Why #MercyMe is the Most Influential Band in My Life

It’s funny how our senses imprint memories subconsciously.  A certain sound, smell, or feeling can come flooding back without our knowledge.  Deja Vous?  Maybe, but for me, my MercyMe journey started in 1999.  I was a first year English teacher at Greenville High School in Greenville, TX.  I did have family close, but I was living completely on my own for the first time, navigating a new job, a new town, a new church, and new independence (coupled with some loneliness and bouts of depression).  I had never heard the name Bart Millard before, but it wasn’t long before I was being given MercyMe CDs.  These were independently produced albums given to me by Bart’s former English teacher.  He was Greenville High School’s “success story”, and they promoted him wherever they could.  The band’s first professionally produced album wasn’t out yet, and amidst their tireless efforts to establish themselves, MercyMe committed to putting on a free concert once a month in Bart’s hometown. We were told this was their “tithe” of sorts during this time.

I will never forget hearing “I Can Only Imagine” for the first time on the football field at Greenville High School.  The lights, the energy of the crowd, and the revolutionary lyrics were something to behold.  It’s funny.  These concerts weren’t really for me, per say. They were directed at the youth of Bart’s hometown, but somehow, I never forgot the encouragement these nights gave me, personally.   

I only lived in Greenville for two years.  After buying at least one more independent MercyMe CD, I moved on with my life in another state.  When I moved back to my home state of Montana, K-Love was not local yet-or at least I didn’t know it if it was.  For the next few years, I essentially forgot about MercyMe with one exception: I did include the last “hidden” track of the album Undone in the worship I led at a treatment center I was working at.  This song, “Keep Singing”, perfectly showcased the difficult emotions the kids I worked with felt on a regular basis.  

Ten years later, I remember listening to K-Love in my car with my young sons when this voice came on the radio.  It was “Then Christ Came”, a brand new song from an (unknown) artist. It  had an immediate effect on my entire being.  I couldn’t pinpoint this feeling that voice sparked until the song ended with an announcement of MercyMe as the singer.  All of a sudden, I knew why that voice affected me so. Not only did the lyrics speak to me personally about Christ’s light coming into my darkness or despair, but I felt I knew the person singing it.  I didn’t know Bart Millard at all, but his part in such an important time in my life made his voice important in ways I couldn’t understand.  Soon after, the movie came out, and I finally understood the teachers’ connection to this beloved student.  They had watched God take him from such a rough homelife to a place of influence using his amazing talent. He was truly their hometown son.  And oddly enough, my short tenure in Greenville during the band’s developmental years left me with an unexplainable connection to that voice, the voice who’s lyrics always explained the complex emotions in the deepest parts of my soul.

Last year I was interviewed by the student council at my school.  They were featuring one teacher per week, asking for information such as my favorite book, movie, and recording artist.  I immediately answered MercyMe.  I honestly have no idea how many people who saw the post about me knew who MercyMe was, but I know, and of all the voices on K-Love, that voice will always help me find Christ’s hope in a unique way, a connection I will always have with no other artist.