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| Confessing With Pillar |
By Danielle Kimmey
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Be Sure to click and listen to Pillar's song "Whatever It Takes" ... at the bottom of the article.
We recently had an opportunity to facilitate a conversation between Pillar’s Rob Beckley and long time youth leader, WriteGroup member, and Pillar fan, Todd Pearage.
Todd: What’s with the Confessions theme?
Rob: Our church did a sermon series called “My Secret.” They set up what resembled voting booths in the lobby for people to go to and write their confessions. They also had a website to let people pour their heart out. They focused small groups on sharing hearts with one another. It allowed an environment for people to come clean. People shared their hearts and a lot of healing took place. A lot of growth happened during that time. So we had a friend of ours make a really cool looking confession booth. Every night we get some
pretty remarkable things written in there. We set this thing up, talk about it from stage, and tell kids to go and share their hearts with God. They’re making a physical act of confession by writing it out, putting it in a box, and allowing us
to pray for them. It’s the James 5:16 concept of sharing our sins with one another, praying for one another, and encouraging one another so that we can seek
healing. 1 John 1:9 clearly says that God is faithful to forgive our sins when we confess.
We want to give kids a place to start the healing process. They may not be healed from a burden instantly when they drop the card in the box, but they’ve acknowledged their sin. We challenge them to seek restoration, to find someone
they can share their confession with face-to-face. We also encourage them to read Scripture and let scripture be a part of their daily life. Through the American Bible
Society we’ve set up a seven-day text message Scripture journey. They text the word “pillar” to 31452 and they’ll receive a text message containing a daily Scripture that can kick start them to get into the Word.
This is the first album that I’ve had the ministry vision before we went in to record. We decided that this record was going to be called Confessions because we wanted this next era to be about healing.
How did the recording of “Shine” come about?
That song was really a reinvention for us. An innovative artist has to take chances and move forward. This was a new era for us. I had a list of songs I’d always wanted to cover, and one of them was from Collective Soul. The thing with Collective Soul is, since his dad was a pastor, his lyrics were really spiritual. I got together with the guys (a couple of whom had just started playing with Pillar) and asked them what they thought about this song. We starting playing it and jammed
this song out. It helped us become a band together. We didn’t have to think about the songwriting side of it, we just got together and saw how this song meshed. It was the first song that we actually tracked and we were like, “It’s a killer song! We
have to do this because it sounds great!”That was like the cornerstone for starting the writing process. We worked that song out and loved it so much that we knew it had to go on the record.
In “You Are Not the End” – who is the “you?”
The “you” is that person that tells you, “You can’t.” The “you” may be that thing that you’ve been trying to overcome. For many people, the “You” is Satan trying to destroy their wellbeing. For others it may be a teacher telling them they’re not smart enough. I wanted to make a record that says, “Hey, you may have thought I was done and that we hung ‘em up, but I’m back!”
A bunch of youth leaders are going to be reading this; what would you like to say to them?
We, as leaders of the youth, need to focus on the importance of reading Scripture. Living for God is not merely listening to Christian music, wearing the right Christian t-shirts, and living in a Christian bubble. No, it starts with the reading of the Word. We have partnered with the American Bible Society to promote engaging Scripture on a daily basis. That’s the way God speaks to us, shows us where to go, and what needs to be done.
Also, I challenge youth leaders to think about how to be confessed to. We need to let kids come to us and feel comfortable to share their heart without fear of getting in trouble. We need to do an unbelievable job at loving kids and helping them through hard times.
What type of response have you been getting since speaking about the subject of confession?
About 25% of our audience goes into the confession booths. I have some of the confessions from a recent concert here in my pocket. The one right on top says, “I struggle with cutting and with an eating disorder. Please pray for me.” Here’s one that says, “I went to the bar with my friend while my husband and children were out of town. He doesn’t know, but I’m afraid to tell him.” Here’s another, “I confess I have an anger problem. I’ll give it to God, but I’ll be angry. Give God the glory for helping me.” These are just the first few examples from the pile. This fuels our fire and has sparked the ministry side of Pillar to motivate kids to want to get this burden off of them.
The youth in our church watched a video called “Backpack.” The video showed a man climbing a mountain and every time he would take a few steps he’d put a rock in his backpack. Before he got halfway up the mountain he couldn’t carry his backpack anymore. That’s what has been happening with our young generation. We live in secrets. We have a bunch of junk in our lives and we’d rather just carry it around than share it with somebody. When somebody finds out and it blows up in our face, we’re worse off than if we had just let it go and had shared it with someone to begin with.
We communicate that just because a person goes into the booth and fills out a card, the process doesn’t stop there – healing takes time. Confession is a courageous step, but the process has just begun.
'Pillar has partnered with the American Bible Society to create a book title 'Confessions'. It's distributed free of charge at all Pillar concerts, but you can download 3 free chapters on Pillar's site. Also, to join Pillar's scripture texting journey, text Pillar to 31452. For more information, visit www.pillarmusic.com/confessions.'
Youth Pastor Reception information:
Members of Red and Pillar would like to invite youth leaders to a preshow reception. If you'd like to attend, please rsvp to redpillartickets@essentialrecords.com.
*Special offer: For every 10 youth you bring to event, you get one free ticket. To participate in this offer, please mention in your email.
Wed Jan 27 Monterey, CA
Fri Jan 29 Las Vegas, NV
Tues Feb 2 Albuquerque, NM
Thu Feb 4 Dodge City, KS
Fri Feb 5 Tulsa, OK
Sat Feb 6 Little Rock, AK
Wed Feb 17 Chattanooga, TX
Thu Feb 18 Cordova, TN
Fri Feb 19 Louisville, KY
Sat Feb 20 Indy, IN
Sun Feb 21 Greenville, OH |
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