So, This blog post is going to be a little different than usual. I was working on another blog
post when I came across an article by Sisterhood magazine. Now, I generally don't do this
but, this particular article was so impactful that I HAD to post it. I did NOT have any part
in writing this. All credit goes to Sisterhood Magazine and Anthem Lights. But, I felt like I
had to share this. It's definitely a favorite of mine and I hope you like it as much as I did!
When the article is finished, I"m going to leave a note at the end. Please read it. Even
though it's an article from a couple years ago, It's such an amazing article. :)
Alan Powell wrote his first song when he was 13 years old. He has written and forgotten many songs since then, but he can still play that first one by memory. “It’s about the Cross and my very young understanding of what that meant for me,” Alan says.
Alan Powell, Chad Graham, Caleb Grimm and Joey Stamper make up the band Anthem Lights, a high-energy pop quartet that will make you want to sing your heart out. These guys make it their mission to serve God with their music, and He has clearly led them to where they are today. Whether they’re taking a risk or waiting on His timing, they are learning to trust God—even when the future seems unpredictable.
“You have to be willing to go when He says go,” Joey says. “You also have to be willing to wait when God’s calling you to wait and put your trust in Him so much that you can just stand still for a season.”
Meet The GuysThe guys of Anthem Lights are close, more like brothers than band members, and they love to give each other a hard time. They call Alan the “logician” because he’s a black-and-white thinker, and they trust his wise words. Caleb is referred to as the “mom” of the band, and his attention to detail gets the guys to their shows on time. Joey is the “idea man,” always coming up with fun things to do. He still gets teased for being the new guy once in awhile. And Chad? “Chad is Chad,” Joey says. “There is nobody like Chad. He’s hilarious, and he’s fun to hang out with.”
If you go to an Anthem Lights concert, don’t be surprised if you get a compliment on your green shirt, green purse ... or a green leaf stuck to your shoe! A few minutes with the guys will tell you one thing: Chad and Joey are competing over who loves green the most!
“I am making it known that green is my favorite color and it has been my favorite color before Joey ever joined the band,” Chad says.
“Chad is offended that my favorite color is green,” Joey laughs. “But I had a fan bring me green suspenders, so I think I’m winning right now.”
A few minutes with the guys will also tell you something more important: Anthem Lights is a ministry. From the beginning, their music has been a way to reach people for God. “To the believer, we want to say that this relationship with Christ is not supposed to be something you do on Wednesday nights and again on Sundays,” Alan says. “This relationship infiltrates every part of your life and every decision that you make.”
Anthem Lights wants non-believers to know that fulfillment can’t be found in relationships, careers or anything else. “We want them to know that there is meaning and purpose and hope in this life, and His name is Jesus Christ,” Alan says.
The guys of Anthem Lights know music is a powerful thing. They hope to reflect their band name well by being a resounding anthem of God’s love and a light in this dark world.
“I don’t know if a song or a record can change the world, but it can change someone’s world, because I’ve experienced that firsthand,” Caleb says. “Those are the kind of records we want to be a part of as a ministry.”
The band members spend a lot time interacting with Christians through their records and concerts, so they make a special effort to reach non-believers, too. One way they do that is by recording covers of secular songs for their YouTube channel.
“We reach people who would never listen to Christian music, but they see a cover and they like it. Hopefully it will encourage them to go check out our music and listen to lyrics they have never heard before,” Chad says. “It has been working. Some of the YouTube comments say, ‘I don’t listen to Christian music, but this is making me rethink faith.’ ”
Beginnings Before Anthem Lights was a thought in anyone’s mind, Chad knew music was God’s call on his life. He pursued singing and waited for God to open up a door for his career.
“For so long, I felt so strongly that I was supposed to do this. I was supposed to sing; that was the gift God was going to use through me to reach people,” Chad said.
Alan planned to become a theology professor, but God redirected his path, leading him to pursue music in Los Angeles instead.
Chad and Alan had been good friends for years, and Alan encouraged Chad to join him in L.A. to work on music together. “It was God pushing me to do this and showing me the way,” Chad says.
Alan connected Chad with a producer, and they worked on Chad’s solo EP for about a year. After their first day in the studio, they began to imagine what the songs would sound like with a group. Chad says, “We were looking for something that wasn’t happening in the Christian market at the time. We loved that idea, but where would would we find guys who would fit?”
