The Story Tour

A few weeks ago I took the kids on a Thursday night to see The Story Tour. Roger was teaching that night and couldn't join us. This tour was originated by Max Lucado and Randy Frazee based on some books they had written. All of the songs have original lyrics by Nichole Nordeman and music by Bernie Herms, husband of Natalie Grant. For most of the songs, it's like each character from the Bible is singing in first person. Adam and Eve are singing to God about how sorry they are, and Ruth is singing to Naomi about sticking beside her. If you want to read more about the making of this tour, and hear excerpts from some of the songs, here is the website link: http://www.thestorycd.com/.

The concert itself was fun. Our home town was the first stop for this tour--I thought that was really neat! The artists who were part of the tour were: Steven Curtis Chapman, Francesca Battistelli, Natalie Grant, Newsboys, Anthem Lights, Selah, and Bernie Herms was there directing the band and playing piano. Max Lucado and Randy Frazee were also there to speak some. Keep reading--there are pics at the end of this post.

The night began with each artist singing a Christmas song. That was nice, but took about 45 minutes. Now, not to sound unappreciative, but considering the concert started at 7:00, by the time this part was over, it was 7:45 and the concert of The Story part has not even begun. I am a mom of a 10 and 7 year old on a Thursday night thinking, "Oh boy, this is going to be a long night." Thank goodness we homeschool and my children are used to different hours, so they could handle the late night and not be falling asleep half way through the concert because it's past their bed time and we didn't have to be too concerned about school the next day. There weren't too many kids at the concert, probably because of this very reason.

When the Christmas songs were done, then what we came to see began. As each artist came on stage to sing their song, behind them was a humongous screen on which a video clip made for the song ran. Most of the time I was so busy watching the video, that I never really watched the artist. And, here we were at a concert featuring so many of our favorite Christian artists we hear on the radio all of the time, and I'm busy watching the video. LOL

I hadn't heard the songs yet, so I didn't know what to expect. Hmmm, dishing out a bunch of money to take me and my kids to a concert where I really didn't know any of the songs was a gamble, but it paid off! I loved the songs so much that I bought the CD when the concert was over. I asked the lady selling things about the video they were selling and it had all of the clips we saw on the screen. There were some clips I liked more than others, so I decided not to spend the money on the video, but now I wish I would have. Two things that stick out for me from the clips were from the song Broken Praise from Job, and the song Alive (Mary Magdelene) finding Jesus' tomb empty. In the Job clip, here you see this man barely clothed sitting out in the desert mourning everything he has lost. He is putting dirt in his hair, yet he is standing and raising his hands to God to praise him. Saying that if it was the last thing he would do, he would praise God. It was so moving to me. What I remember from the tomb song was when Mary came back to the group of disciples mourning Jesus' death and jumping up and down for joy telling them that the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive. She was literally jumping up and down with giddiness. I've seen this clip in other movies and it's always so solemn. In this clip, there was pure elation, that is what I would like to think happened in real life--who wouldn't be ecstatic to know that Jesus was alive again?

There were times I felt like I was in a concert with a lot of fuddy duddies. That's not fair, I know. People worship in their own ways, but the majority of the crowd just sat in their chairs. It was an older generational audience and maybe they didn't like the rock style in so many of the songs? I'm speculating, but there wasn't much clapping going on, or head bobbing. There were times my children and I were up out of our seats clapping. After the Alive (Mary Magdelene) song sung by Natalie Grant, my son and I were up on our feet clapping and cheering with only a few others in the church doing the same and Evan kept saying, "People should be standing for this!" This song, video clip, plus Natalie's voice were powerful and moved us; I guess Evan was kind of wondering why it didn't move more people out of their chairs--I was proud of my son!

The very last song about Jesus coming again was so powerful to me that I couldn't sit in my chair. I was up on my feet praising, again, with only a few other people throughout the church. Then, about half way through the song, all of the artists came onto stage to finish the song together, and then all of the audience stood up--it seemed like a courtesy to me; they were standing only because the artists were, not because they felt moved to. Again, just my observations that may not even be true. The concert was not over until 10:30; an hour and a half passed my kids' bedtime. and Lauren by this time was curling up in her chair tired. But, overall, the kids and I enjoyed it. We enjoyed all of the artists, but I loved hearing Selah sing, Evan enjoyed The Newsboys, and Lauren enjoyed Francesca Battistelli. I am so happy that I was able to let my kids experience people from the Bible in an entirely different way than any of us had seen or heard. Now, to just purchase a copy of the video and then we can experience this concert and teaching all over again as many times as we want to!

Anthem Lights

Francesca Battistelli

Newsboys

Selah

Steven Curtis Chapman

Natalie Grant

Randy Frazee

Max Lucado