Even though I pastor a church and can be found there every Sunday morning for worship at 9:00 a.m., I have been fortunate to have been able to visit about thirty churches in the hometown of the newspaper I write a religious column for, the Broomfield Enterprise. Once in a while I leave a church saying "Wow!", and that was what happened a number of years ago when my son Guy and I visited a non-denominational church called Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, Colorado.

Flatirons had a winning formula and when my son and I first started going there, they were doing five services of worship over Saturday night and Sunday. They moved into a larger facility (a converted feed store) that would seat about 1400 people, and before long, were up to four services in the larger facility, growing at a rate of about 800 people every six months. Currently on an average weekend about 4,000 adults and about 1,000 children will attend church.

The church is only a few miles from the CU-Boulder campus, and a young, vibrant preacher named Gil Jones, combined with one of the best contemporary Christian bands, combined with small group ministry and workshops for all ages, made for success. While Jones is now gone from the scene, the contemporary Christian music remains as one of the reasons so many attend. And lest we forget, the presence of the Holy Spirit in that place must be given credit as well.

Their contemporary Christian music, under the direction of two musicians named Chris Johnson and Brian Davis, was fantastic! What helped greatly was the fact that the band was staffed by a number of professional musicians who lived Boulder and happened to love the Lord enough to give up their weekends. Also not hurting them was the fact that it was Rachael Lampa's home church (she lived up the street and went to Monarch High School). On a given Sunday, you would see Rachael just hanging out with her friends, or once in a while, she would join the band and sing during the praise & worship segment of the service. Her Christmas Eve rendition of "O Holy Night" will not be forgotten by me so long as I am around.

About three years ago when my son and I attended one of the services there was a visiting band opening the worship service. They were called The Fray, and I have to admit that I wasn't all that thrilled about the group. I just assumed that this was another struggling group that would eventually fade into the woodwork.

Well, here we are in 2006, and given the last couple of years and The Fray's incredible ride to success, it would appear that I have displayed poor judgement in my analysis of their skills. Other bands have made the jump from Christian to secular music, but none with quite the splash that has been made by The Fray.

The band was originally formed back in 2002, and it was the band's Christian background that helped sustain it during its first couple of years. The band was formed by lead singer and keyboard player Isaac Slade, along with fellow Denver classmate Joe King. Added later were drummer Ben Wysocki and guitarist Dave Welsh, and the big break came in 2004 when they signed a contract with Epic Records.

While their music is now reaching a secular market, there is still an underlying theme of redemption and hope in the group's songs, though on a very different level than during the early Christian music years. Slade's comments in a recent interview, certainly give insight into his feelings about the business. "Our goal is not to convert the world, it's to be musicians and do what we do. If people connect with us for a reason other than that, it usually means someone else on the opposite side is going to disconnect with us." he stated to Denver Post writer John Wenzel.

Why the move to secular music, you ask? One day while at work at Starbucks, Slade figured out that including religion in his lyrics would limit the number of people he could reach. That got him to writing a new type of song, and that was something that as gotten him in trouble with conservative Christians, who feel he is wasting his talent on a secular music career.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of the past year came on a recent Saturday night, September 30, when The Fray played to a sold-out audience at Red Rocks, a beautiful concert venue on the edge of the Rocky Mountains carved out of "red rocks". Since it always seems to rain when I go to a concert at Red Rocks, it's been a while. In fact, I think the last performer I saw at Red Rocks was Bob Hope. Like I said, it's been a while.

Their rise to stardom in the past year has been rather spectacular. After playing 62 concert dates in 2005, they've already played 82 dates so far this year, with another 34 scheduled. This year's tour began in Aspen, Colorado in January, and will end November 20 in Seattle. And included in those dates this year have been in New Zealand, Australia, England and Germany.

A look at their past year: The album How to Save a Life is certified platinum, with sales of more than 1 million units. The single "Over My Head" has been certified platinum, with more than 1 million downloads. The single "How to Save a Life" has been certified gold, selling more than 500,000 copies. They have appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno twice, the Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. And if you're watching TV on October 26, you can catch them on Good Morning America.

Despite my initial opinion of The Fray, they are destined to become one of the most financially successful and visible acts that Denver has ever produced. Those Denver area roots will never be forgotten, especially after a donation of $35,000 to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, which goes to instrumental music education programs in Denver public schools.