Anti-Self Proclamation

I was one of 2,000 people that welcomed Chris Tomlin at his 1st ever concert north of the border last night.
I don't do Easterfest, Sonfest or any of those things but as my husband and many other church friends love his songs and the way he goes about his passion for music (more on that later) we made sure we were free on this Australia Day 2011 to see Chris in person for ourselves.

Now, the extent of what I knew about Chris is pretty limited and may not be anything worthy of mention (Chris would agree with this statement, again more on that later)- an American Christian songwriter that is often seen with his frequent collaborator Ps Louie Giglio, who tours with him explaining the Christian message to those that are Christian and those that are not.

Now this was the 1st ever Christian artist concert I have ever attended. With the location at what I would call a pentacostal church I had expected there to be a mosh pit of some sort and many people filled with emotion with their hands raised. I wasn't disappointed as my expectations came true somewhat (well, minus the mosh pit).

What I was disappointed with though (and this is my personal view) was the distinct difference between the two Christian bands that were playing that night.

The first band to grace the stage was the Parachute Band from NZ. Again I don't know much about them. I got the feeling that they were the 'support act' for Chris and his band, and my viewpoint of a support act is that they should usually complement what is to come from the main artist. (I say 'usually' as I'm sure this is not always the case with many artists- take U2 for example who had Jay-Z (an R & B artist) as their support act last year.)

Anyway, after listening to both Parachute Band and then Chris, these are the things I picked up on:

Parachute Band seemed very hyped up and had the characteristics of a modern Christian band with an aim to tap into the younger generation through songs that had a modern feel to it . They used language and phrases that sounded nice and used some Christian-sounding words, but didn't have as great an impact or challenge for us to see our true selves as sinful, condemned people.

Both bands did utilise passages of Scripture throughout their sets which was pleasing to see. Without Scripture, what difference would that make to any other music artist/band?

Chris was extremely humble, which is not normally seen in any music artist. And I mean.............. truly humble.

I'm not saying that he was the 'thanks but I am just doing things that I love and feel really honoured that people will listen to my music because it comes from my heart etc etc etc' type of humbleness.

The humbleness that Chris possessed was simply ' Hi, my name is Chris. I'm so happy to be here with you all tonight, singing praises to our awesome God. All of us here on this stage are just here to assist you in encountering God if you do not know Him, and to know Him better if you do. You might be here because you saw a name shining out in neon lights. I do hope that the main reason you are here tonight is because the name you see in neon lights is no other name except the name of Jesus Christ, because there is no-one else who is worthy to be praised, honoured and glorified than Him'.

That was it- no fanfare, no statements of proclaiming one-self as being gifted or special than any other person in the room. He just saw himself as a musician that through God's grace and wisdom is able to write songs that are focused purely on everything that God is- His character, His love, His mercy, His grace, His mighty deeds, His sovereignty, His justice.

We didn't leave the concert with the thought of 'How great was Chris', but most importantly 'How great is our God'.