Contributed photo
TO PERFORM — Steve Green, a well-known Christian contemporary artist, will hold a concert on Sunday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. at the Military Street Baptist Church. Tickets are on sale for $25 and will cost $30 the night of the performance. For more information, call 532-2783.
By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
Many performers have passed through the Shiretown. The area has seen everything from country singers, well-known comedians and rock bands to even those artists who are not yet recognizable on the music charts.
However, there has been no famous personality within the Christian contemporary realm perform in the area. That is until now.
On Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Military Street Baptist Church, Steve Green will be performing at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale for $25 by calling the church at 532-2783 or ordering a ticket online at www.houltonmsbc.org. The night of the concert, the tickets will be $30. Doors open at 5 p.m. Proceeds of the event will go toward the new worship center at the church.
“When plans were being put together for building the Church on the Hill, it was important to us that the building be designed for meeting community needs,” explained Pastor Randall Burns. “The worship center is a multi-purpose room with state-of-the-art Bose sound equipment and acoustical treatment, suitable not only for great praise and worship events, but for concerts of all kinds, conventions, and even “dinner and a movie” nights out.
“As the Old Orchard Beach Pavilion serves central and southern Maine and Bangor serves the lower north and central part of the state, we wanted to provide a space for quality Christian concerts for The County and New Brunswick,” Burns added. “While we do not have the budget or time to bring in lots of concerts and artists, it’s been a hope to do some. That Steve Green is willing to be our first major concert event is incredibly exciting.”
For those who may not recognize Green’s name, he has been in the music industry for more than 30 years and has been honored with four Grammy nominations, 18 No. 1 songs, and seven Dove Awards, Christian music’s highest honor. With 37 recordings to his credit, including children’s projects and Spanish-language albums, Green has sold more than three million albums worldwide.
Two of Green’s songs — “Household of Faith” and “Cherish the Treasure”— have become very popular wedding songs.
In a telephone interview on Wednesday, this gentle-voiced man assumes nothing of his own fame.
“It certainly cannot be the awards because they come and go,” he said. “A career, especially in music, is meant to convey a Biblical message. There has to be something deeper than just wanting to get people’s attention or your peers’ and awards. So, I have a sense that this is my job in God’s kingdom. It is not just a duty, it is my great delight. It is not my platform. It is an entrusted platform. My responsibility is to point people away from myself to the only hero this is … that is Jesus Christ.”
Green, the son of missionary parents, was raised in South America.
“I am really what has been called a third-culture kid. That means I was raised in a foreign culture, came back to the States, but realized, well, I really don’t fit here either,” he said with a laugh. “We are a bit of a misfit, those of us raised overseas.
“But, the advantage of that is I feel at home in the world,” he added. “I feel at home wherever I am.”
Green has performed in some 50 countries around the world.
“I travel long distances all the time,” he said. “I flew all the way to Singapore just for a weekend,” he said. “For two events. So, that is much further than Houlton, Maine,” he laughed. “Distance doesn’t make any difference to me. It is the invitation and the opportunity to encourage the folks who have come and to have an uplifting evening.”
When it came to deciding who might be considered for the first concert event on the Hill in Houlton, Green came to mind immediately.
“He has a servant’s heart and is thrilled to go wherever the Lord opens the doors for him to go,” Burns said. “Working with their booking department is like working with dear family members you have yet to meet. In contrast to some artists, they have made it as easy as possible for us to bring Steve to Houlton.”
Even the weather is not daunting to him. He has performed in Bangor many times and drove to Moncton, N.B. where he was delayed at the airport because of a blizzard.
Green, along with keyboard player Dick Tunney, will be sharing some of his older songs to more recent recordings.
“I bring a great musician with me and we will do a little bit of everything,” he said. “I have to do older music because that is what a lot of folks remember. Although, I have continued to record every couple of years. I will throw in a few newer things. The bulk will be a 30-year history of songs that folks have come expecting to hear.”
Each concert is not designed the same.
“Every one is different,” Green said. “There are elements that will be the same because we have to send music ahead for choirs or ensembles. But, the second part of the evening, we just veer off course and see where we go.”
Green has a number of recognizable songs for those who listen to Christian music such as “He Holds the Keys,” “Find Us Faithful,” “People Need the Lord,” to “Touch Your People Once Again,” but his favorite is one not familiar to many people.
“It is called ‘Brokenness You Shine’ and I wrote that after my father passed away,” he explained. “My Dad had battled Parkinson’s for about 15 years. I was able to help take care of him the last nine years of his life. It was a pretty rugged season … pretty difficult. But, through it, what I realized was that while we would prefer to be independent, self-sufficient and strong and not need a thing, in our weakness and brokenness, God’s grace and light shine brighter.
“I saw that in my Dad’s growing weakness,” he added. “A beauty that was not just him being strong. It was the beauty of Christ in him.”
Green has traveled the world and has found that all people are pretty much the same.
“We have some sense of the transcendent,” he said. “The language of prayer [which Green noted there are not many who do not know how to pray] is that there has to be an acknowledgment of someone bigger than me out there that can help me because I need help.”
“We share a common feeling of this restlessness, this need, trying to find significance, trying to find peace in our lives,” he added. “My conviction is that [those needs] are only found in Jesus. When He said, ‘Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.’ He is the only one who can really satisfy all those longings, cravings and needs.”
Green will be the first performer in the worship center at Military Street Baptist Church.
“That is a big trust,” he said. “We are going to let you be the first one to have this special event in our new facility. I am honored by that.”
“I have no doubt that everyone who attends will be greatly blessed,” Burns added.
Green and Tunney’s performance is part of an ongoing fund-raising venture to assist with the purchase of items still needed for the Church on the Hill project.
“My goal in the evening is to gently, but purposely steer all of us towards Christ,” Green said. “At the end of the night, if we really tasted some of that living water, when we walk out, hearts will be deeply satisfied much more so than just by me performing, singing or entertaining.”
Green does not see himself as the prominent, renowned artist that he really is. At each concert, he is available afterward to greet people.
“I am just a regular guy who has been rescued by the grace of God and I would love to share the evening with anybody that comes,” he said. “There will be lots of music and I will sing until everyone says we are done.”
This could possibly be the concert you do not want to miss.