|
By Buzz Trexler
for The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times, Spring
2002
More than six months after the terrorist attack on America, it’s
nearly impossible to look at the world with the same eyes. Imagine
how it must have been for Mark Lee and the rest of Third Day as they
watched the nation live out the title cut from their latest project,
"Come Together."
"That really gave me chills," guitarist Lee said in a
recent phone interview from Little Rock, Ark., where the band was
preparing for a show.
The Southern rockers with the Christian message bring their
"Come Together" tour to Knoxville Coliseum on April 18.
"We, obviously, had no idea what was gonna happen," Lee
recalls, noting that frontman Mac Powell conceived the title cut
about two years ago. "We pretty much knew that we were going to
call the album ‘Come Together,’ cause it really captured where
we were and wanted to communicate."
What the band was seeking to communicate was unity among
Christians and it was the tour following the release of the live
worship album "Offerings" that brought the vision into
focus.
"We toured the ‘Offerings’ record and we had this image
of seeing the people at our concerts at this one moment where people
joined their hands together and raise them up in a time of worship.
At that point they’re not Methodists, Baptists, people from
different backgrounds, they’re just Christians; this is the Body
of Christ on this night in this particular town."
Lee, 28, said the band fell in love with the idea and wanted to
encourage the church at large to "set aside the little
differences that we have that get in the way of some really amazing
things that Christ can do through us, if we just work
together."
The "Come Together" tour, which also brings with it
Bebo Norman and Paul Colman Trio, focuses on unity and the
possibilities that can happen when people unite rather than divide.
"We’ve partnered up with Habitat for Humanity and we’re
really trying to encourage people to get involved in service,"
Lee said. "We think that Habitat’s a great vehicle for that,
because they’re a Christian organization but they’re not
affiliated with any one denomination." He said working with
Habitat is a "great ministry opportunity, because not only are
you serving and helping alleviate poverty housing in your hometown,
you’re also able to hook up with other people that are working on
the project that may not go to church.
"There are a of people that don’t have a church background
that still work with Habitat because they think it’s a cool,
worthy organization to work with," Lee said.
"That’s what we were thinking when we had the title ‘Come
Together,’ and then September comes along and I think it totally
changed the way everybody looks at everything, probably
forever," he said. "All of a sudden you’ve got the
president on TV saying ‘We, as Americans, have gotta come
together. We’ve gotta put aside our differences. We’re not
Democrats, Republicans, all these different backgrounds, we’re
Americans now, and we’ve gotta come together.’ And I was like,
‘Man!’ ’Cause we had no idea ..."
Lee sees the birth of "Come Together" as less a
coincidence than a God-incidence.
"I think that’s a testament to God and his providence, how
he’s got things figured out, he’s got a plan for things,"
says the 28-year-old, who attends The People’s Church in Franklin.
"And while he may show us a little bit of what he has for us,
he doesn’t show us the big picture. He just shows us enough to go
ahead and go forward."
The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at
The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, www.themeadow.org.
You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net. |
Third Day
Notebook
Talking
With Mark Lee
Crossing over: Country
music can speak of God and Jesus Christ and sell like hotcakes. Take
Alan Jackson’s "Where Were You (When The World Stopped
Turning)," for instance, which debuted Nov. 7, 2001 ... one day
after "Come Together" was released. Still, guitarist Mark
Lee takes the lack of mainstream airplay in stride. "We would
love to see our music get out there to as many people as
possible," he says. "However, I hope that we don’t have
to, and I don’t that it’s our desire, to change who we are to do
that. ... I think we all need to embrace our giftings and our
personalities that God’s given us and use that his glory and not get
too caught up in a formula of how you need to go about doing it. I
think that’s what a lot of people do, is get caught up into that
whole trap."
Good Books: "Every
once in a while you read a book that just completely changes your way
of thinking," Lee says. "There’s a book called ‘Wild At
Heart,’ by John Eldridge. It just talks about what God intended for
men when he created us and different aspects of a man’s personality
that have been sort of suppressed over the years. But God made us the
way we are for a certain reason, because we reflect his personality.
It was just really refreshing to see that and there area a lot of
things about my struggles that I’ve had for years that I just never
really got it until I read this book. That was a real
eye-opener."
(A note from Buzz:
"At this point, I almost thought Mark and I were kindred spirits.
I started talking with him about G.K. Chesterton's 'Orthdoxy' and
brought him a copy of the book during the 'meet and greet time' at the
Knoxville concert.")
Good Music: You
can find Paul Colman Trio’s unreleased debut project in Lee’s CD
player, but you can also find REM. "We were in Spokane, Wash., a
couple of weeks ago that carried Import CDs." Lee picked up a
live recording of REM made in Germany. "I’ve been listening to
it for probably two months," he says. |
