The Official Jars of Clay Email News
5/19/96
3,451 Subscribers
web site: http://www.jarsofclay.com
CONTENTS:
*Message from Charlie
*Tour updates
*Flood in Singapore
*Concert Review #1: 4/27/96 The Omni, Atlanta, GA
*Concert Review #2: 4/29/96 Jackson Coliseum, Jackson, MS
*Jars' Mainstream Exposure
*Prayer Requests
*PFR Online Newsletter
*Subscriber's Bands
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*Message from Charlie:
[A message excerpt from Charlie to an online acquaintance, but this seems applicable to all of us with questions, etc. -Ed.]
From: pdljmpr7@aol.com
"Anyhow, we're having a lot of fun, and we're totally blown away by what God is doing through us. We don't take any credit for it. I know sometimes things sound wierd in interviews sometimes or are printed out of context, which has frustrated us a bit lately. When some people interview us, they have a different agenda than we do , and things come out differently than we intended. That's been interesting for us, but we're trying to be more clear and to the point about what we communicate. We're not trying to hide our faith at all, but we do want the mainstream to judge us on artistic and musical merit, and hopefully after hearing our music repeatedly, the message will sink in and arouse in them a curiousity or interest in what we're about. This is something that we feel strongly about- like the Lord wants to work through us in this manner. We have and continue to seek lots of counsel from our pastor Scotty Smith in Nashville. He has lots to say to us about "enculturating the gospel" i.e. being salt of the earth/ being examples of the gospel in areas of society and to people who may not have any other contact with the gospel. Anyhow, I'm probably rambling, but I wanted to let you know a little more about where our hearts are at and what we struggle with. Please pray for us that we would not be distracted from our focus. Know that our faith is of utmost priority and importance to us, and it will continue to affect what we do and how we write."
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*Tour updates:
Here is detailed info on next week's JoC concerts. Michael McDermott, a "secular" artist singer/songwriter, will be opening most of these shows. Most of these shows are "showcases" for industry people and should be somewhat smaller venues than previously but it will be their opportunity to prove their musical ability to the industry. We will hopefully be able to get weekly updates which I will send out from management. This is all the tour info I have as of now but I will keep you all posted:
Tue. 5-21 Gibson^ñs / Tempe/ AZ 602-829-9257 $7.00
Wed. 5-22 The Rock/Tucson, AZ 602-629-9211 $5.00
Thur. 5-23 Numbers/Houston, TX 713-521-1121 Adv.$12.50/$14.00
Sat. 5-25 Blue Bird/Denver, CO 303-333-7749 $12.50
Mon.5-27 Riverprot Amphitheatre/Maryland Heights, MO 314-289-9944 $15.50
Wed. 5-29 Horseshoe Tavern/Toronto, ONT 416-598-4753 $ TBA
Thur.5-30 Cabaret/Montreal, QUE 514-845-2014 $10.00
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*Flood in Singapore:
From: law30133@leonis.nus.sg (TOH AI LEEN)
To: Earthpots@aol.com
This is Ai Leen from Singapore. Yes. A few thousand miles away. A friend just informed me that Flood was played on secular radio (98.7FM - a Top 40's hit station that lots of youngsters/teens listen to, they play lots of techno/take that/ and whatever's that's popular at the moment). I'm terribly excited that Flood has reached our little country and have been hyperventilating in the computer room for the past 5 minutes. :) Praise God!! I hope God will reach out through JoC music to even more people. :)
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*Concert Review #1: 4/27/96 The Omni, Atlanta, GA
From: jan@watchman.com
Here is my two denari on the Atlanta leg of the Smitty "I'll Lead You Home" tour. The concert was held at the Omni in downtown Atlanta. We waited for months for the April 27 concert featuring Jars of Clay, Michael W. Smith, Three Crosses, and surprise, surprise, Brent Bourgeois. It was a quadruple treat and my husband and I were totally blessed. So was a friend's 14 year old son when we invited him to go with us to the concert. He's a big-time Jars of Clay fan, and is waiting for the next albums by Jars of Clay. He's got "every album" by Jars, all TWO :)
When the Jars guys ran onto the stage, the crowd went wild. They wasted no time in starting off the string of songs with "Liquid." The crowd seemed to know the lyrics to "Like a Child," which is cool. Haseltine sounded a bit hoarse at times but that's okay. It's live and he probably sang too much with the 58-city tour. There was a tinge of sadness to the song "Worlds Apart" when we heard it yesterday. Of course Jars sang "Love Song for a Savior" and "Flood." They had to!!! Our friend's son was so disappointed that Jars only played for half an hour. It was exactly half an hour if not less.