Alan and Chad needed to find guys who were passionate about God and fit their style of music. God led them to Caleb Grimm and Kyle Kupecky, the band’s original fourth member. Alan wasn’t planning to join the band himself, but he jumped on board last minute, excited to serve God through music.
“A lot of times God speaks through open doors,” Alan says. “If God’s your first passion, your other passions can be trusted. If He is first and you find yourself really drawn to music—which was in my case—or teaching or whatever it is, then you can trust that passion.”
Choosing Community
The guys of Anthem Lights have learned that trusting God also means trusting Him to speak through people. Listening to his family helped Caleb decide to join Anthem Lights. He was attending college on a full-ride scholarship when Alan and Chad asked him to be a part of the band. Caleb agreed to record that first EP, but he wasn’t sure about the future. Walking away from his scholarship didn’t seem practical, and he thought his parents wouldn’t approve.
“You grow up and you get more and more freedom,” Caleb says. “You get to a place where you have so much freedom it’s scary; every decision you make could literally change your life. Not to seek counsel is foolish in my opinion. The Bible says the wise seek counsel, so that’s what I did.”
He presented the idea to his parents and, to his surprise, they encouraged him to join the band, seeing it as an incredible opportunity for Caleb to use his gifts. Leaving college was a big decision Caleb wouldn’t have wanted to make alone. “If you isolate yourself, you’re going to end up chasing after what you want. If you’re reaching out to other people—people who are wiser than you—they will help you make right decisions,” he says.
The guys know they need accountability, but consistent community is hard to find on the road. They rely on each other for honesty and encouragement in their walks with God.
“As a band, we try very hard to keep each other accountable,” Chad says. “Everybody needs relationships like this. Relationships where you can literally confess anything. These are the guys I would go to for anything.”
The guys are thankful for their community, and they have a blast doing music together. They love putting on a good show, but they ultimately want their songs to be much more than entertainment. To keep their focus on God—and off of themselves—the guys make prayer a priority in their band.
“We huddle up every night before we go onstage and we pray together,” Joey says. “We’re not in this for our own glory. We’re doing something for God. That’s really crucial. As soon as we start trying to do something for ourselves, we will fail.”
The guys turned to prayer when the future of Anthem Lights seemed uncertain. After Kyle announced he felt called to leave the band, Alan, Chad and Caleb had to ask God for the next step. “We had to seek God and just pray hard for the other guy who was going to come along and join the ministry,” Caleb says. “God brought Joey, and it was cool to see Him work in that situation and provide when we needed Him to.”
Joey led worship at his church, and he won a national singing competition, but he wasn’t pursuing music professionally. He was caught off-guard when Alan contacted him. “Music has always been a passion of mine; it’s something I have enjoyed since I was a little kid,” Joey says. “God really opened the door for Anthem Lights. It was totally out of the blue.”
When the other guys met Joey and heard his heart, they knew it was a great match. God provided for Anthem Lights, and Joey joined the band in May of 2012. “It feels like he has been here the whole time,” Alan says. “He’s like a brother, and he’s a really great guy.”
Music With A MissionIf they want their ministry to count, the guys have to fight for their relationships with God. “We know there is no purpose in us doing what we’re doing on the road if we’re not growing and feeding off of Christ,” Chad says. Staying connected to God has had to become a serious discipline. “If you fill you life with so much noise and the voice of this world, I think it’s hard to hear and follow God’s voice,” Joey says.
This can be difficult for a band on tour. Anthem Lights could be in a different city each day, often driving through the night to reach their next show. “It seems paradoxical, but one of the hardest things to do as a Christian artist is to be a Christian,” Alan says. “The hours are crazy, so prioritizing your relationship with the Lord on any given day is always a very purposeful decision you have to make.”
A few years ago, Alan told God he wanted to know His Word more. Instantly, he felt God saying, “Well … know My Word more.” Alan realized it’s his responsibility to hide God’s Word in his heart. He decided to take that seriously by memorizing a book of the Bible. He started with 1 Peter, learning two verses a day. Next he memorized 2 Peter and then the book of Jude. Memorizing Scripture has deepened Alan’s trust in God unlike ever before.
“It has changed my life,” he says. “God makes it so clear in His Word that He is trustworthy. We are promised we will have trials; we are also promised that God is using those trials and He’s going to be with us. Whether it’s change or just a tough time, it’s never something we can’t handle with God on our side.”
