Mark Lowry Talks Turning Down BROADWAY, Bill Gaither & What God DIDN'T Mention | Kirk Cameron on TBN

in 1977 I was on a trajectory towards a business degree and the Lord asked me and the best he can to a Baptist you know he never talks to us audibly CU he knows we can't handle it but it was louder than audible it was in my spirit and he asked me why won't I do what he wants me to do so I me and he told me what that was going to music he never said a thing about comedy or I would have found myself in the belly of a whale I'm telling you I he didn't let me in on that little nugget Mark it's always so great to see you and and so great to talk with you and I I love listening to you tell your stories you've always got us laughing and uh and and your life has revolved around music for all of these years I'm curious what were some of your earliest experiences with music that got you so interested in it as a career well my mom my she goes back to nearly whose mother doesn't have such a big impact but my mother played the piano in church and she loved to scan the audience you know she didn't have to read the music she could scan that audience and sing that Alto like oh Victory and she'd be playing that piano and I'd be up in the back row of the balcony learning standup comedy for all my friends and she'd be loving God having a great time until she spotted me in the balcony and above the singing I'd hear her clear that throat and I knew it was a battlecry but my mother loved to play she loved to sing she taught me to sing I sang my first time in church when I was four and I had my first recording contract when I was 11 but that's another life and another story wow so so what got you into performing and singing professionally well my mother knew I was hyper as if you couldn't tell and uh I was diagnosed with the ADHD before they knew how to abbreviate it but she read in the paper that they were looking for boys to come audition for parts at the uh for the local Houston plays right well she knew I wasn't athletic because I went out for peeee and they made me the water boy and I didn't like that um so but I would sing in church and entertain the old folks and and I L doing that so she thought well maybe this took me down to the Houston Music Theater I auditioned imitating Louis Armstrong singing Hello Dolly and and uh got every part that came through the first one was Music Man uh Tommy tun is also from Houston he choreographed it so he tells but they wouldn't let me dance Kirk we were Baptists I could sing and they wanted me bad enough that that they would let me stand there and not Dance everybody danced around me and I sang right and get this Tommy tune tells my mom if you let me teach him to dance I'll take him to New York to Broadway well my mom didn't want me to go to New York she just wanted me not be so hyper and she started praying immediately my mother did started praying that the Lord would open up the world of gospel music to me that God would get me out of the theater and into gospel music well within weeks I was singing at the international song festival through a whole another set of circumstances got a recording contract the next day with the Benson company I was 11 at this time I was out of the theater into gospel music and then when I was 14 I finally met who I'd been singing about I went to church camp and met Jesus June 5th 1973 of course that changed everything because then I started running the lyrics through my mind and I believed every bit of it a lot of my theology from my youth comes from the old hymns I sang in church that's one of the things I miss most about music and churches today is that the hymns are so rich in Theology and and that's really where I cut my teeth too as a young man coming to Faith In Jesus it was theology it was understanding who God is why he put us here and uh and understanding a bit of history that really anchored me in my faith oh yes and I just love those HS and I love that you love the hymns it'll be those songs that'll get you through your MRI wasn't some new Diddy I learned on Sunday morning oh well let's repeat a hundred times what got me through was Blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foraste of Glory Divine when they were doing my MRI on my brain to see if I had one no literally they were looking for Ms this was 12 years ago and I was scared and I heard that thing clicking as it went around my brain looking for signs of life and I started singing to myself Blessed assurance Jesus is mine that's right you know who else does that is my my friend Johnny Eric and T I'm sure that you know Johnny and she's just singing in that wheelchair all the time and it's always the hymns it's always the hyns is a reason they've been around so long that they're so enduring uh now you also uh got your start in youth ministry what is it about youth ministry that blends so well with your love for music well I love young people and I love old people and everything in between you can have young people are a clean slate old people we're cleaning our slate and everybody in between is building their lives growing their careers doing doing life the beginning is when you got to catch them and you can catch them at the end they're listening and I love that the first part of my Ministry was from 1980 to 1988 when I was a young man I did youth camps youth meetings I knew the lingo and then about 1988 Bill Gaither comes along picks me up and drops me into a sea geriatrics and I love them too and now I'm one of them but I always love those two groups and uh so I and I think what we're missing out sometimes in church what I'm hearing a lot from those that follow me on Facebook uh and YouTube I I I go live nearly every day and we sing these old hyms I sit and play them we sing them I put up the words everybody can