It was really neat when they told the audience where Jars of Clay name came from (2 Corinthians). That was a testimony in itself.
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*Concert Review #2: 4/29/96 Jackson, MS Jackson Coliseum
From: b.simpson5@genie.com
When I walked in the door of the Jackson Coliseum, one of the first people I saw was someone I thought was Scott Savage. I asked him if he was the drummer for Jars, and he said, "No, I'm his brother." It was an easy mistake to make since they look A LOT alike. I then made my way into the actual coliseum where I wandered around in the crowd with my camera to see if any of the guys were doing any "meet and greet" before the show. Eventually I spied someone I knew had to be Scott. It was him this time, and it turns out he used to live in Jackson and was looking for people he knew in the audience. He was nice enough to let some friends and me get our pictures taken with him and his brother Jeff, but he said none of the other guys were going to be out before the show.
As some have commented before, the sound at the MWS concerts is set up for Michael's set only, so unfortunately his opening acts don't sound as good as they should. This was definitely true that night. Three Crosses was OK, but their mix was terrible.
The Jar boys sounded a little better because well... they're the Jar boys; They opened with "Liquid" which had some neat prerecorded light operatic vocals (that's the only way I can think of to describe them) at the beginning before the "thrumming" starts. Then they did the "Like a Child/Boy on a String" combo and "Love Song for a Savior". Next was "Worlds Apart", which was incredible!!! Then, of course, they did "Flood"-- enough said.
The only problem they seemed to have was some kind of brief technical difficulty with Steve's guitar plug or something, but Matt managed to cover for him nicely until a roadie could get it fixed. Of course, I wish they could have played longer :)
I must confess, I went to the concert mainly to see Jars, but I was more impressed with Smitty than I thought I would be. The video clips, the runway, and the big turntable really added a lot to his show, which would have still been great without them. He had awesome backup singers and instrumentalists too. My favorite song was probably "Out of This World" with "Crown Him with Many Crowns" coming in a close second.
All in all, I and everyone else in my group had a great time. I look forward to seeing Jars of Clay in concert by themselves sometime, though.
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*Jars' Mainstream Exposure:
From: ppgg@ix.netcom.com>
Newgroups: rec.music.christian
Subject: Jars Of Clay in Mainstream
Ok, Ok..
I have heard people talking about how Jars Of Clay is popular among the secular crowd, but today I had a first hand experience of it. First, I went out with a friend of mine who I haven't seen in months. She is far from Christian and is not familiar with Christian music at all. I had my CDs in the car and she wanted to hear some music. I figured JOC would be the closest thing she would like (most of the CDs I had were Tooth&Nail stuff and she doesn't like hard music). I had heard that JOC was popular on alternative radio (I don't listen to the radio myself) so I put on the JOC CD and skipped to "Flood". Before it began, I asked her if she ever had heard this song on KROQ (yes, the "world famous" KROQ). When the music started, she explaimed "Yah! I LOVE THIS SONG!" and started singing along. She had no clue they were a Christian band untill I told her.
After lunch, I dropped her off and decided to go do some shopping for secular music. I haven't been inside a secular music store for about 3 or 4 months now and badly needed to catch up on some of the "quality" secular stuff I have been hearing about. I walk into the record store and they have this new listening station gizmo they must have just installed in the store within the past few months. Well, the listening station had pictures of the CDs you could hear with a description of the artist. The albums were also labeled in a "Weekly Top Ten" arrangement. Well, the second one from the top was, you guessed it...JARS OF CLAY at this week's number 2 CD. I walked over to the "J" section of the CD aisles and saw Jars Of Clay was more than well in stock... with bright red "Top Hit on Sale" stickers on each CD. Keep in mind, they had no reference to Jars Of Clay in their "Gospel" section (where they so secretly stock one copy of DC Talk's Jesus Freak drowned behind a bunch of Hymn and Southern Gospel CDs).
Well, on my way out I picked up a copy of L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles' very liberal and controversial entertainment freezine. They always have all the good shows listed, ranging from club and stadium and from punk to pop. Well, I got home and was flipping through the concert section, and I saw a huge ad for Jars Of Clay playing at The Troubadour next month. The Troubadour is a club in the middle of Hollyweird where I used to go see all kinds of punk and metal bands play. I knew JOC was playing at a Christian Music Festival next month at an amusement park here in town (with all kinds of other great bands like Christafari, Black Eyed Sceva, The Supertones, and Poor Old Lu, as well as not-so-great bands like the Newboys and Bryan Duncan)... but three days before they play the Christian thing at Knott's Berry Farm, they are playing at a club in the middle of Hollywood... and the show is sponsered by KROQ. I had heard people saying JOC is popular in the mainstream in this newsgroup, and I saw the video for Flood on MTV just once. I figured, "yah, they may be popular in Tenessee, Georgia, or Idaho, but not here in Los Angeles". I guess I was wrong. Now I hope I can go to any record store and buy whatever Tooth And Nail CD I want, but I doubt it.
