Since I was saved, I have been an avid Christian music collector and I can’t get enough of the biblical messages behind Christian songs. I love to learn songs and sing them with passion along with the artists, especially when there is biblical truth in the lyrics. That led to me starting my “behind the song with Kevin Davis” devotional series on NRT in 2008 where I post weekly devotionals based on the biblical messages “behind the songs” in Christian music. In late 2008 and again in early 2009, I had the privilege to see the band VOTA in concert and they really put on a great show. I met in-person with Bryan Olesen, the lead singer of VOTA, and we discussed the biblical truth behind the song “Hard to Believe” and I posted a devotional about the song. I have enjoyed that album ever since and I subscribe to VOTA’s e-mail list.

 

In February, 2011, while watching my 2 youngest daughters’ gymnastics classes, I received an e-mail from VOTA asking if I wanted to host VOTA at my house for a ‘VOTA House Party.’ Naturally I was interested, and what really excited me was that I am turning 40 this fall and I’ve often talked with my family and friends about hosting a band at my house for a party. So, I e-mailed my wife Jennifer and asked what she thought about the idea, and graciously she agreed that it was the perfect type of party for us to consider hosting for me based on my love for Christian music. VOTA set up and hosted a kickstarter.com fundraising website for as many as 30 homes to raise the funds necessary to book them for a ‘VOTA House Party.’ Each home that was selected to try and raise the funds had 30 days to reach the goal. We had to completely step out in faith and e-mail our family and friends and see if they’d step out in faith with us and make a financial commitment at first with many people never having heard of VOTA or knowing what date they were coming to our house. We really had to trust God completely with so many details involving this party. Our first answer to prayer came from some friends at my church, Calvary Chapel of Quakertown, PA who are in a band called Universal Royalty.
 

 

I’ve gotten to know the band members Luis Toro and Chris Vasquez, and I contacted them and asked if they would consider making a sponsorship to be the opening band for the ‘VOTA House Party.’ Universal Royalty has been playing together as a band for the past 8 years and they are a great indie Christian rock band. I recently reviewed their current release, This Side of the Sea, and it’s a great album. I loved how the band embraced the idea right away and after prayerful consideration they took a step of faith and also made a financial commitment to help make the party happen. That was one of many moments where I felt that God had blessed our decision to pursue the party. Next thing we knew, we had a total of 15 sponsorships representing about 65 people and we exactly hit our financial goal within 3 weeks. We were completely blessed. The party date was scheduled for June 23rd and for 3 months we planned and waited.

 

The week before the party, we hosted my wife’s parents, two of her brothers and their wives and four of our nieces, along with our family of five in our house for over 10 days. Then we only had 2 days to get ready for the party. Many of our friends volunteered to help with details and volunteered to bring food and arrived early to help set up. On June 23rd, the weather forecast included a greater than 50% chance of thunderstorms every hour and we were hosting a backyard outdoor concert. Thankfully we had a beautiful night and the Lord blessed us with amazing weather. Both bands arrived and set up their sound equipment on our patio and we set up chairs in our backyard for the house party.
 

It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I’ll never forget it. I’m so grateful to my wife Jennifer for stepping out in faith and out of her comfort zone to agree to host 75 people in our home, and to my family and friends for their support. We’ve gotten great feedback from everyone who attended that they had a great time and got to experience a night of music and ministry that was very edifying and fun. Universal Royalty started off the night playing 4 songs from their current album, “Feel It,” “Swing Low,” “Pride on Parade,” and “God Will Lead Us Along.” “Feel It” has a great classic rock rhythm and got our party started with everyone getting up and clapping along. “Swing Low” is a great re-write of the hymn “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and lead singer David Toro, who currently lives in England with his wife Claire, just happened to be in town on June 23rd. We were so blessed in so many ways, and David brought a great energy to the concert as during “Swing Low,” he implored all of us to sing back “Yeah, we ready!” as an echo to him singing, “Y’all ain’t ready!” I was in the back next to the guys from VOTA and I was thrilled that they also participated along with the crowd. Luis Toro sang lead on the song “Pride on Parade,” and then Claire joined the band for the closing song “God Will Lead Us Along.” It was a great way to open the night and everyone was totally warmed up and excited when VOTA started playing.

 

VOTA was formerly the band Casting Pearls and has undergone a name change and band member changes. The front man and lead singer Bryan Olesen was the guitarist for the newsboys for their worship albums Adoration and Devotion. The band is from Lincoln, Nebraska and they had performed a ‘House Party’ concert the night before in Canada and drove their tour bus and trailer behind it to our house in Southeastern Pennsylvania, in a suburb of Philadelphia. The highlights of the night for me were when Bryan unveiled some of their new songs and especially when they performed some great acoustic renditions of their stand-out songs “Love’s Taken Over,” “Be Mine,” “Free To Fail” and “Hard To Believe.” Having previously seen the band sing those four songs plugged in with full production, it was a real treat to in essence host a VH1 Unplugged type of intimate show in my backyard. Bryan got to really share his own personal testimony including his very emotional story about his relationship with his grandmother. Bryan grew up in Connecticut and his parents split up when he was young and he became a believer due to his involvement with his local church youth group. He admitted he joined the youth group just to have something to do because he was bored, but it led to him accepting Jesus as his personal Savior. His grandmother had not been a believer and Bryan moved away to Nebraska for college and he prayed for her to accept Christ. He wrote her a letter telling her how much God loves her and said he’d never bring up the letter and she could ask him if she ever wanted to know more about Jesus. For years, she never asked about the letter and she got sick and Bryan flew home to be with her before she died. He so badly wanted to tell her about Jesus and his grandmother asked him about his letter as she was sick in the hospital. Finally, his prayers were answered and Bryan got to share the Gospel with her. She died ten days later and Bryan’s story connects with all of us who are believers who have friends and family members who haven’t yet accepted Christ. 
 

 

It was a beautiful testimony and Bryan’s story is reflected in the lyrics of “Free to Fail,” where Bryan emotionally sang out “You are the One who’s breaking my heart all over again, You are the One who’s given me life…Jesus, we are free to fail now.” Amen to that! Something beautiful about being a Christian is that we are all free to fail. Our sins have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus. We can’t earn salvation. Grace is unmerited favor from God based on our full trust in His Son Jesus who died on behalf of our sins. In Romans, Paul tells us “the wages of sin is death.” VOTA’s song “Love’s Taken Over” reflects the beauty of the Cross and how we can all be filled by The Holy Spirit when we are born again. A couple other moments of the great night involved a fun surprise for my wife as our sponsorship allowed me to sing a song with the band. Nobody knew when that would happen or which song, but beforehand Bryan and I discussed that it would be great to sing “Be Mine” which is a love song with the chorus, “these four words I’ve got to say to you, please hear me now, Be Mine for life, Be Mine for life!” It was a blast to sing with the band and it was great to publically share my love for my wife Jennifer with my friends and family. VOTA closed the house party with their hit song “Hard To Believe” which had the entire crowd on their feet as Bryan said our singing part was to sing “Oh!” and everyone got into it as we all sang “Oh! Extraordinary, You’re bringing me out, it’s so hard to believe, turn my world around.”

My four year old daughter Bethany danced in the front of the crowd the entire night and during the last song Bryan threw his guitar pick at her. Never having seen that before, while he was singing Bethany handed him back his pick and he played a game with her the rest of the song and kept throwing her the pick and she brought it back to him every time. After they finished, Bryan made Bethany keep the VOTA guitar pick and it’s her favorite souvenir from the night and was yet another wonderful memory from this extraordinary ‘house party.’