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annual Shofar Music Festival were composed of the latter type. He was calling us to arms. At the end of his teaching, he prayed
They’re pretty rare – the ones who set aside thoughts of fame for those in the audience who had raised their hands to join the
and notoriety and instead stretch their vocals and gain calluses cause and to know the One who was worth everything. He had
on their hands for a cause that’s beyond them. reminded us of the reason we were all there – the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords had willingly set aside all of Himself to
Sheep- serve and walk among us 2,000 years ago. The fact that He died
The first band, Sheep, opened the Festival with a wide array of in our place and rose again is no mere sentiment but the very
hardcore songs that included their own compositions as well as pulse for the reason we can now be alive. How could your
covers by familiar American Christian bands. From my vantage
point on the side of the movie theater-style seating, these guys Frontline
were clearly rocking, and the audience was evidently enjoying
it; but something was different. When I asked them afterwards
about it, they said that whenever they play and whoever
they’re with, they want to get the message across to their
audience to “Try God.” So we hadn’t just been listening to
some good, live music, we had been worshipping God together.

Jericho March-
Jericho March, which began from a cell group of guys who
played on the worship team at their local church, stormed the
stage next. Their steely sound and driving bass beat made it
impossible to sit still, and a group of dancers quickly formed in
queue at the front. Later on after their set was over, they told
me that the opportunity they have to play together, worship
Jesus and use their music to minister to different audiences has
been an extremely humbling, awesome experience. It isn’t their
desire to just impress people and sound good. Their goal is to
leave their audience knowing they can believe God at His word.
And I think they did it that day. There wasn’t a soul in that
room who couldn’t at least acknowledge that these guys had Sheep
passion for something (someone) beyond themselves. Check
out the YouTube video for their song, Thinking How Much to
get a taste of what they brought us on that stage.

Frontline-
The closing band, Frontline, fueled the impact of the message.
They sang hard, lifted up His name, and just about everybody
stood up and worshipped. The energy of the room jumped at
the strum of the first chord. They strive to leave their audience
with the knowledge that you don’t have to be religious to know
God. “Jesus is not boring,” stressed guitarist, Nathan Gajudo,
when he described their band’s motive afterwards. It was clear
that these guys have both a passion for rock music and a clear Lordwin
call to raise up a new generation for God.

Lordwin, Guest Speaker-
Lordwin of Lifebox Ministries was the guest speaker for the
festival. Wearing a green polo shirt and a pair of jeans, he easily
blended in with the audience that was made up of teens and 20
-somethings. He spoke directly to the young generation before
him by calling them to stand their ground in a world choking on
selfishness. Everyone in the audience was silent at this point,
listening raptly, maybe feeling guilty?

The eternal longings we have inside can only be satisfied by
eternity. It’s not temporal things. It’s not money. It’s not sex. It’s
not drugs. Or any form of created thing. It’s only the Creator of
all things…Young people, we need to stand up now. It’s not
going to be tomorrow, it’s going to be now. As a follower of
Christ, we’ve got to say, ‘What He (Jesus) said is true. What He
12 (Jesus) said is right.’