Holier Than NO ONE!

Wow! What an experience! I celebrated the New Year like I never have before in my life. It was loud, it was sweaty, bodies were flying through the air and many heard the message that Jesus loves them. Where was I? I was hangin' with my guys at the "Happy Hardcore New Years" at The Attic in Kettering (Dayton) Ohio. I was able to see and hear (loudly) the likes of Miss May I, At the Throne of Judgement, Before Their Eyes and, the headliner band, The Devil Wears Prada. Not really my favorite style of music, but it wasn't anything like I thought it might be.

Surprisingly, I was not nearly the oldest person there. While I declined to join the boys in the mosh, and I didn't jump out into the crowd for fear that everyone would move and I would hit the floor with a thud, I had a great time. I met another dad there and we talked, well, yelled at

each other for half of the night.

In my devotions today, I was reading in Mark 2 about Jesus answering the accusation of associating with the riff-raff. Jesus said that it is the sick who need a doctor. Immediately, my mind went back to Wednesday night. Those kids would not have listened to some guy in a shirt and tie, or somebody strumming a 6 string acoustic. These bands delivered a sacred message in a relevent way. And the kids heard it! Near the end of the concert the lead guitarist for The Devil Wears Prada told the kids, how much his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loved them and his statement was met with thunderous cheers and applause.

These bands do what they do in the way that they do it for this generation. It isn't about the band members, it's about a generation that we're losing because I (general term) tend to demand conformance to the way I like things to be. My wife and I were met with some disapproval for not only allowing our boys to go to a concert where a band with the word devil in it's name was playing, but for taking them as well. Believe me, we did the research, scrutinized the lyric sheets and were pleasantly surprised and impressed.

I left that club with a new understanding about delivering a sacred message relevantly. Just because one of God's "minister's" has gauges in his ears and tattoos for sleeves, doesn't make him less holy in God's eyes.

Props to Pastor Jim Kilby and the staff of The Attic for helping reach this generation.