Newsboys Concert!!!!

I went to a Newsboys concert tonight. It was being held at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village. Will Call was at 5, and the doors opened at 6. Since Will Call was at 5, I figured I should get there early. I got there around 4:15, went inside about 4:55. I got my ticket and found a spot to sit down to wait for the doors to open. I had talked to one of the guys there, trying to find out some info about when Will Call was going to start, since it was nearly five and no one was there yet. Well, he saw me sitting down (reading) and came over and invited to me join a Q&A session that Duncan Phillips (of the Newsboys) was going to be doing. One of the questions he answered was about Pete Furler stepping down from the touring side of the Newsboys. When the Q&A session ended, the doors were almost ready to open. Once they did, I went inside to sit down. Found my section, found my row... but I could not find my SEAT! Why? I was in section B. No problem. The sections were labeled. Then I found Row V, the very last row. No problem, there. The rows were labeled too. Then I looked at the seats to find seat 22. Let's see... the first seat in the row was seat 24. Wait. That can't be right. My ticket said Seat 22. But there was NO 22. How could that be? I have no clue. Even the ushers were baffled. Even the people at the ticket table were baffled. So, what did they do? Did they move me to another seat? Nope. They just brought me a chair. It was quite funny. One of the ushers joked about it later too. I made a new friend with the person sitting next to me. Her name's Misty and she recently moved to California from Texas. We chatted as we waited for the concert to begin. And then, it turned out, my seat wasn't the only seat missing! A young mother and her daughter in the row in front of us were missing their seats as well! The concert began with Bread of Stone. I'm not sure if I ever heard of them before, but some of their songs sounded familiar. The lead vocalist and guitarists are brothers, from Indonesia. After them, it was VOTA (formerly known as Casting Pearls). I was videoing them and taking a few pictures with my camera during their set. I think it was during the last song, one of the ushers tapped me on the shoulder and asked me something about taking pictures. He said to be careful. During intermission, I asked him if I wasn't allowed to take pictures. He said I wasn't supposed to. So, during the Newsboys' set, I didn't take as many photos. Until everyone else started taking them. Then I figured, it probably wasn't as big a deal then. Everyone really started taking pictures when they moved from the main stage to their "B" set so they could "B" closer to the fans. That's when they went down "memory lane". It was pretty fun. They sang a few choruses of their older songs. Jeff did "not ashamed" and Duncan did "Shine"... they even did a few dc Talk songs. They even did a whole dc Talk song later. And Duncan got to do a little bit of his spinning drum kit. They did their fake exit and came back for a song. You know, I had forgotten that the Newsboys are more than just a band. They're a ministry too. They're involved in the Baja project as well as other things. They're not just out there to play music and make money ... but to minister to others and fight "physical and spiritual poverty".

Why am I so big on the other side of the Newsboys? It's been two and half years since I've last seen a performance by them. I kinda stopped following them so closely since then. Recently, someone had asked me if I had heard of a group called the Newsboys because they saw a video of them. When I said yes, and that must've been their new DVD that came out and how I wanted to get a copy. They said, they certainly hoped what they saw wasn't what I wanted to see. Basically, they didn't think very highly of them. And me being me, I get defensive about things I like. And that's how I feel about the Newsboys, especially now, after going to their concert. Now, I haven't gone to to many concerts. But I can tell you, there was a lot of prayer at this one. There were scripture readings in it and messages spoken. The Newsboys aren't just a band. It's a ministry as well. And that's something that someone didn't know about they group. They just judged them according to what they saw. They didn't judge them on their message or what they did ... just what they saw. If you want to know more about them and their ministry, here are a few links.

Newsboys - their official band website
Wipedia site - here's your crash course on the Newsboys, courtesy of Wikipedia
Global Tribe - Official Website