Tony Cummings reports on radical Californian rock worship band WORTH DYING FOR

Worth Dying For

One of the best of the new breed of rock worship bands is the five-member team from California, Worth Dying For. Currently Cross Rhythms is giving airplay to their song "Let It Out" from their self-titled album on Integrity Music. In an age where many rock musicians tend to soft-peddle their faith while fishing for the big record deal, Worth Dying For show a refreshing all-out ministry focus. Says 21 year old Sean Loche, one of the two lead vocalists in the band, "Jesus Christ and music are the two things that consume the thoughts and lives of this band. Combine the two and you get what we love to do: worship. We are ordinary people who have a desire to show others how to fall in love with God in a deeper, more passionate way. The music that God has used us to write has changed our youth ministry and our city. Now, God has put it on our hearts to let these songs resonate in the hearts of the young people across this nation."

Josh O'Haire adds: "Everything we're doing from the ministry to the music, we want it to make an impact on this generation. We see so many young kids each week. . . so much that they go through. Broken homes, depression, suicide. In mentoring them, I've seen how they feel like they're not a part of something. Our goal is to give them hope and something to be a part of, something real."

"Our dream is to see lives changed," Sean continues, "to ignite and empower them to go out and do big things. It's not just about us playing songs, but helping them connect, letting a revolution begin with them."

Worth Dying For's heartening desire not to play at rock stars in the insular bubble of Nashville CCM is underlined by their album sleeve which pictures the five band members each wearing a blindfold. Sean explains the thinking behind this mysterious image: "We put blindfolds across our eyes because - we really want to see a move take place across this nation with the youth and we want to see them rise up to be more than what they are and we don't care if we are a part of it or not. A lot of times you recognise somebody by seeing their eyes, so we put blindfolds over our eyes to say that we don't care about the fame or the glam of it, we just want to see the youth rise up across the country."

Worth Dying For was birthed in the city-wide outreach of Calvary Temple of Modesto's weekly youth event called The Stadium. The five-member band is made up of lead vocalists Christy Johnson (who also plays keytar) and Sean Loche (who also plays bass), Nathan Parish and Micah Berteau on guitars and Josh O'Haire on drums. 'Worth Dying For' was produced by Henry Seeley and Joth Hunt from Australia's Planetshakers along with Dave Wyatt. The album is full of punchy, spirit-lifting anthems. One of the album's outstanding songs is the opener, "Revolution". "We wrote our song 'Revolution' a little over a year ago," says Micah. "The idea was to empower kids with the truth. We are the sound of a revolution; we can use our voices to tell people about God, to lift a generation up. We know we have to give up all we are to see this revolution happen in our city. When a generation realises that, that's when a revolution can begin. As the lyric says, 'Today is the day we'll give it back to you.'"

"The biggest place we're seeing growth as a band is lyrically," Micah continues. "As we keep growing in God, he begins to give us even deeper, more mature songs. 'At Your Cross' is a great example. I'd been praying for a song to take us past the level we were used to, a song that would tap into a deeper presence." He says the song spontaneously came to him at a youth camp during a worship service. Not forced or planned, but a natural result of being "at worship."

In these and all their songs, the band says, the mission is front and centre. "Our message is: The revolution is you. . . one person standing up for Christ," Sean states. "We have a different sense of Christianity than some do. We talk about duty, the forces of darkness and spiritual warfare, and we try to empower our kids, not to sit back but to engage, to stand up and realise that when they do that, they are empowered by the king of kings to fight the darkness. With Jesus on their side, nothing can stand against them."

And their message, like their music, holds nothing back. Guitarist Nathan, 27, sums it up. "For me, you can't really fight the darkness of our culture, you can't really stand up and be who God made you to be, unless you have ammunition to fight. When I was growing up, there wasn't anything for us to worship with, nothing to identify with. The music didn't belong to us. Today, with so much being fed to this generation, if they don't have something - anything - to hold on to, to connect with, they won't be able to stand. Our desire is to give them something that can unite and empower them to stand strong and be courageous."