sing along at home because they're not singing them in church and what the local churches need to remember is old people have money we've tithe and you ought to sing Amazing Grace every now and then wouldn't kill you and you might learn something the kids need to know Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wret like me I once was lost but now I'm found I was blind but now I see oh my goodness how can you not love that that's I I agree with everything that you're saying and what what we love about you Mark is you also incorporate comedy and storytelling humor uh and and these great stories into your songs it almost seems like well I didn't mean to no how how me how did that happen it just sort of crept in well I thought the Lord the Lord called me to sing right in 1977 I was on a trajectory towards a business degree and the Lord asked me and the best he can to a Baptist you know he never talks to us audibly CU he knows we can't handle it but it was louder than audible it was in my spirit and he asked me why won't I do what he wants me to do so I me and he told me what that was going to music he never said a thing about comedy or I would have found myself in the belly of a whale I'm telling you I he didn't let me in on that little nugget but when I would go to these independent Fundamental Bible believing Bible banging foot stomping so when in door knocking Baptist Churches they wouldn't shout they wouldn't clap for you that's giving glory to men but they would laugh and that's how I knew they were listening and all I care about are they listening because you can have the greatest content in the world and if everybody's asleep what good are you that's right you know Jesus held their attention he told stories about women who lost their coins and this and that and the other and people love to hear about people you know that's why there's People magazine people love to hear and read and think and so if you can find a story that tells your point and makes your point and it's funny along the way that way you know they're listening and before you know it you lay them in the lap of Jesus and they never saw it come and that's my favorite kind of story mine too Mark talk talk to us a little bit more about music sometimes we go to church and we might leave church feeling like we just saw a singer performing more than we actually entered into worship with God almost like did did that worship leader think that they were just auditioning on The Voice or were they trying to lead me to the throne room of God well I I don't want to judge their motives I like I you know I'm so glad I came to Jesus when I was a child cuz I have really honed my skeptical skills you know I can sit out there and if I'm not careful start judging well listen what I tell all old people my now open your ears stand up I know they stand up too long now we used to sit and open the himy knowing it was fine we worship God wide open and never had to stand well now they're standing so stand up instead of getting ticked off when you see lyrics up there that don't even rhyme well look at the young people turn your head toward the young people they're getting it and it will bless you watching them be blessed don't be so selfish on Sunday when you I I do it all the time I look oh I could have written that in my sleep and then I turn and look at the people the young people they're getting it and then all of a sudden I get it and then I'm joining them in this worship experience you know but you can't sit there and judge everything Lord have mercy what I think of the scriptures and and the distinctions that we find there with regard to music like in Ephesians chapter 5 uh Paul tells us to um to sing hymns and Psalms and spiritual songs making music in our hearts to one another I I don't know he Paul said it so it must be important Psalms hymns and spiritual songs now I never personally in our Baptist Church I don't remember singing a Psalm we did we did hymns which is something Fanny Crosby I think you know that era that's what I think of as a hymn and spiritual songs I guess would be the new ones you know something new because the Lord did say sing to me a new song so he's all about the new too yeah so but don't forget the hymns you know this is the first generation that has left the hymns behind I mean when okay Isaac Watts when he came home from church I may not have this story right so y'all check me out get my facts straight but listen he comes home from church tells his dad I'm bored with the Psalms his dad being wise said we go write some write some new songs he does Isaac Watts goes in there and writes a few new songs and they were contemporary Christian songs at the time but as time grew the church adopted those and then Fanny Crosby came along let's just say she's next and we didn't ditch Isaac Newton and Watts or whoever it was we brought them together right Fanny we brought them along and then Gaither comes along and we're singing all these new Gaither songs in the 70s I'll never forget it they were taking over the church but they brought Fanny too they brought Isaac too and now this new Services they're not really bringing them with them anymore you know it's like they've they're not bringing Fanny with we need Fanny too we need Fanny and we need Isaac and we need all those that have that have taught us our faith Mark you're so creative with with the ways that you find to encourage and to inspire people uh talk a little bit more about just whenever what is that and what about Sunday singalongs well there uh there's I do a do a thing called first Mondays with Mark with my friend Colleen and Phillip he plays she we sing Trio and then every day when I'm home and I'm not on the road I don't do it when I'm on the road of course but when I'm home I have a studio SL bedroom SL office it's