Kirk Franklin

• Sold more than 10 million albums in less than 10 years
• Three-time GRAMMY Award winner
• Seven-time Dove Award winner

TESTIMONY

When I first went to his (Tony Evans) church, it was 1998, and I had an album out called Stomp. I was traveling to Dublin, Ireland, doing songs with Bono, I was getting flowers from Arsenio Hall, I was getting letters from Mike Tyson, I was hanging out with Denzel and all these big time celebrities, and I was walking on a TV pilot for ABC.

You know it's all that garbage. None of that junk you can take to heaven, but I was bathing in it. And a lot of my Christian community was bathing in it with me.

We (Kirk and his wife) were in Los Angeles. We were in the bed that morning in the hotel, and we were lying there, and I said, "Baby, I need to tell you something. I'm struggling with pornography. I mean, it is a struggle and I have a problem with pornography. It's a problem." There's always the boy who has the big brother who has the magazine under his bed. That's how it starts. So the first time I ever saw one, I was around 8 or 9. I saw my first magazine, and from there I was addicted.

There are some Christian men I know who say, "I'd rather do that than cheat on my wife." I've had to shed light on, "Dude, we're cheating on our wives because whatever a man thinketh, so is he."

If I have been set free from this one, anybody can be set free because I questioned for years whether I could be set free. Dude, I was doing albums, albums that people were getting blessed by, and I was struggling with pornography. "Why We Sing" came out in '93, and I was struggling with pornography. Stomp came out in '97, and I was struggling with pornography. These albums God was speaking through and everyone was getting their victory except for me. I used to question and almost began to wonder, What's going on? What was happening, and this might help people: my victory didn't come by my emotional experience; my victory came through truth. When I was taught truth, that's when I got my freedom.

I wished somebody would have taught me a long time ago about the repercussions of sex and flesh and lust and vanity and pride and ego. I wished somebody would have been holding my little behind accountable years ago.

Excerpted from an interview with Kirk Franklin, as reported by Scott Ross on 1-Cubed.com

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Mercy Me

• Has sold nearly 4 million units
• Winner of six Dove Awards
• 2004- American Music Award for Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist

TESTIMONY

Our biggest goal as a band is to know God and to make Him known. That's our mission as people. Our mission as a band is to hopefully enter into God's presence and as we do that, we draw and bring other people that are in the audience with us.

Bart Millard:
I don't know if it's fortunately or unfortunately, going through a lot of different things in life, tragically or good times or whatever. My father passed away of cancer when I was 18 and I realized a lot of students, more than I thought, could relate. It's not really about having all the answers. It's sharing your feelings. You have two choices when tragic stuff happens. You either run from God or hang on to Him with both hands, and fortunately I found myself hanging on more and more, and through all this finding a more passionate love for Christ.

From that point on I became very consumed with the idea that my dad was in heaven—a place—and thinking about the things that he was seeing. My dad had cancer and he went from like 300 and something pounds to 118 so it was a rough time when he passed away. And heaven meant so much more because I knew his strength was renewed and he was in his new body.

You've got some bands—Christian or not—that are political bands, or they write love songs or whatever. Christ consumes us. I think we would always write about Christ because it's who we are. My idea of worship is coming into the presence of God and instead of taking, just pouring out. I think it's when we find ourselves in the Word and we find ourselves being obedient that we grow with a deeper love for Christ. Being more in love with Christ, the more we want to worship and bring Him the glory.

God teaches me humility on a regular basis. In what we do and with the small amount of success that we've seen so far, it would be easy to think that you're really good. I'm constantly reminded through the Word and through people we meet on the road that God is a sovereign God who will sit on His throne long after our sorry selves are gone.

There's a comfort in knowing that we're not in control of this and that we can lean on something that is much bigger than us. It's just a sweet thing to be reminded constantly that it's not about you. We say in concert all the time that we can't perform well enough, I can't sing well enough and we can't say the right words to change lives—only the Holy Spirit can do that. It never fails—some of our worst nights are the times when God moves the most and we walk away and go, "How in the world could somebody be changed? Oh yeah—it wasn't us. That's right."

Nathan Cochran

In Romans it talks about worship being an act of service or an act of sacrifice. We don't really think of worship as a particular song or singing with a band or without a band. It's more of, in anything you do in life, a constant attempt to give God glory through whatever you're doing. We just try to apply that to music as well.

Excerpted from an interview in FamilyChristian.com

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