FamilyChristian.com Exclusive Interview
Ten Shekel Shirt Has Much To Say ...continued

FamilyChristian.com: If you were to write a review for Much how would you describe it?

Lamont: It's an album that inspires worship. Honest songs, honest lyrics. My musical influences on the Christian side were straight-ahead worship stuff from Brian Doerksen and Kevin Prosch. And then, of course, I'm a huge Counting Crows and Toad the Wet Sprocket fan.

FamilyChristian.com: You wrote all of the songs on the album. What inspires you to write?

Lamont: What inspires me to write? Well, for me, writing in my journal and singing songs to God are my two most effective ways to communicate with God. I almost don't have a relationship with God if don't journal and I don't sing. They're my life force of relationship with God.

FamilyChristian.com: One song that stood out to me was the one about your daughter, "House of Memories." How did that song come about?

Lamont: It was one of those songs that came at three in the morning in three minutes. I loved it right away because it meant so much. There's kind of a funny story behind it. We were in Israel playing music and because we were Christians playing music there they were going to stone us. There were actually people with rocks that were going to stone us [but] we decided to start anyway. We played "Brown Eyed Girl" and [my daughter] just started to dance and smile and she saved the day. The bad guys left and she just made a way for God. Many days she's saved the day with her smile. She kind of saved our bacon [in Israel]. Maybe it should have been "you saved our bacon with your smile." My daughter rocks.

FamilyChristian.com: What are some of the books that have really impacted you?

Lamont: I've read a lot of the normal Christian ones, the Max Lucado books. I've read a lot of worship books as well. Worship as Jesus Taught It by Judson Cornwall is a great, great, great book. C.S. Lewis, of course. I'm also a fan of Brennan Manning, Larry Crabb and Henri Nouwen.

FamilyChristian.com: What are you passionate about?

Lamont: I think it's very important for Christians to hang out with non-Christians. It's important for believers to live among the lost. I think sometimes we're more concerned about just our own little Christian world than about the lost.

[I'm passionate about] my family. I have a wife and two kids.

One recent thing I'm very passionate about is an organization I sponsor called IJM - International Justice Mission. They are the coolest organization. They rescue kids from brothels and sweatshops. They are the real deal. The guy that started worked for the U.N. to investigate [genocide in] Rwanda and investigate apartheid in South Africa. He had all this experience and he was like, "Where are the Christians?" Christians are feeding people and they're preaching the Gospel but nobody's rescuing these kids who are oppressed all over the world. So he does that full time. We're going to sponsor them on the road and then we're probably going to go on some trips as a band with IJM. [To learn more about IJM, log onto www.ijm.org].

I love music, of course, and worship because it's a great way to communicate with God.

FamilyChristian.com: How would you define worship?

Lamont: Worship happens in everyday life. It's a part of our everyday lives more than it is just something at a service. Almost all of the Old Testament Biblical examples of worship were [when] somebody had a baby and then they lifted their hands and said, "Yadah," which is basically a word for praise and where the word "Judah" comes from. I would describe it as love responding to love.

A lot of people [think that] worship time should be all songs to God and then other people [say], "I like those reflective songs." The truth of the matter is that God loves relationship and so it's about both. It's not one or the other. It's not all about me or all about God. It's about both. It's a relationship.

FamilyChristian.com: The popularity of worship music has exploded over the last year or so. What do you think about this "trend" or "revival"?

Lamont: God's pretty cool. Let's say there are people out there with bad motives. They jump on a bandwagon [and] get all hyped up about it. He'll use that for good.

I'm excited at the fact that there are more Christians who play music that also love to worship and they see what they do as worship. I'm very excited about the resurgence of worship and I see it in young people. I've been working with young people for eight years or so and I've seen a huge change in your average youth group from eight years ago. There's a genuine desire to connect with God through worship. I think it's our chance to express our love and worship for God

FamilyChristian.com: What is God teaching you now?

Much by Ten Shekel Shirt

Lamont: It's kind of coming back to one point I said before but [He's teaching me about] being somebody who can play music in any setting and leading people into a place where they're connected with God and connected with each other. I'm not that person yet but I'm hoping and feeling like God is leading me in that direction.

For me, "making it" is not necessarily like getting my songs on radio, getting big events to play at. It's basically being obedient to God in everyday life. If I can do that, then I'm successful. I can lay my head down on my pillow and say [that] I'm a successful person. I was obedient to God and what He called me to do.

I've happened to write some honest songs that people like and I'm thankful for that. I'm an insecure musician. I'm an okay guitar player. If I'm concerned with what others think of my art, my music [and] if I'm consumed with what people think or [if I'm] trying to make it in some way to be a rock star, I'm going to be totally unsatisfied and I won't be successful, so to speak. Obedience is the only true form of success.

Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog.

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