right here and I have two lights a camera a green screen my the people who follow me they send in beautiful pictures of of of their that they've taken and I'll put them on the green screen so they love that and then I go to I'll just show you I go over here because I'm I go over to the song page where I'm on one side as you can tell and then I have the lyrics over here uh you know so they sing along and I change the lyrics it's very simple and I do it all myself and look I can even make myself bigger that way it's it I'm a geek at heart so the minute I I joined YouTube in 2006 YouTube went live in 2005 I was an early adopter but that was all video you had to record it then upload it now you go live which I love going live because it's a high wire you know it I could in one word I could ruin everything I've ever believed I mean just I just love that I could with one word I could ruin everything but with one word I can encourage somebody too I can get on here and just start loving on and talking about Jesus I look in that camera and pretend 1500 people are looking right back at me and I love it if you can't tell Mark I know you love to read the Bible and you must get inspiration from from some of your songs by by reading through the Psalms so when David was writing Psalms and that word Psalm I understand means praise and some of those songs are even uh battle songs as he's going into war uh some of those psalms are are the the lyrics are are tough to read in fact I I even saw a guy once he was a theologian who sat down down at the piano at my house and he began playing in these tempos that I was not used to this 44 stuff was was nothing of what he was playing and these were other ancient tempos that he said were more in keeping with the genre of music of the Psalms these were battle hymns uh what kind of inspiration do you get from reading the Psalms of David I think some of those prayers God heard of course but I think God probably winked at David and said one day you'll learn to love your enemies because there's a greater than David coming and his name is Jesus and he you know he said you've heard it said eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I tell you love your enemies he is right he is Jehovah on foot he is the clear revelation of God he's not a prophet giving us little glimpses of the truth no no Jehovah on foot has shown up and moved into the neighborhood and we can know him and he told us is hard as it sounds and as hard as it is to love our enemies so that's you take a lifetime to do that that's right take a life that's a full-time job Mark you're such a seasoned professional you've written these songs you you've just invested your life into music and ministering to people what do you say to Young Musicians people who are just coming up the ranks they want to be s writers what advice do you give them uh grow where you're planted is the first thing I'd say Don't just up move to Nashville because great song a great song is going to find a home you don't have to push them too hard uh it will I don't know how it does it but it finds a home uh write write right right right write all the time if you're a true writer which I am not I am a one hit wonder but if you're a true prolific wrer wrer like Gloria gther and others that I've known you're writing all the time you live to write you can't wait to get in a writer's room and sweat it out with a couple other writers I would rather have a root canal I don't like that process I call it I have to get up in the stirrups and push him out you know it's a complete birthing process now I am thankful that I did birth Mary did you know I'm you know I love having written I don't enjoy writing does that make sense yes cuz who wouldn't love having written you know it's a great you know I've written two books but it was a lot more having written them than actually writing them because I had to go away and think you know yeah yeah and focus and focus that's so hard for me one of the things that encourages me today is some of the modern hym writers like Keith and Kristen Getty they write songs like uh the power of the Cross and in Christ alone uh and I think that this may spark a Resurgence of hym type songs again in this generation because it's so needed have you have you do you like their songs oh I do and I've met them they were at one of gther events and I got to meet them oh absolutely I'm thrilled that someone is taking up the uh the challenge of writing a hymn that will I don't know what makes a song A Hymn I guess it's you know I think of the songs that we sing are are horizontal like I'm singing to someone about him that's what a lot of our songs are I'm singing about him I I sing a song called Jesus laughing well it's a whole song about him laughing it's not to him where worship songs are to God they're not about him right they're to him and uh so I wasn't raised singing those types of songs or those types of hymns so that that was new to me to sing actually to God which I do a lot in the shower now but we didn't grow up doing that we sang about him the hymns seemed to the ones I grew up on seem to be you know I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazar you know that type that one about him uh Blessed assurance Jesus is foress that's right I I I love all Mighty Fortress Is Our God that's a real up church this I mean you're starting a sing along right here on on TVN and listen if you you haven't joined in yet well you sing much better than I do I sort of I sound like a rooster with laryngitis and I don't and I and I don't want to ruin your pretty sounding voice mark it is always so great to have you with us thanks for joining us again

Channel: Kirk Cameron on TBN

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Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024