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*Prayer Requests: As you all can see, this is getting to be quite popular, praise God! :) We are thinking of having a separate weekly list of prayer requests going out to those who would like it, so those who want them can get them and be updated weekly. We'll update you soon on what we decide to do.
From: youzz125@siu.edu (Andy Youssi)
I feel funny asking people to pray for me, but I need it. I feel awful admitting this, but my faith has just gone down the tubes these past couple months. I still consider myself to be a Christian, but there's just a bunch of stuff in my life right now that I don't know how to make sense of. Most of my friends and family are not Christians, and they feel really intimidated by the fact that in this past year I have had such an urge to be so caught up in a relationship with Christ. Unfortunately, I've let the attitude of many of my non-Christian friends affect me a little too much, and I've been having a lot of doubts. The reason I'm so concerned is because I am moving out to Los Angeles for the summer, and if my faith isn't strong at that time there's no telling what my friends might talk me into doing. All I know is my life has never been better then the feeling I had when my faith was strong. Please pray that God will bring me back to that point again.
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Fenugreek
Dear everyone,
Guess what? A few months ago I sent a letter requesting prayer for my unsaved grandparents living in South Africa, one of whom is sick in the hospital.. Well, Now, they are both saved by the grace of God! My parents were able to share the truth with them. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for their new faith. Please would you also pray against a religion called "The School of Truth" in South Africa. It is an "all roads lead to heaven" type thing and is influencing many people.
Thanks,
Kerry (Fenugreek@aol.com)
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From: b.simpson5@geine.geis.com (Barry Simpson)
At the beginning of April, God brought a revival to our church, the likes of which as far as I know have never been seen before in our church's long history. Around 50 people came down and made some kind of decision during the four nights, most of them accepting Christ for the first time. Most of the decisions were made by youth from my high school, although there were a fair amount of adults too. God really showed me how great and powerful He is, the power of prayer, and how small my faith was in His ability to save some people. Guys (and girls) came that I never would've imagined would have come to the services, much less accept Christ.
This is so great, but it's also very scary in a way. I know Satan is going to work on them even harder now. A few of them have already fallen in big ways. Please pray for them, as they are babes in Christ. Pray that the "more mature" Christians won't cause them to stumble, but they will help them to grow spiritually. Pray that they will help lead their family members to Christ too.
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holmesa@enc.edu (Allison Holmes)
<>< 1 My great friend has some really serious health problems and is having a hard time keeping up with the quality of living that we all are used to. Please pray for her and her family.
<>< 2 My friend Heather's mother just had open heart surgery, and now they have to move out of her house and with caring for her mother and packing and moving, she is very stressed, while trying to keep up her grades. Please pray for her mom and for her strength, and pray for Heather's strength in this hard time.
<>< 3 My friend Lori who also has some health problems
<>< 4 Me. I'm making a major life change, leaving the school I'm attending and moving to a school in Nashville, which is over 20 hours from here. I will be leaving everything I know to go there. I believe this is where God is calling me, but it is still scary to be making this kind of change. Please be praying for my courage and for wisdom of what God wants me to do with this situation.
Thank you for all your prayers and I can't wait to meet each and every one of you in Heaven! Just think of what a party that will be! -Allison Holmes
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jbean@vt.edu (Jeff Bean)
To: earthpots@aol.com
Hi, My name is Jeff Bean and I am a graduating senior at Virginia Tech. I am writing about a prayer request for my life after graduation. I moving to Orlando, FL in May and I don't have a job. My desire is that God use me in a church doing music ministry. I desire to help people praise God through music. I ask that you pray for me in this area. talbean@univscvm.csd.scarolina.edu
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From: AJVanMeter@aol.com
My brother attends UGA and last week one of his friends was a victim of a serial-rape on the campus (such activities are becoming quite common). Please pray for her that she might have peace and healing through God and through her friends and relatives, also pray for the man who did the act and that he would come to know Christ and to seek God and His forgiveness. Finally, on a much lighter note, please pray for my Youth Group as we prepare to go on our Summer Missions Trip to Costa Rica this summer.
Thank you and God bless!