Alan was so encouraged, he wanted to invite other people to memorize, too. He created The Challenge and spread the word through Facebook and Twitter. Fans and other band members have joined him in memorizing James and 1 Timothy so far. Alan has experienced the power of God’s Word, but with Anthem Lights’ hectic schedule, how does he have time to memorize two verses every day?
“Life is about priorities. There is always a lot to do for anybody, but it’s a matter of what are you going to choose to do with this moment,” Alan says. “There are some things that we have to do … but we also make choices. Am I going to choose to spend this time entertaining myself with a movie, TV, Facebook or Twitter, or am I going to spend this time allowing God to change me through His Word? I want to be able to say God’s Word has the upmost priority.”
Goals like The Challenge help the guys stay on track with God in the midst of traveling and performing. “The Challenge has helped me a lot with being consistent memorizing Scripture,” Joey says. “I have learned that I have to have a schedule. I have to know when I go to bed when I’m going to spend time with God the next day or I’ll forget about it.”
A Remedy For Worry
The guys believe God’s plan is always better than their own, and they want to help their listeners walk in the center of His will. “It’s so deeply embedded in our culture these days to hear ‘chase your dreams’ and ‘follow your heart.’ But those are lies. They are lies that we hear every day,” Joey says. “Especially going through high school and college, trying to figure what we want to do and who we want to be, we hear those lies and we pursue them.”
Oftentimes, Alan says, we spend too much energy worrying about what we’re supposed to do instead of trusting God. “When you’re going through hard times or you’re making a big decision, all you really have to ‘worry’ about is being the man or woman of God that He wants you to be and He’s going to take care of the rest,” Alan says. “That’s what He means when He says ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you’ or ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.’ Our only responsibility is to focus on Him—we don’t need to worry so much about all the little details.”
It can be hard to focus on God when many different voices are competing for our attention. In high school, Caleb was in choir, drama, track, youth group and his church praise team. His world was shaken when his family moved after his junior year, forcing him to rely on God like never before.
“It was only then that I realized I found my identity in things and people, and I hadn’t made my faith my own,” Caleb says. “That’s when I learned to find my identity in Christ, because your walk with God is truly the only thing that can’t be taken away from you.”
The guys desire to put God first, and they turn to His Word when they’re struggling to trust Him. “The Bible says be anxious for nothing,” Caleb says. “As humans, it’s our response to worry, but I think after a certain point it becomes sin. To worry about something is showing lack of trust in God. If you’re trusting God, that is the remedy to worry.”
They’ll admit: Trusting is hard. It’s a lot more natural to stress out or replay scenarios over and over again in our minds. So what do the guys do when they’re tempted to worry?
“The same thing we have to learn to do with all our issues, that is, take them to God,” Joey says. “He tells us all the time not to worry in Scripture, which seems impossible. I don’t know how not to worry, but whenever I do, I just pray about it. Being able to go talk to God helps me a lot.”
A Precious Audience
After producing their first CD, the band members realized many of their fans are teen girls—a responsibility they don’t take lightly.
“We decided to be very intentional about speaking to teen girls about the issues they’re facing,” Caleb says. “What true beauty looks like, what a godly relationship looks like, even things like dressing modestly and having respect for yourself.” Anthem Lights has an awesome opportunity to reach their biggest fans in 2013. The band is performing across the country with The Revolve Tour, an event specifically for teen girls!
“What better opportunity than to go to The Revolve Tour where it’s literally a church full of teen girls and we can talk about purity, commitment, relationships and true beauty, and really speak to the things that are on their minds?” Caleb says. The Revolve Tour is an exciting event just for teen girls that creates Instagram-able memories through concerts, speakers, worship and more. Produced by the creators of Women of Faith events, The Revolve Tour features award-winning artists and inspiring speakers. This year’s theme, This is Love, aims to broadcast this message loud and clear: Jesus is the definition of true love.
“I think it’s important to understand that it’s literally impossible to outrun God’s love,” Joey says. “Everyone is going to make mistakes. We all do it, and it’s so easy to get discouraged. If we make a mistake, a lot of times we get in this slump. We’ve already messed up so we think, What’s the point? God can’t love me anymore. You can’t outrun God’s love. No matter what you go through, God still wants you.”
Anthem Lights will perform a concert and participate in a Q&A panel each event. The guys have been working on their next album, and they have a new song about purity they can’t wait to perform onstage.
