Pop Music

How Gunner Payne Changed the World

/ Andy R Taylor / 6 Comments

You’ve heard of Gunner Payne, right?? Just kidding…..I’d almost be willing to bet the whole ranch that you’ve never heard of him. But Gunner Payne changed the world in an extremely profound way. Gunner was a Quaker; You actually have heard of the Quakers, but if you’re like me you don’t know much about them.

Gunner had a regular Bible study, in the early ’60s, in his hometown of Yorba Linda, California. It was in ’62 that Dick Heying, a professional drummer, took his bandleader and his wife to Gunner’s Bible study. Not too long after that (early ’63) both were saved. They became very faithful as Gunner took them ‘under his wing’ as a mentor and father in the Lord. It wasn’t long before John and Carol were winning people to the Lord themselves. John, a professional musician, was the person who put The Righteous Brothers together.  Over the next few years, literally, hundreds came to know Jesus in a personal way. John later said that he just mimicked Gunner’s behavior and attitude.

Gunner’s life wasn’t without some major obstacles; his little 4-year-old daughter was kidnapped by a migrant farm worker from a neighboring community who raped and murdered her. The incident brought about a lot of national media attention that went on for months. It was obviously a tragedy of epic proportions. The fascinating part of the story to me is what happened next; Gunner Payne went to the prison where the murderer was incarcerated at least once a month….until he finally won his little girl’s killer to the Lord!

Oh….and that John and Carol we were talking about…..that’s the Wimber’s. And while John Wimber didn’t initiate the Vineyard Movement, he’s the one that the Lord used to bring it to worldwide prominence and influence. (Now over 1500 churches worldwide) And, if you’re in church today and not singing from a denominational hymnal…..you’re singing songs that were directly influenced by Wimber and the Vineyard Movement. It brought a new style of worship to the forefront, worldwide, and spawned great worship leaders across the globe. John was a huge proponent of ‘signs and wonders’ and his ministry was marked with miracles of every kind. Hundreds of thousands have come to know the Lord because of the ministry of John Wimber.

You just never know what might happen with the people that you’re willing to invest in!

And that’s how Gunner Payne changed the world!

There’s a Lot More ‘Spiritual’ Music Out There Than You Might Think!

/ Andy R Taylor / 3 Comments

I’m a ‘music ‘ guy! I’m not a musician (kinda wish I was!), I’m a music guy; don’t get the two confused. I like a lot of different kinds of music; country, blues, jazz, soul. I like a lot of instrumental stuff too; love good guitar playing, trumpets, and saxophones, too. I’ll even listen to a little classical music once in a while. I can pretty much appreciate any genre for what it is. I guess it kind of depends on what kind of mood I’m in.

I like some Christian music and just like with any other style of music, there’s some that just doesn’t appeal to me. I’m more of a non-traditionalist, I guess, when it comes to Christian music. I like our worship teams, Mark Simpson’s team and Jason Wilhelm’s, “Undefined”, CD is one of my favorites. I like Josh Franklin, Kevin Prosch, Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Martin Smith & Delirious. They’re not necessarily your ‘mainstream’ version of Christian music but if I’m going to listen to Christian music, they’re who I’d listen to.

I think it’s sad that many of the great musicians and artists of the world are rejected by mainstream Christianity because their music is not classified as Christian, per se. There’s some incredible talent out there and some amazing songs and lyrics that never get heard by those too holy to listen to the likes of Springsteen, Dylan, Clapton, The Allman Brothers, Bob Marley, U2, The Doobie Brothers, Waylon, Sheryl Crow and *Rod Stewart, to name just a few. *Rod Stewart’s, “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You”, was written by Van Morrison……about his relationship with the Lord! Who knew??!  I expect these people, and a lot more like them, are a lot more spiritual than they’re given credit for.

I’ve been collecting good, ‘spiritual’ songs by, so-called, secular artists for a good while now. There’s a lot of them out there if you want to take the time to look and listen. You might be surprised at what you’d find!

*Do you have some songs that you would recommend??

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Lady Gaga, Little Monsters & Jesus!

/ Andy R Taylor / 32 Comments

It’s been about three years since Julie and I, Cameron and one of her friends went to a Lady Gaga concert in Oklahoma City. (I’ll wait a few seconds for those of you so righteous that you just sucked all the oxygen out of the room!I)

On the way to the Chesapeake Center where the concert was to be held there were picketers….Christian picketers…..a lot of them, displaying their signs and banners “, “Lady Gaga is the Devil”, “God hates gays”; “You’re going to hell!” …. you know the typical unconditional love stuff that we’re so known for!

An interesting thing that I did not know was that Lady Gaga’s loyal followers are known as “Little Monsters”. They dress up in some of the wildest, most bizarre costumes and get-ups that you could ever imagine. It’s like Halloween on steroids! I’ll have to admit, it was a little out of my comfort zone! But the show was unbelievable; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lady Gaga, whether you like her or not, is an extremely talented young woman. She can sing, she can dance, she can play the piano. She can do it all!

But there was a point three quarters of the way into the show that I did NOT see coming! House lights out, she’s in the spotlight lying on the stage. She says,  “Jesus, …. up there in heaven, …. all those people outside tell me you don’t love me…..but I know that’s not true! I know you love me, and I know you love all these “Little Monsters”, too!” And the bigger part of 20,000+ young people cheered as loud as they possibly could. I had a big lump in my throat; I could barely hold back my tears.  And I wondered if anyone had ever told many of these “Little Monsters” that Jesus really does love them. Oh, I know they’ve been told they’re no good and that God’s mad at them. They’ve been reminded of that over and over again but you could tell that they so wanted her words to be true! And I think, somehow, they believed it.

If the Father can’t depend on the church to tell the ‘good news’, He’ll use Lady Gaga, or anyone else He chooses, to let all us “Little Monsters” know how much we’re really loved!

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