Third Day and MercyMe among bands headlining concert tours along with the new Audio Adrenaline

Some of the biggest names in contemporary Christian music are hitting the road on tour in the new year, with many supporting the release of new albums.

GRAMMY-winning multi-platinum recording artist TobyMac will headline the Winter Jam Tour Spectacular—Christian music’s biggest tour and the No. 1 tour in the world for the first quarter of the year for the past two years.

Kicking off its 18th year Jan. 4 in Charleston, W.Va., and concluding March 30 in San Antonio, the 44-city tour will also feature Red, Matthew West, Jamie Grace, Sidewalk Prophets and Royal Tailor, as well as speaker Nick Hall. In addition, the Youth Music Vault Pre-Jam Party will include performances from Jason Castro, OBB and Capital Kings. Admission is $10 at the door, with no ticket required. 

Playing to a total of nearly 535,000 people last year, Winter Jam outpaced attendance for all other tours, according to Pollstar’s 2012 Worldwide First Quarter Ticket Sales Charts—Top 100 Tours, bypassing such key tours as Cirque du Soleil; “Michael Jackson: The Immortal”; Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters; The Black Keys; Jason Aldean; and Brad Paisley. 

“We are more passionate than ever about the ministry that drives the tour,” said Eddie Carswell, creator of Winter Jam and founding member of NewSong. “Led by TobyMac, this year’s line-up represents the diversity—and future—of Christian music.” 

Meanwhile, the fifth annual Rock & Worship Roadshow, which kicks off Feb. 7 in Madison, Wisc., and concludes March 10 in Fresno, Calif., features MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Tedashii, Kutless, Family Force 5, Luminate, Adam Cappa, Rhett Walker Band and Tim Timmons. Like Winter Jam, tour admission is $10 at the door, with no ticket required. Last year’s Roadshow was named one of Pollstar’s Top 50 Tours for mid-year 2012. 

Elsewhere, GRAMMY-winning worship leader Chris Tomlin’s first album in three years, Burning Lights (sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records/EMI CMG Distribution), releases Jan. 8. Beginning Feb. 19 in Charleston, W.V., and wrapping up May 4 in Denver, the 34-city Burning Lights Tour will feature Passion City Church founder Louie Giglio and Kari Jobe. Burning Lights features the hit single “Whom Shall I Fear [God of Angel Armies].” 

“I feel that it’s a very important responsibility that God’s given me to write songs for His Church and to give people a voice to worship God, so I take that very seriously,” Tomlin said. “So I’m not just throwing a bunch of songs together to make a new record and hope that it just rides on the wind of what I’ve done in the past. I want it to be the very best thing I’ve ever done every time.” 

Third Day will headline The Miracle Tour next month in support of the GRAMMY-winning band’s latest studio project, Miracle (Essential Records/Provident-Integrity). Launching Feb. 21 in Fairfax, Va., and ending May 5 in Louisville, Ky., the 45-city tour will also feature American Idol finalist Colton Dixon and singer-songwriter Josh Wilson.  

“We have toured for so many years and feel like we owe any success we have to the fans that built Third Day,” said drummer David Carr. “We poured so much into this record because we wanted to bring our fans our very best. We are proud of Miracle and can’t wait for people to hear it.”

The album was produced by veteran producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Train, The Killers). 

Meanwhile, Audio Adrenaline, a Christian rock band that formed in the late 1980s but retired in 2007, has re-formed with an altered lineup in a move that is a renewed effort by the group to help orphans in Haiti and around the world. Founding members Mark Stuart and Will McGinniss has been joined by new vocalist Kevin Max, formerly of dcTalk.

The band’s first single, “Kings and Queens,” was released in November with the new album of the same title slated to release March from Fair Trade Services, a new label for the band. Beginning in late February and running through spring, the Kings and Queens Tour will include Group 1 Crew, Seventh Day Slumber and Manic Drive. 

Net proceeds from the album’s sales will go to Hands & Feet Project, a nonprofit organization started in 2004 by Audio Adrenaline members that is dedicated to helping orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti.

GRAMMY-winning artist and worship leader Chris Tomlin offers his new studio release, Burning Lights (5-09996-070775-8, $13.99, sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG Distribution), in stores Jan. 8.

How did you decide on the project’s title, Burning Lights?

