Jeremy Camp’s “Speaking Louder than Before” tour rolled into New Castle, PA on September 27, 2009. Joining him for this sold-out show were Bebo Norman and Natalie Grant.

The show opened with Bebo Norman and his longtime on-stage collaborator, Gabe Scott. Bebo was born in Georgia under the given name of Jeffery Norman. He got the nickname Bebo when his younger sister couldn’t say "big brother." The name stuck, and that’s the name he chose to perform by. His acoustic set with Gabe was quite impressive. It was an incredibly relaxing sound and special time of worship.

Natalie Grant then took over the show, opening with “I Will Not Be Moved.” Afterwards, she shared the back story to the song, “God Of This City,” written by Irish band BlueTree. While serving in Thailand in 2006, the band ended up in the city of Pattaya—-the heart of Thailand’s sex trade—-where girls as young as five are sold into this horrific lifestyle. While in the city, they were looking for places to play, and God opened the door for them to perform in one of the local bars. When they started their worship set, God spoke to them, and they burst into this spontaneous song. As Natalie started singing, I could hear that this was a song that wasn’t just written for the city of Pattaya, it was also written for us here in Pittsburgh and it was written for you in your city. “I’m the God of this city, I’m the king of these people, and greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done HERE.”

This part of the show was very powerful as God reminded me to take heart that He isn’t finished yet. I think my only disappointment about her set was that the band was much louder then Natalie’s voice, and I could tell she struggled to sing over them.

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After a short intermission, it was Jeremy’s turn to take the stage. He opened with favorites like “Glory,” “Take You Back” and “This Man.” At one point, he had the people in the balcony rocking and dancing so hard that I thought the whole thing was going to collapse. Jeremy, the son of a pastor, draws his inspiration from not only worship music but secular music as well. He said that some of his greatest inspiration comes from U2’s Joshua Tree, Delirious' King of Fools and Jars of Clay’s debut album.

Many of Jeremy’s earlier lyrics come out his personal heartache as he lost his first wife to ovarian cancer at the age of 21. These songs include “I Still Believe” and “Walk by Faith.” As he performed these songs, he shared some of his thoughts about these times, quoting what Jesus said: “You will have trials in this world, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.” He explained that he knows this truth first-hand, and that we can only see what is here and now, but God sees the big picture.

Toward the end of the show, Jeremy put down his guitar, sat down at the piano, and started to just worship. He started with one of my favorites, “Give Me Jesus,” such a simple little song yet with so much truth and power in it. It’s a song that seems to renew my heart every time I hear it. He also sang “My Desire” and “Mighty to Save,” another one of my all-time favorite worship tunes.

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Even though Jeremy’s tour was called “Speaking Louder Than Before,” it’s not about turning up the volume (trust me it was plenty loud), but rather it was more of a challenge to us, the church, to hold ourselves accountable, to listen and find greater clarity to what God has called us to do.

So often we ignore what God has placed in our hearts because we’re busy, we’re tired, and sometimes we’re just lazy. If we would just allow our Lord’s voice to come through “louder than before,” we could make the impact that needs to be made on the world around us.

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