup and stay home with the family for a while. This will be the first real touring season we’ve been through as a family so I plan to reinvest once it’s over.

BibleDude: Rock on dude! Thanks for taking the time to share your heart with us! We just pray that God continues to work through you in amazing ways. We also pray a blessing over your new family… may it be a shining example to other families, and may God reveal more of Himself to you through your role as a husband and a father! Amen!

Need is available in stores now!

interview: kristeen hudson, founder of missionmatchup.com

A very wise man once told me to, ‘make your vacation your vocation.’ In other words, you should be doing something with your life that you are passionate about. I think that this is some of the best advice that I have ever gotten! So I love to see when people pursue things that they are passionate about.

Recently I made a new friend on Twitter named Kristeen Hudson. Kristeen is a senior at Purdue University studying Computer Graphic Technology. She’s also the founder of MissionMachUp.com. I recently had the chance to chat with Kristeen about how she has been able to combine her passions for technology and for helping people through MissionMatchUp.

BibleDude: What exactly is ‘missionmatchup.com’? 

Kristeen: MissionMatchUp.com is a fundraising and resource website for people interested in mission trips.

Individuals can create a customizable fundraising webpage that can be easily emailed out to friends and family in replacement of the traditional ‘snail-mail’ letters. Users can also upload images and write blog posts about their mission trip which helps make the financial supporters feel more involved. They can see the impact of their donations as fast as the individual shares with them!

Sponsoring organizations (such as churches or other organizations that host mission trips) can also benefit from our site. These organizations can list their trip in order to recruit more participants, monitor the groups fundraising process, and even use the trip page as an online advertisement for their organization or community. Trips are put into a searchable database for all MissionMatchUp users to view or even join. 

BibleDude: Where did you get the idea to do something like this?

Kristeen:I went on a mission trip to Jamaica a little over 2 years ago and had to do fundraising by mailing out support letters. This process was time consuming, expensive, and not fun! I decided there had to be a better way, and after searching unsuccessfully online for an automated process that fit my needs, I decided to make the solution myself. With the idea in hand, an awesome business partner, and a very supportive professor MissionMatchUp was born! 

BibleDude: What do you hope to accomplish with the website?

Kristeen: There are currently 1.6 million Christian Americans that go on mission trips each year and I’d venture to say a large portion of those individuals still go through that horrible traditional fundraising process.

Our goal is to provide an effective and easy to use solution that helps more people successfully participate in mission trips! 

BibleDude: How has it helped people so far in finding and/or preparing for mission trips?

Kristeen: I personally used the website to raise money for my most recent mission trip to Haiti. Just by sending out a few emails to friends and family and directing them to MissionMatchUp I was able to raise almost double the money that I needed to go on my mission trip! When using the traditional fundraising process (mailing out support letters to friends and family) for my previous mission trip I spent significantly more time and money doing the fundraising process, and still didn’t raise all the money I needed.

BibleDude: What would you tell people who have never been on a mission trip before about what it means to go on one?

Kristeen: A mission trip involves individuals going somewhere with a specific goal of benefiting others in mind. Normally, mission trips are directed towards people of a different culture and are sometimes referred to as service trips, service projects, or outreach works.

For me personally, all of the mission trips I have gone on have been an amazing experience! I’ve done things from building homes in Kentucky to helping children in Haitian orphanages and bringing medical supplies to people in Haiti. Each trip I have learned about a new culture and it has been a humbling experience. Not only do you get to help people that are much less fortunate then yourself, but it also puts things into perspective. You realize how fortunate you are to have the resources, opportunities, and at times even freedom that others may lack.

My advice for anyone thinking about going on a mission trip would be to go! There is nothing more rewarding personally and to human kind. 

BibleDude: So what’s next for Kristeen Hudson?

Kristeen: As far as the site goes, we are very excited to be adding a new member to the MissionMatchUp team! He is helping us upgrade the site as we begin to tackle site presentation and usability areas of improvement. We have a lot of great changes coming that will help make MissionMatchUp the leader in customizable online fundraising for mission trips. So check back on the site soon and there should be some significant improvements! J

 

For me personally, I’m a senior at Purdue University and I graduate very soon. I will be starting a full-time job in Indianapolis, but am very excited to continue developing MissionMatchUp for mission trip participants around the world.  

I’ll leave you with this quote from Jesus… “Go!”

interview: joy whitlock

In God and a Girl, Joy Whitlock pours out her heart to God in a very raw and real way. Her debut album from Ardent Records is an amazing conversation between her and her Creator. As I’ve listened to her music, I have often found myself wrapped up in those same conversations as if I was the one having them with God instead of her.

One reviewer (LightVox.com) states, “Every once in a while in the music industry comes along a great storyteller. Someone who can involve you in the story as if you were right there when it happens…the latest in that list of storytellers is Joy Whitlock.”

The heart of Joy’s music seems to come from her Christian experience. Growing up as the child of a minister, she rejected God for many years. It wasn’t until one night in a movie theater that watching The Passion of the Christ just pushed her over the edge. At that moment, her life suddenly took on a whole new direction.

Recently, I had the chance to chat with Joy about her faith and her music. Her responses are very real, just as I would have expected after listening to her music. Check out what Joy had to share…

BibleDude: In a nutshell, who is Joy Whitlock?

Joy: I am a young woman who loves God and her family madly.

BibleDude: How do you want to be defined as an artist?

Joy: I would much rather be defined as a person.  I don’t feel like my identity is solely an artist.  I am much more than that.  I am a daughter…a sister…an aunt…a best friend…a servant…a sinner…a saint, and so on.

BibleDude: You’ve struggled quite a bit with God in the past. What is it that drives you to worship Him in such a bold way now?

