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Michael Card talks about his joy, frustrations and passion



On Sept. 21, Michael Card performed songs from his new CD, "Soul Anchor," before a packed Lytle Gym.

Christian musician Michael Card spoke at this year's Spiritual Life Conference from Sept. 20-22.

In this interview with the faculty and The Voice, Card speaks openly about topics including biblical understanding, the Christian music industry, and his greatest hardship and joy after 20 years of ministry.

Do you identify with the biblical people you passionately sing about?

I identify at the level of the imagination in the Scripture.

When you're reading someone like Job, you realize all of us have had experiences where God has failed to meet our expectations. Fundamentally, there is the realization that Job is a real person, who experienced these things. The Scripture comes alive.

Some details in scripture are there for no other reason than that our imaginations can connect to them. When Mary washes Jesus feet with the perfume and the details given in Scripture tell that the smell of perfume filled the house, it's not theological. It's for your imagination.

Scour for those places because God puts them there for a purpose. We interact with our imagination. Listen to Scripture with your heart and all of your emotion.

How do you see yourself in the Christian music industry?

I've agonized over this for years. Contemporary Christian music started out of the Jesus People movement. The church wouldn't have us. My church in Nashville wouldn't let me play. They told me I was demonic.

Consequently, contemporary Christian music took place outside of the church, and it took on the value systems of the industry, namely power and money and eventually sex. Today, we have power and money.

What have you done, as a result, to keep yourself on track?

The industry doesn't support me and is not very encouraged by what I do because I don't support their values. A lot of the church doesn't like me either because I am an artist.

I don't think there is anything else worth singing or writing about [other] than scripture. I honestly don't understand Christians who write songs that aren't based on scripture.

What's your response to the celebrity status given to artists?

I remember the first time the industry referred to us as the Christian music business and how irate we were.

When I whined, my mentor, Dr. William Lane, said, "Let the excellence of your work be your protest."

Now there are worship music stars. My old Bible teacher used to say, "If the devil can't make you do wrong, he'll make you do right wrong."

Maranatha started because the Christian music industry only marketed pop music. Their music wasn't worship oriented. Maranatha said, "There's a need. Let's fill it."

They were very successful and made money in spite of themselves. I believe they weren't in it for money. People saw Maranatha's success and said, "Hey, worship music. I can do that." Power and money.

How do you cope when God doesn't meet your expectations? When you are broken and are flat on your face?

What tends to happen is I'm on my face asking God those questions. Then [I] suddenly realize I've done it again. I've overlaid my expectations. I put my face in front of an idol that I thought was God.

[Dr. Lane] use to call it the God of the magic wand. Bill would say, "He's not the God of the magic wand. He doesn't wave his wand and make the troubles go away. He enters into our suffering with us."

It's that true biblical picture of Christ, when the Lord gives that view back and you are able to reorient your life by that compass.

How do you balance family and ministry?

I understand it in terms of a flow of my heart. Jesus says we speak out of the overflow of the heart.

I imagine it is as a fountain with three tiers. Our relationship with the Lord is the bottom tier, which is the fullest capacity one. That tier overflows into the second tier, my family, and that in turn overflows into the third tier, my ministry.

I must maintain the overflow of my heart. First and foremost I must maintain my relationship with the Lord. Without that I can't be who I need to be for my kids and my wife. My family life must overflow into my ministry or it's a sham. If my kids go to hell and I have a successful ministry I think God says, "So what."

What's the hardest thing you've dealt with over the last 20 years?

Depression: feeling like people don't listen, people don't care. God creates us in such a way that all of us want to hear, "Well done." I'm the red-haired step-child of the Christian music industry. Some people say, "You're like the broccoli of Christian music." People don't really like it, but they know they need to listen to what you say. I want to be the banana split ice cream with the chocolate sauce on it. After 20 years, I don't want to be the broccoli anymore.

The struggle has been to keep doing, saying and writing the songs that you know aren't going to be popular songs. I started my career with a couple of very popular songs. Then I continued to write songs that I thought were vastly better songs that weren't as successful.

The biggest joy?

The biggest joy is when I connect with individuals, and I find out that God has used me to help someone. When people say nice things to me, I always say, "I hope it's helpful to you." That's the payoff for me. That's the joy.