The title, Burning Lights, comes from a lyric within the final song on the record called “Shepherd Boy.” It says, “I’m just a shepherd boy / singing to a choir of burning lights.”

You’ve said this album took you and producer Jason Ingram much longer than usual. Good things are worth the wait, right?

I sure hope so. We were determined that we would not settle for “good enough.” I don’t have a cruise control setting. We really worked hard on this project, and I am very grateful for each of these songs and all of the guys who worked to make it what it became. It was a true privilege to work with Jason Ingram on this record; he is a genius.

Why was “Whom Shall I Fear [God of Angel Armies]” chosen as the first single?

Interestingly, when we first “finished” the record, this song did not even exist. I wrote “Whom Shall I Fear” with Ed Cash, and it came very late in the process. Once the song was alive, however, I knew it was a game changer. It’s the first single because I feel it most represents my music and the kind of song I want to be about. I am never interested in just a perfectly crafted pop song. I am always praying for songs that can not only play on radio but that can find their way into the fabric of the Church and go way past me. I feel this is one of those songs.

What do you hope your listeners will take away from listening to this recording?

As always, I hope this music fills them with a passion, a faith, a hope, a fire, and a love for God.

Anything special Christian retailers should know about this project?

I just want to say thank you once again for your support of my music and being a massive help in getting the music to the people.

What should fans anticipate in your spring tour with Kari Jobe?

I have huge expectations for the 2013 tour and am very excited and honored to have Kari joining us. It has always been important to me that whoever comes out with us on tour must possess a real passion and heart to lead the people to worship God. You are not going to find a more sincere heart than Kari. With my good friend Louie Giglio joining us on much of the tour as well, I know it’s going to be the best yet.

‘Redemption, rescue and healing’ runs through ‘Trade of Innocents’ starring actress Mira Sorvino

The subject of Mira Sorvino’s latest film was something near and dear to the Academy Award winner. 

Releasing this month to Christian stores, Trade of Innocents tells the story of a couple, Alex and Claire Becker (Sorvino and Dermot Mulroney) grieving the death of their daughter who set out to rescue young girls sold into the sex slave trade.

Sorvino has been a United Nations goodwill ambassador to combat human trafficking since 2009, and has lobbied the U.S. Congress to abolish human trafficking in Darfur, Sudan. She also starred in the Lifetime TV film Human Trafficking in 2005. 

“I am very proud to be a part of this film,” Sorvino, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1995 for Mighty Aphrodite, told Christian Retailing. “Most people are unaware that this terrible trade of children for sexual exploitation flourishes both in the U.S. and around the globe. Trade of Innocents will open their eyes and their hearts, and inspire them to become part of the solution.”

Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material involving child sex trafficking and some violence, the thriller is “an accurate depiction of frontline activists fighting for the freedom of enslaved children,” said Christopher Bessette, writer and director of Trade of Innocents. “There is no gratuitous, rather a stark revelation of the facts. The characters are based on characters in organizations with Christian beliefs and roots. 

“The theme of redemption/rescue and healing runs throughout the movie,” he added. “As seen in the reconciliation between the married couple to scenes between the rescued girls and Claire’s [Sorvino] coming to terms with her lost child.”

The film features the tag line “Justice needs a hero.”

“Trade of Innocents exposes light in dark places with truth, with the website at the end of the movie, justice-generation.com,” Bessette said. “It empowers the viewer to be a hero, investigate the organizations linked to justice-generation.com connect and support directly the frontline freedom fighters.

“The Bible contains more than 300 verses on the poor, social justice and God’s deep concern for both,” he added. “Christian retailers have an opportunity to serve their customers, not only with quality entertainment, but also with practical means of enabling them to reach out in love to those without a voice.”

Trade of Innocents, which retails for $19.98 and runs 91 minutes, is being distributed by Wesscott Marketing. To order, call 800-375-3702.

Cross Roads

Wm. Paul Young

FaithWords

hardcover, 304 pages, $24.99

Nov. 13

From the ever-imaginative mind of William Paul Young comes Cross Roads, a novel that surely will be compared with his first work of fiction, the self-published phenomenon The Shack. Though the story is different, the new work has some of the same themes as his first, including the struggle to understand the character of God and nontraditional manifestations of the three persons of the Trinity.

