Missions-minded music

Ray Boltz has been on the Christian music scene for 18 years, with record sales topping 5 million units. His compositions often strike a chord by telling the story of an individual in the Bible or challenging the faith of today’s Christians. One of his early songs, “Thank You,” written for his pastor on Pastor Appreciation Day, became Gospel Music Association’s Song of the Year. His “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb” became the biggest single ever on Christian music’s Inspiration chart. Boltz, 50, took a break from his current tour to chat with News Editor John W. Kennedy.

PE: You’ve had a long professional career. How has your outlook changed over the years?

BOLTZ: I was naïve when I started. I live in Indiana, not Nashville. When I was first confronted with how the whole Christian radio and record industry works it was overwhelming. “Thank You” exploded; it went to No. 1 everywhere. But I found that doesn’t happen every time. I’m grateful for the platform that song gave me. It’s tough for young people starting out today to become known for a piece of work that lays a foundation to continue their ministry.

PE: You didn’t seek to be a Christian singer as a teenager.

BOLTZ: I sang for 10 years and nobody knew who I was. I didn’t make a record; I just traveled around singing songs about my faith in nursing homes, prisons, youth groups. My pastor told me, “The world says if you want to be great, look at who’s on top of your field and copy his moves. But when Jesus was asked about being great in the Kingdom, He picked up a little child.” There are always people lower than you who need a helping hand to lift them up. If you concentrate on lifting them up, God is faithful to lift you to the platform He wants you to have. I was in my 30s when I quit my job as a purchasing agent and went into music full-time.

PE: You’re not the same singer you were in the 1980s.

BOLTZ: You have to evolve. People want you to stay exactly the same. The problem is if you do, those same people aren’t satisfied. We want things familiar, but we really want to discover new things. So as an artist I’m always faced with the dilemma: If I just rehash what I’ve done in the past it becomes too predictable. I try to approach every record as I hope a pastor approaches a sermon: Lord, what do You want me to say? Then I try to put music to those messages. Sometimes it’s a success commercially; sometimes what God wants me to say is not popular. Not everything your pastor says is based on pleasing people.

PE: You’ve always placed an emphasis on missions in your ministry. Why?

BOLTZ: The top reason my music is missions-minded is that I came to Christ at a Christian concert in a converted bar at 19 years of age. I was strung out and messed up, and I stumbled into a Christian outreach center and heard the gospel. It was the first time music communicated to me that Jesus is alive. That night I gave the Lord my life and I gave the Lord my music. I had played guitar in a rock and roll band.

My music changed as my life changed. I never expected it to turn into a career. When it did, I realized I was being given the same opportunity to reach other people for the Lord. That worked its way into “Thank You,” talking about Sunday School teachers and missionaries, people who don’t receive a lot of applause. I was incredibly moved when I visited a Mission of Mercy project in Calcutta started by Mark and Huldah Buntain. Thirteen little boys who used to live on the streets in Bangladesh sang “Thank You” back to me. From then on I wanted to help these kids and others like them. Now instead of one room, the Home of Hope in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has four stories. The same thing has happened in Sri Lanka, and now we’re working with abandoned AIDS babies in Kenya. We dedicate every tour to some type of missionary outreach.

Winning Three Dove Awards has been exciting. Singing at Promise Keepers’ Stand in the Gap in front of more than a million men is a moment I’ll never forget. But without question, the greatest thing in my career is seeing 50,000 kids who have received meals or a place to live because my audiences sponsored them. The Assemblies of God and Mission of Mercy have given me something that will last beyond record sales.

PE: You’ve never pulled any punches in telling Christians to get with it, in songs such as “Church Hop” and “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb.” What is your chief aim in writing such songs?

BOLTZ: I’m speaking mostly to my own walk with Christ. For instance, in “Feel the Nails” I ask does Jesus still feel the nails every time I fail Him. “Allegiance” was inspired when I went with 40 teenagers to Botswana and saw them perform a drama just out of love. On the plane home I said, “Ray, where is your allegiance? Are you totally sold out to the Lord?”

PE: Do you see any troubling signs in the state of the Christian music industry?

BOLTZ: I see good things happening. When MercyMe can have a song like “I Can Only Imagine” climb the pop chart it’s a wonderful sign that the secular music industry realizes that Christians have something to say. That song talks about Jesus, and it’s being played in between Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. We’re not just trying to copy. We’re singing what we believe. But I am troubled by Christian retail merchandising in general. We are so marketing-minded in producing music, sermons and books — driven by what will sell, not by what God wants us to say. Sometimes we need to hear what is difficult to hear.

PE: Is that the reason you started your own label, Spindust Records?

BOLTZ: The Nashville community is sometimes driven by producing what’s hip. I’m driven by the schoolteacher or bricklayer who lives down the street in Muncie, Ind. With the label, I’m able to help others who believe the same thing and want to reach college- and high school-age audiences. It’s not that I’m against capitalism. I was a marketing major in college. But it scares me the way things are marketed to the church. We shouldn’t equate commercial success or church attendance numbers with the ultimate stamp of God’s approval of what we’re doing.

PE: You’re still out touring.

BOLTZ: I enjoy introducing younger artists. Mitch McVicker is on tour with me and he’s making an impact on kids at concerts. He was in the car crash that killed Rich Mullins. Mitch was in a coma for a number of days and had to learn how to walk and eat again. I see him as a big inspiration to the young people who come to my concerts. I am slowing down a bit. But as long as children come up and tell me at concerts they want to commit their hearts to the Lord, I’m going to keep doing it.

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