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I was just given a prayer request last nite that I wanted to pass on. JJ from Sixpence None the Richer told me that his brother Toby fell 65 feet, breaking all the limbs in his body, and he has major internal bleeding. He said that it doesn't look good at the moment. Toby definitely needs prayers right now, and that's pretty much all we can do. The rest of it is in God's hands after that. Toby's condition has improved. He is now in stable condition and has been moving his toes. He's no longer in danger of dying... but it's going to take him a LONG time to heal. JJ and the family seem to be in better spirits too.
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From: novdawn@engin.umich.edu (Nova)
Also, please pray for our campus group at the University of Michigan. We are sending out four dedicated servants this summer as missionaries. One is going to the Philippines and three are going to Kazakhstan. One of the biggest needs is financial support, and we are trusting that the Lord will provide the $7000 we still need. Pray that the money will come and that God will prepare the hearts of those who will hear His voice through these four missionaries this summer.
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From: MICHELLE@VAX1.BEMIDJI.MSUS.EDU
Please pray for a friend/student here named Joy. She fell on Tuesday (off a bannister, hit her neck on some stairs). She was originally diagnosed with a mild concussion (nothing to laugh about, to be sure...). She spent yesterday suffering major migraine headaches. She woke up this morning with no peripheral vision. By this afternoon everything was blurry, so she went to an eyedoctor to find out if there was any serious damage. Within hours, she was totally blind.
Update: It's been up & down since then with the blindness/sight so please keep Joy in your prayers!
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I have a prayer request... I just found out today that the city manager in my hometown has proposed to city council that the public library should be closed as of July 1. Unless the community comes to the support of the library, it'll close, and my mother will be unemployed. My dad has uncertain employment to begin with, being a minister, so this is going to be very hard on my family if the library closes.
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From: RickR@wonderware.com (Rick Rotondo)
I am going on a short term missions trip next month to Romania and stepping out in faith next January to move there and be a part of Capella Christin. The past two trips, the Lord really did a work in my heart and I am going for it. Please pray for my car and all my stuff to be sold. Also a clear vision for what He wants me to do there.
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From: FEHLAUERJ@BETHANY.BETHANYLB.EDU (Fehlauer, James)
I will be graduating from Bethany College on the 19th of May, and would like to ask for prayers as to what the Lord would have me do with the future (Jer. 29:11 is a great verse when dealing with uncertain plans). My major is Art Ed (K-12) with a concentration in drawing. I have applied to several schools within the Kansas City area (my hometown in Leavenworth, KS) and am waiting word on those. Also, I will be trying Hallmark Cards Inc with freelance drawing .
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from: Iluvccm@aol.com
One of my friends told me today that she is going to have jaw surgery in a couple months. She's kind of freaking out about it and asked if you could ask the Earthen Vessels subscribers to pray for her. She said that her jaw is growing to one side and is causing a lot of pain and discomfort. She will have to stay in the hospital for a few days and the treatment will last a long time. Her name is Rachael. Thanks!
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I was just given a prayer request last nite that I wanted to pass on. JJ from Sixpence None the Richer told me that his brother Toby fell 65 feet, breaking all the limbs in his body, and he has major internal bleeding. He said that it doesn't look good at the moment. Toby definitely needs prayers right now, and that's pretty much all we can do. The rest of it is in God's hands after that. Toby's condition has improved. He is now in stable condition and has been moving his toes. He's no longer in danger of dying... but it's going to take him a LONG time to heal. JJ and the family seem to be in better spirits too.
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coryjme@kktv.com
To: earthpots@aol.com
I have a prayer request " A new store has opened in Colorado Springs and it carries just Christian music and mostly Christian alternative rock.I ask that you pray that this one goes big and many more like it start up around the country.Because the need for stores like this one is growing everyday.
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*PFR Online Newsletter:
To subscribe, simply email pfr-newsletter@fawcett.com
A somewhat monthly similar newsletter to the JoC one you're reading...
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*Subscriber's Bands:
"The Created": We've got an original edge to our music, and some pretty creative lyrics. Anyone interested in hearing a demo, they can contact me at gottabtru@aol.com Thanks!
Jenny Anderson
"Five Smooth Stones"
Debut Album scheduled for mid-summer by mail/phone order only 330-607-6687 for booking or info
http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/cfti/5ss.html
email 5ss@fawcett.com
"Sunny Day Roses": Band has a new cd demo available, write: jpelbel@CCGATE.HAC.COM for details
"Route 14:6" - email mule@usa.pipeline.com for more info - negotiating a possible deal with Starsong.
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