Cross Roads launches with an overly lengthy description of 45-year-old Anthony Spencer—Tony to his friends, if he has any—a ruthless, paranoid businessman with an estranged wife whom he divorced and later remarried not out of love, but to experience the satisfaction of leaving her a second time. However, Tony, who grew up in the foster care system, practically idolized his son, who died at age 6. In his grief, he became a shell of a man and rejected his daughter.

As time wears on, a tumor takes up residence in Tony's brain, and suffering head trauma, he ends up in a coma, during which God gives him another chance to repent. Landing in what might be called the hereafter-but-not-quite, Tony meets Jesus, who slaps him to show that He is real; the Holy Spirit as a Lakota Indian grandmother, to whom Tony recommends "exercise and diet" to lose weight; some demons; and, oddly enough, an Irishman named Jack—yes, C.S. Lewis—who, as the only non-deity or non-devil, will seem to some readers tossed in for good measure.

Shake Heaven (7-28028-23155-7, $16.99, Victory World Music/Lucid Artist), the new album-DVD package by Montell Jordan, R&B singer turned worship pastor, is being re-released in December 2011. Felicia Abraham spoke with Jordan about the project and his ministry.

Tell us about Shake Heaven.

It’s going to be re-released very differently on Dec. 11 this year. It has new artwork, songs were added, and it’s going to include a live DVD on the project as well. It’s going to be good. On the DVD, we have the live features from Israel Houghton, Ricardo Sanchez, Rachael Lampa and Martha Munizzi, to name a few. We did a concert last year on 11/11/11 and it was amazing. We captured that and that’s the DVD that’s in the package now with the live album.

Pastor Bob Roberts Jr. offers strategies on relating to people of all faiths

TITLE: Bold as Love
AUTHOR: Bob Roberts Jr.
PUBLISHER: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 978-1-400-20420-5
PRICE: $16.99
RELEASE DATE: Dec. 4

Texas pastor Bob Roberts Jr. has never been the same since being challenged by a Saudi Arabian prince to do the impossible—to somehow bring Muslims and Christians together in the buckle of the Bible belt. That was the start of something new for his congregation—NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas—as its members began hosting an event drawing Christians and Muslims.

A frequent speaker on this subject, Roberts has written Bold as Love: What Can Happen When We See People the Way God Does, with the aim of helping Christians live out their faith among people of all faiths.

The idea for the event began in Portugal at a United Nations think tank Roberts participated in, which considered how to unite people of different religions. While Roberts expected only a small turnout at his church event, more than 2,000 participated—mostly Muslims—to start a dialogue in what had become a culturally diverse area.

NorthWood Church has launched 175 churches, all of which are engaged in community transformation projects worldwide. Roberts also works with state departments, organizations and media at home and in countries such as Afghanistan and Australia, promoting collaborative efforts between people of different faiths.

Globalization, Roberts says, has changed American neighborhoods, giving Christians close-at-hand opportunities to demonstrate the gospel to people from all over the world. He urges Christians to be honest about their beliefs, not to dilute them, and to begin by loving people and building relationships. He believes this requires bold love, not “shy faith,” which must focus on serving God and following His commands, even taking the first step. Further, he has found that nothing builds relationships like serving side-by-side with people who practice a different faith.

Distinguishing between “interfaith” and “multifaith,” the pastor doesn’t advocate the concept that “all paths lead to God.” Whereas interfaith gatherings tend to “ignore core truth,” he says multifaith efforts acknowledge “we have fundamental differences, but the best of our faiths teach us we should get along.”

Roberts admits this effort poses challenges, like fear and opposition from our own “tribe” or community. He describes five fears to overcome and writes: “Only the promises of God, and the power that comes from him, can enable us to reach out to those who may intimidate us.”

Offering practical ways to reach out, he encourages readers to start with service and keep it simple, especially engaging in joint projects for the common good that promote conversation. Roberts and his church have built schools in Afghan villages, worked with multifaith groups at local senior centers, refurbished homes and established student exchange programs.

Embrace theology, says Roberts, because “theology is more important than ever.” He offers five features of theology and six dimensions of multifaith living, including the idea that multifaith interactions deepen our own faith.

The book concludes with the message that Christians must begin with forgiveness—extending forgiveness for mistreatment of Christians past and present and asking for forgiveness for their failure to love others in the way Jesus loves.

To order, call Thomas Nelson at 800-251-4000, or visit www.thomasnelson.com.