“I know there are girls who don’t think there are any guys waiting until marriage. Girls will settle for so much less; they don’t know they are valued as much as they are,” Chad says. “It’s a song that lets girls know there are guys out there who are waiting for marriage. I promise you should not settle for anything less.”
Someone Worth Trusting
Being on tour may sound like a dream, so it’s easy to assume bands have it all when you see them onstage. But the guys of Anthem Lights still have to rely on God to provide for them each day.
“Every time we decide to go on a tour with a larger band, it takes a lot of expenses,” Caleb says. “We have to trust that God opened the opportunity to go on the road and share the music He has given us. So we’re going to trust Him to provide financially and to pay for the gas to get there. There are a lot of financial risks that we take, and He has provided every step of the way thus far.”
The guys are also learning to trust God with their hopes for the future. For some, that means patiently waiting on God’s timing for the right relationship. “I like to think about my future wife and my family,” Joey says. “Sometimes it can be a distraction if I start thinking so much about my future wife that I lose sight of my first priority and my first passion, which is God. I’m really trusting God because it has always been a big passion of mine to be a husband and a father. I know it’s going to be difficult being on the road and being in a band, so I’m just trusting God that when the time is right, He will arrange everything.”
Alan saw God’s faithfulness through his relationship with his wife, Brycie. As Alan kept his eyes on God, God made it clear Brycie was right for him. “The more I focused on my relationship with the Lord, the more He was the first priority to me, the more I found myself falling in love with this girl,” Alan says. “The things she was pushing me to were things that resonated with my spirit like wanting God to be first. I think the opposite is true when you know you’re not with the right person. If God is first, it will make sense if it’s the person you’re supposed to be with.”
Hearing God’s voice is not always as obvious as we would like it to be. However, the guys agree the Holy Spirit will make things clear, whether it’s a decision about college, dating or marriage.
“I truly believe that there is a peace that surpasses understanding,” Caleb says. “In any area of life, some things make sense on paper, but they just don’t feel right in your spirit. If you’re really chasing God and something doesn’t feel right in your spirit, you can probably guess that it’s not of Him.”
It’s easy to get mixed up when we navigate life alone, but trusting God makes the difference between night and day.
“There are times in the past when I have gone through a rut and I’m not walking with Christ. During those times I can’t see right from left, I can’t see black from white. Everything is confusing because I’m trying to make my own decisions and I’m going with my feelings,” Chad says. “My whole Christian walk, when I put my full trust in God and I’m growing in Christ, God has always been one or two steps ahead of me. He brings clarity to every decision I make.”
Chad, Alan, Joey and Caleb know the future of Anthem Lights is in God’s hands, and they believe He is worth trusting. It’s still about the Cross for these pop singers, and they’re heading toward whatever brings God glory.
Missy Calvert is the editorial coordinator for Sisterhood Magazine, and she currently has Anthem Lights’ song “Outta My Mind” stuck in her head.
>>The Guys of Anthem Lights <<Joey
Did you know?
Joey is lactose intolerant.
Green has been his favorite color since he was a kid.
When he was in high school, his youth pastor sat on him to force him to sing.
Facebook or Twitter? “Facebook is fun-ish, but Twitter is where it’s at!”
AlanDid you know?
Alan is 27 years old and has never had coffee or a salad.
He grew up singing Southern gospel with his sisters.
He has a 2-year-old daughter named Avery Jade or A.J. for short.
Facebook or Twitter? “Twitter. I like the instant connection.”
CalebDid you know?
Caleb’s middle name is Andrew.
He’s planning to finish college online.
He doesn’t love sweets, but he could eat fries, nachos and popcorn for days.
Facebook or Twitter? “Twitter. No question.”
ChadDid you know?
Chad loves anything chocolate.
He was a big fan of the band’s original name, Yellow Cavalier, but now he loves the name Anthem Lights.
His all-time favorite color is green!
Facebook or Twitter? “It used to be Facebook, but I would have to say Twitter now.”
Note from K Jonelle ~
Now that you've read one of my all time favorite articles, please, Check out Sisterhood magazine. I think it's a really great thing that they're doing! Also, if you're interested in taking "The Challenge", please leave a comment on this post and I can link you to the Facebook event, which you can join and participate in it with other people. :) I'm so excited to get started with this and grow closer to God while doing it!
Thank you so much for reading and I look forward to taking The Challenge with you and so many other believers. I love you guys! ~KJ
