My friends, Luis Toro and Dave DeFazio, and I managed to brainstorm the concept of using kickstarter to sell the tickets, and scripted and made our video in February. We knew we needed to at least raise $1,200 to have most of the funds to pay the roller skating rink and Satellites & Sirens, who were driving up from Nashville. The site uses an “all or nothing” sales approach so if we didn’t hit our target, we would raise $0.

 

After a few weeks of work, on a Sunday night in late February we finished the video, created and submitted our site, we then needed God’s providence to work out the rest of the details. We needed Kickstarter approval for the banking and project which they said could take two to four weeks and would have put us almost 2 weeks past our deadline. Thankfully, everything was approved within six days. So two to four weeks in man’s timing was condensed to six days for God. As we all know, God can do A LOT in six days! 2 Peter 3:8: “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Amen to that!

 

We really felt the Lord’s hand on the final details, which involved the 30 days for the kickstarter site ending on His Son’s Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday, two days before our event. And, although it was a roller skating party 45 minutes away from our church in Bethlehem, PA, on a Tuesday night during the school year (many obstacles to be sure), we ended up with 41 sponsors stepping out in faith with and selling 195 tickets and successfully funded our project. Praise the Lord!

 

The mission statement of opening band Universal Royalty is to be a ministry of music, labored in love, founded and rooted in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. The band’s goal is to intimately love, diligently obey, and humbly submit to the will of our Lord. They have committed to use their gifts to edify and encourage the body of believers, as well as, esteem and evidence the person of Jesus in their character, singing, teaching, and lifestyle, all of this established through the absolute truth of the Bible. Their prayer as a ministry is to usher others closer to Jesus and bring glory to God. With that background, and having heard the band lead my church congregation in worship, I settled in to listen.
 

They performed an energetic six song set starting with “Feel It,” which begins a captuing guitar riff and a great message, driven home with the excellent ending of the song “Oh, through Your blood, Lord, I’ve been set free, c’mon, Oh, this World has got nothing on me.” If you like alternative rock in the style of Red Hot Chili Peppers, check out this great song. They continued with “Third Time Today,” “Swing Low,” “Come Away,” and “Pride On Parade.” The chorus of “Pride on Parade” reflects the truth of our human failure to fully submit to God in humility: “We have always been faithful, To plan our own way, Now we’ve got a whole human race full, Of pride on parade.” The song is written and sung by Luis Toro, one of the six brothers that make up the band, along with David, Juan, Daniel, Marcos and Nick as well as Chris and Graham Vasquez. They closed with the worshipful “Jesus Makes Me Clean.”

 

Luis Toro of Universal Royalty spoke to me before the show about his song, “Third Time Today.” “The idea behind the song," said Luis, "is about control ranging from a very superficial sense of simple everyday endeavors all the way to deep heart issues. It was partially inspired by my then girlfriend, now wife; who being a very disciplined person kept many lists, and had a lot of expectations of herself and others. But more so, the multiple other woman at the church I attended at the time who always seemed to be striving for so many things. One major one I remember, which is probably the truest inspiration for the lyrics, was that they wanted their husbands to be 'godlier' men. Instead of praying for them, they bashed them via 'prayer groups' on how they weren't leading their respective families like they thought they should. They would say things like, 'if he would only listen to me he would be a better leader.' I realized through reading Genesis that it was a history of humanity type of condition. So after reading about Eve's attempts at controlling or leading, the lyrics came rather quickly. In about 25 minutes actually!"

This song certainly isn't a bitter diatribe about  woman, or how woman shouldn't lead, but rather, it was written to point to Jesus, and how He's our leader, and how "the God of Redemption has answers of truth" but that we can only get them if we let go of ourselves, mortify our flesh and follow Him. You can watch the “Third Time Today” video here.

During the brief set change we had a couples skate to “I See The Light” and “A Whole New World” from Disney’s Tangled & Aladdin movie soundtracks and danced along with “Hokey Pokey” and “Chicken Dance.”

 

Next came Dove Award nominated alternative rock band Satellites & Sirens. They are one of the most promising new bands that emerged in the last couple of years and they were nominated for Rock Recorded Song of the Year for their hit song “Anchor” and Rock Album of the Year. “Life, in general, is noise,” says Geoff Hunker, lead singer and founder of the band, who released their second album Frequency on October 11, 2011. “And we busy ourselves so much that a lot of times we miss out on hearing what God’s direction is.”

The band consists of lead singer Geoff Hunker, Jonathan Dimmel, David Troyer and Dave Willey. They are a band both defined by and concerned with what it means to make music in a world filled with the deafening voices of the information age. Their sound is a modern take on the popular synth-pop of the 80’s, blending synthesizers with rock guitars overtop of interesting grooves. The meaning behind the band’s name is symbolic of their ministry: SATELLITES – heavenly bodies that circle the world, observing and advising it; and SIRENS – emanators of loud warnings and calls to action! Satellites & Sirens’ goal is to hear God’s message and loudly proclaim it to the kids of today’s generation. The band started off with a great set of several high-energy songs from both albums, starting with “Frequency.” The driving synth-rock beat of the song is perfectly married to the profound lyrics, “let’s not forget that this night is for living, and just like a drum, this heart won’t stop beating, for all of the radio listeners looking to feel…music and lyrics combining to heal your wounds. This frequency it comes and goes, let’s live and love in stereo, this frequency it comes and goes.” It is an incredible song and led perfectly into “Come On,” “Tell It,” “All We Need Is Sound,” and “Awkward.”

 

At that point, Geoff announced that they were going to lead us in worship and performed excellent synth-rock versions of the church worship staples “Mighty To Save” and “Our God.” Geoff explained after those great songs (which were really fun to roller skate to), that if anyone there didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus to come talk with any of the band members or church pastoral staff. That led into my favorite song “Ready To Save.” The message of the song has permeated my soul and I find myself regularly singing the hope-filled chorus: “There is a Love that you’ve been waiting for, there is an answer, there is a cure, There’s a Healer, He’s ready to save you, He’s ready to save you, He’s ready to save.” 

 

We can’t know everything and we are not in control, but trusting God gives us assurance that we don’t have to be afraid. God will be there to pick us up when we fall. The challenge for me when I listen to this song is pick an area of my life that I’ve been trying to control and instead cry out to Jesus for help and put all of my hope and trust in God. At some point, we all make mistakes and need to ask God for forgiveness. This song really brings me comfort, especially in the bridge: “Breakdown, breakdown let it out, Don't hold the hand of another doubt, You gotta know, yeah you gotta know, There's something more to this life if you let go.” God wants to give us His grace and mercy, we need to fall down at His feet and pray. Believing the words of this song is a great way to work on the disciplines of self-examination and prayer. You can know Jesus personally. Reach out to Him and know with certainty: “There is a love, You've been waiting for, There is an answer, There is a cure, There is a healer, Who's ready to save you, He's ready to save you, He’s ready to save.” Amen! The band closed with “Run Away,” “Black Sheep” and “Anchor.”

Satellites & Sirens have become my favorite Christian alternative rock band and our “Rock & Roll Night of Roller Skating and Music” was a blast. I heartily recommend seeing both of these great bands in concert (with or without roller skates) any chance you get. You’ll be energized in your faith, entertained, and all of their songs give glory to God.

 

You can watch the lyrics video of “Run Away” here.