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DEREK WEBB: I feel like a lot of what I see coming out of the Church in terms of art, Christian music, Christian art, whatever it is, I feel like deals in, unfortunately, probably the most spiritual 2% of life and culture, the most spiritual 2% of stuff in life. Yet the Bible gives us a framework and a language to deal with all 100% of stuff that we find that we come up against in life. So it’s kind of no wonder when people look at the art that comes out of the Church and Christian music, on the whole, that they see Christianity as kind of this one-dimensional, kind of irrelevant worldview to modern life that only deals with transcendent moments of worship and the afterlife, and that’s kind of it. ‘Cause that’s kind of all that our art’s covering. However, the Bible does give us a tremendous framework with which to deal with all of life, all 100% of creation and culture. You know, everything from the Government to sexuality, to everything. There couldn’t be a more relevant text to modern life, but I think people are just convinced that it doesn’t because how it’s being represented to them by way of maybe the art that’s coming out of the Church, it just doesn’t seem to have very much to say. And yet if you ever want to have your mind blown, stop listening to your friends, stop looking at the subculture around you. If you really want to engage in a counter-cultural idea, go and read the words of Jesus, look at the things that he’s commanded us to do, look at the way that he lived, look at the way that he loved people. And go straight to the Bible to do it, and you will find something that is so much bigger and broader than this kind of subculture that we have kind of settled for oftentimes in America, and you will find something truly counter-cultural, something that really world and life kind of changing. And you’re really only going to find that when you go directly to those pages.

DEREK WEBB: When you start trying to write songs and playing music that is about some of the harder content in terms of kind of what Jesus commanded us to do in terms of loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, you know, it’s a hard word. And you’re not always going to find that that sells you a lot of records, you’re not always going to find that that makes you a lot of friends. So I really like Luke 6:26, where Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men think good of you.” That is to say, a wise man once told me that if you’re telling the truth to people and they love you for it, then you’re probably not telling the truth to people. That following Jesus is not a popularity contest. It’s not always about being efficient or successful, it’s about being faithful. And sometimes that looks like one thing and sometimes it looks like another. But I take a lot of comfort in the fact even Jesus said, listen, the point is not that all men would really love you and that you’d be super popular. I mean, if anything it’s going to be the opposite of that. The only thing he really promised us is that he would never leave us or forsake us, but that we would suffer. And we’re just not accustomed to suffering anymore in this country and in our churches. And when we have to do very much of it, like good consumers we go elsewhere, where we don’t have to suffer so much. I think that’s the wrong response. I think we need to stay and we need to suffer, and we need to share in the sufferings of Jesus and await for him to return. And he promises all these things.

DEREK WEBB: When you start trying to write songs and playing music that is about some of the harder content in terms of kind of what Jesus commanded us to do in terms of loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, you know, it’s a hard word. And you’re not always going to find that that sells you a lot of records, you’re not always going to find that that makes you a lot of friends. So I really like Luke 6:26, where Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men think good of you.” That is to say, a wise man once told me that if you’re telling the truth to people and they love you for it, then you’re probably not telling the truth to people. That following Jesus is not a popularity contest. It’s not always about being efficient or successful, it’s about being faithful. And sometimes that looks like one thing and sometimes it looks like another. But I take a lot of comfort in the fact even Jesus said, listen, the point is not that all men would really love you and that you’d be super popular. I mean, if anything it’s going to be the opposite of that. The only thing he really promised us is that he would never leave us or forsake us, but that we would suffer. And we’re just not accustomed to suffering anymore in this country and in our churches. And when we have to do very much of it, like good consumers we go elsewhere, where we don’t have to suffer so much. I think that’s the wrong response. I think we need to stay and we need to suffer, and we need to share in the sufferings of Jesus and await for him to return. And he promises all these things.