Joy: Once you know who God is…that He exists…and that everything He says about Himself in the Bible is exactly true…you can do nothing else.  We are compelled, I believe, to worship Him.  It’s almost as if we are uncontrollably drawn to Him.  His spirit within us compels us….to live in worship.

BibleDude: Your album is titled God and a Girl. Where did that name come from?

Joy: Well, it actually just popped in my head one day.  The majority of the songs on the album are conversation pieces.  It just seemed right to call it God and a Girl, because that’s what my life has become.

BibleDude: What else do you hope that this album accomplishes?

Joy: I don’t think we truly have an accurate idea of how many people are actually out there struggling.  Even Christians…the ones whom we think have it all together.  People are hurting.  I’ve seen it at my shows in the past.  People will come up to me and tell about their pain.  Why?  They don’t know me.  They just saw me sing a couple of minutes ago.  Why show a stranger your wounds?  Because I showed them mine. People need to know that they are not alone.  That is the worst feeling!  To feel like you are completely alone…that no one understands or can identify.  Alone is horrible.  All I have to offer people is, “Yes, I understand, and yes, there is a reason, and yes, there is an answer.  His name is Jesus.”  And that is what I hope the album accomplishes.

BibleDude: What advice would you have for people who want to worship God more boldly?

Joy: People who WANT to worship God more boldly…do.  It’s the people who are lethargic and complacent that need advice.  Which, if I am honest, is where I find myself sometimes.  The advice I would give to them, and myself, is that we need to wake up.  At the risk of sounding crazy, I believe time is short.  Time is very short and we are wasting it away.  We need to wake up.

BibleDude: What is God showing you these days?

Joy: Oh goodness….I don’t know if I am ready to divulge what God is showing me about myself just yet.  I am sure that it will appear on the next album, because that’s just how I write.  But because I want to at least give you some content here…God is showing me just how different He and I are.  I mean, we all know that God is so far above us, but there comes a time when it really hits home.  And it has hit me pretty hard.  He is so perfect…and patient…and HOLY…and beautiful…and pure…and right…and faithful.  And then there is me.

BibleDude: What’s next for Joy Whitlock?

Joy: Hopefully, a mini-tour in the month of July.  And maybe another album in the works.

BibleDude: Thank you Joy! And I just pray that God continues to touch your life and bless your music.

.

Related Post: music monday: joy whitlock, faith don’t fail

interview: anne jackson

Anne Jackson is a woman with great passion for serving the Lord. But what happens when the work that you love tears you apart from the inside out? What happens when your body crashes? How about an emotional crash resulting in deep depression? Your relationship with God? Faltering. Your relationships with others? Deteriorating. Anne Jackson knows, and she has lived to tell about it. And she shares her story and what she learned from it in Mad Church Disease. I had the opportunity to interview Anne about this book, and appreciate her sharing her heart here with us.

BibleDude: Why call the book ‘Mad Church Disease’? Seriously, what’s that all about?

Anne: I am a little bit addicted to the BBC channel. One day I was watching a documentary on Mad Cow Disease and somehow made the relation between Mad Cow Disease and the burnout that is happening in today’s church culture.

BibleDude: You’ve had some experiences in your life that makes you somewhat of an expert on this topic. But why did you think that this was such an important message for the church today?

Anne: After some reflection I realized that I probably wasn’t the only person in ministry with pain and confusion caused by burnout. If we as the Church only operate in our own strength, we’re just going to be spinning our wheels. We can’t offer hope and healing if we ourselves are broken and in the dark. We must bring it into the light and be honest about our struggles so God can show His love through us. God intends for us to have an abundant life. He intends for us to be complete and functioning only in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

BibleDude: What are some of the signs for spotting burnout early?

Anne: The biggest sign of burnout can be determined by a person’s communion with God. If a person is working in ministry, yet not experiencing their own consistent communion with God, that’s a huge red flag. Lack of sleep, significant weight loss or weight gain and a lack of joy are also good indicators of early burnout.

BibleDude: Do you think that churches are overextending themselves in some ways resulting in member/leader burnout? And do you think that there are ways that churches may be able to cooperate and/or share resources to help avoid avoid the risk of burnout?

Anne: Absolutely. The passion of a ministry leader accompanied with the competition that can happen between churches to be the biggest and best, will definitely contribute to the over-extension of members and leaders. Asking too much of volunteers, lay-leaders and staff will lead to burnout. It isn’t a matter of “if” but of “when.” Churches do need to do a better job of teaming together and sharing resources. It is definitely an idea to consider.

BibleDude: Do you find that those who suffer from burnout can never return to that level of intensity within their work, or do you find that they learn healthier self-care and more proper personal boundaries in their work?

Anne: Absolutely not. With proper personal boundaries and a healthy lifestyle, ministry leaders and volunteers are free to thrive, in wherever God has them.

BibleDude: What is one tip that you would like to leave people with?

Anne: The Church needs passionate people but passion without boundaries is dangerous.

BibleDude: What has God been showing you lately?

Anne: God has been showing me to listen more than talk.  To give more than take.  To be gracious with those who don’t show grace.  That He knows better than I do.  That it’s okay to ask why and even more than okay to not find an answer.  That love looks like different things to different people, and you can never do it too much.

BibleDude: What’s next for Anne Jackson?

Anne: What’s next? Ask me in 6 months and I’ll let you know!

 

If you haven’t checked out the book yet, then you can get it in the BibleDude Store. Mad Church Disease is a great read for anyone involved in church ministry, whether as a paid staffer, or a part-time volunteer. I’ve picked up quite a bit of practical advice from Anne that I have been able to immediately apply to my own work as a volunteer in ministry. Read, grow, live. Amen.

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