Moore's 'Home Run'
soars out of the park
By Frank "Buzz" Trexler
for The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times, July 28, 1995
Just looking at blond-haired Geoff Moore brings images of America: baseball, Old Glory
and applie pie. His recent project, "Home Run," says nothing about the latter,
but lots about the former two.
"My dad was a retired AAA professional baseball player with the Toledo
Mudhens," Geoff recalls fondly. "So life was always referred to in sports
analogies. In ‘Home Run’ we’re saying , ‘look, we are all part of a
team, and we have an opponent that we’re playing against that is going to throw us
all the junk that he can come up with to strike us out. And that we have friends on base
at different points in the spiritual walk. So we need to take responsibility to see that
they get home.’"
The group’s video by the same name, which recently debuted on Z Music Television,
was shot at the minor league ballpark in Nashville and featured former major league
baseball player Tim Burke.
"I figured if we were gonna do that, I wanted it be a pretty real deal,"
Moore said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Phoenix where the band was performing at
a Church of the Nazarene national youth convention.
The 34-year-old Moore, who lives in Nashville with his wife and two sons, takes a
team-oriented approach in his political views as well and reveals something of that in
another cut on "Home Run" called "The New Americans," a
hard-rockin’ tribute to the "home of the brave" that Moore says has been
adopted by the youth prayer movement "See You at the Pole."
"They’ve created an album of songs that kind of encourage patriotism and
public faith and they’ve included that song," Moore said.
Is the song a call to greater patriotism and political activism, or a recognition that
this happening?
"It’s both acknowledging that there’s a movement afoot to encourage more
people to be involved in it," Moore said.
"We are so quick to name any movement or any kind of activity in our country,
whether it be ‘pro-life,’ ‘pro-choice,’ ‘the religious
right,’ ‘the left,’ you know, we’re quick to want to adhere names to
every kind of movement," he said. "I think that what I really wanted to
communicate with that song was that ... whether you are of the mind that our Founding
Fathers were Christians or not, the truth is that the country was founded on Christian
principles."
Still, while that position can sometimes be divisive, Moore said the message is true no
matter where the listener is in relation to faith.
"I think part of what I wanted to communicate is there needs to be Christians
leading the way and a return to basic values, those basic biblical values that our country
was founded on," he said. "But that’s also a message to people that are not
believers outside of the Christian faith. Because I think those principles are what
work."
"Part of, I guess, what I wanted to say is that, you know, loving your country and
trying to return to Godly principles is not necessarily a political affair," he said.
"It’s really a personal thing, you know, it’s something that you commit in
the way that you’re going to live.
"Hopefully it encourages some people just to be thankful for where we live and
think about what they can do to return our country to some of its basic value
systems."
Moore said his concerts attract a wide range of people, even non-Christians. His band
has played nine major festivals this summer. "When you have that many kids
you’ve got a a percentage of them that are faithful regular parts of the church, and
then you’ve people that are being invited and just come along, you’ve got people
that are checking it out because they’re curious, or they’re on the perimeter.
"So, you know, it’s certainly not like going out and playing in a club, where
you’re reaching possibly a completely or a largely unchurched audience, but
there’s definitely exposure to every kind of young person who comes to these events.
It’s the same way with our concerts.
The band opens its fall tour Sept. 7 with Big Tent Revival, a folk-type band that
covers a lot of ground on its recent self-titled ablum – from gentle acoustic sounds
to edgy blues and rock with a bit of ’60s pop blended in.
Moore said Contemporary Christian Music is gaining respect, blowing away its past
reputation of being "second-grade artistically."
"Yes, there is Christian music created in a world that is not of the highest
artistic standards, but there’s also a whole lot of pop music that’s the same
way," Moore said.
The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The
Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, www.themeadow.org.
You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.
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