The
Keith Green Concert
Indianapolis Indiana, Market Square Arena, July 1982
God gave Keith Green one last huge concert tour
before He let him go home.
This is what I experienced on that auspicious and fateful evening.
It was
a wonderful late afternoon when Greg, Cathy, Tonya and I drove into
Indianapolis. We were all big fans of Keith Green back then and this
was quite an ordeal for four teenagers whom at this time, had barely
been out of the county. I was but only a yearling in my Christian
faith and was eager to experience this amazing force which God
catapulted into the forefront of so much of the American conscious.
I had
come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, by the grace of God through a
small but potent seed. It was a coupon that Brad Cogdell had given me
for a free album. I filled out the coupon and in a couple weeks I
received a Keith Green album in the mail with no strings attached. As
I randomly picked a song and placed the needle on the album for the
first time, this is what I heard…
You know it ain’t no use bangin' your head
I
listened to that album so much I nearly wore it out. I acquired all
Keith’s albums and had been passing out all the tracks I could get
Last Days Ministries to send me back then. It didn’t take long before
I had developed a respect for Keith and his wife Melody who started
Last Days Ministries which amounted to veneration. They gave away
Christian literature and music for "whatever
you could afford," and if you couldn’t
afford to purchase the item requested, you would still receive it just
because you asked. They took Jesus to mean what He said, and lived it.
And I couldn’t wait to get the next edition of the Last Days
Newsletter which arrived in the mail every other month.
Oh,
hey, I’m getting way off the trail here…
When we
walked into Market Square Arena and locating our seats we found them
to be a few rows up and on the stage-right side where we had a perfect
view of the whole evening’s experience. We could see the stage and the
crowd which was down on the floor where the Indianapolis Pacers played
basketball. I could see most all of the people from this vantage point
and commented to my girlfriend (Tonya Hensler) about how perfect the
seats were which her brother Greg and his girlfriend Cathy picked out
for us all. The place was filling up fast when we arrived at the free
concert and the low rumble of excitement from the ever growing crowd
caused it to seem like the air was electrically charged.
On
stage there stood a portable lectern. It was made of wood and the
simplest of construction, the likes of which may very well be found in
nearly any church. It was an unusual object to see on stage, at a
concert. It stood alone and up front and in the middle as if it were
to take center stage for the evening. I speculated about the potential
of a small amount of wood… Peter’s fishing boat, a cross, a lectern.
After a
few announcements a minister came out and stood at the lectern. He had
us all bow for a word of prayer. As we had finished I saw the
silhouette of Keith walk over and sit at the piano. In the silhouette
I could see that he had shorter hair than most of his album covers,
with wild, curly, brown hair and beard. He leaned into the microphone
and said “hello”. The lights came up and primarily illuminated Keith
and the huge black Steinway piano and he began to play. It was an
up-tempo song and we all eagerly and instantly broke into the rhythmic
clapping with the accompaniment of the music as we are prone to do.
Then he abruptly stopped playing, leaned into the microphone and asked
if we would refrain from clapping. He said it was for two reasons. He
wanted us to hear the words to the songs and listen to the message,
and then he paused and said, “And, because it messes me up”. We all
laughed and Keith started to play again. At that moment I somehow felt
lighter, as if God lovingly wrapped a tether around me and a slight
pressure was pulling my spirit up as Keith’s fingers danced along the
piano keys. There was a palpable sanguine feeling in my own proper
person as he played and sang for Jesus. I knew this was a very special
night indeed as no one but he and the piano were illuminated on stage.
He played and struck the keys with such force that the piano shook and
tremored. I said to Tonya, “Whoever tunes that piano tomorrow is going
to have a lot of work to do”. He was so gifted that one would most
certainly need to experience him playing to fully comprehend it. Just
a few minutes into the concert and we were all worshiping Jesus,
silently.
He gave
brief pause between songs and in an improvisational flow explained the
idea or the meaning behind the next song he was about to do for us.
For example he said, “This next song is about the faithfulness of God”
or “I was setting at my piano when a melody came to me…not my wife but
a melody for a song.” He was funny and made us laugh on a few
occasions but for the most part he was passionate, intense and focused
while he was ministering. That being said, Keith Green was on a
mission in Indianapolis that night. I, later, would read where Melody
wrote in the book No Compromise where she said under her breath
while Keith was once playing, “You don’t have long on this earth”.
Throughout the concert Keith played and worshiped with such fervor and
passion and brokenness to Jesus that it caused me to take a dip and
then the deepest dive, in worshiping Christ that I had known. I was
deeply affected and could feel love from God like I had not known
until this moment in my life. The Holy Spirit touched me somehow as we
worshiped our creator in a way that brought with it peace and
safety. And we all
listened as this gifted man was being poured
out in worship and led us all to a spiritual place which I had rarely
visited.
Half
way through a normal concert, when some musician/singers take a few
minutes to get a drink, change cloths and rest for a moment, then
return to the stage, but not Keith Green. He stood up from the piano,
walked over the lectern, took a drink of water, straightened up his
notes and began to preach. The message is still burned into my soul,
it was called, "Why you should go to the
mission field," which is still around in
tract form, I suppose. He said he had recently returned from his first
overseas mission trip and it opened his eyes even more to reaching the
lost. It seemed to be a turning point for him personally and it was
leaning his ministry, which was bent toward missions, even moreso.
This fabulous anomaly and force for the cause of Christ said how he
believed that everyone should go to the mission field to see how most
of the world lives and we as believers are responsible for this
generation of believers. I sat there shocked at the truth of it all.
And slowly, inexorably, I began to believe that God could use me on a
foreign mission field. And whatever that would come to signify I could
not say. I believed I should go to a mission field and that was the
end of it. I felt for the first time in my 18 years of life that not
only was I on equal footing with all other believers but some how
chosen to do some type of work for Christ. As God spoke through Keith
He elevated me into legitimacy and I simply no longer felt marginal or
inferior because I was a teenager. As I listened to this powerful
message I began to believe that God could and wanted to use whatever
abilities I could muster in life. And the ambient thrum of that
oration solidified not only that God wanted to use me, as well, that
message caused me to believe more intensely and profoundly for the
rest of my life.
The
sermon lasted only but twenty minutes or so and there was a real sense
of urgency in his voice, a sense of
pleading. The Holy Spirit would place something indescribable into my
heart as I listened to the reasons why "I"
should go to the mission field. It was peace and it was clarity and I
shall never forget it.
As
Keith was finished with his message, a dozen or so ministry co-workers
began to filter out and along the front of the stage with poster-board
sized signs, and printed on them were the
names of countries from all over the world. As they lined up across
the stage and held up their signs Keith asked if anyone in the crowd
would like to work their way down to the front and make a commitment
to be a missionary. I remember he said, “If you even think you
might want to be a missionary” to come down front and stand in
the line with whichever country you feel led to and someone would give
you some information about the perspective country.
I
almost leapt out of my seat as did hundreds of others and without a
word to my friends found myself making my way toward the front of the
stage. I was one of the first twenty-five or so to get down to the
front of the stage and there was a bit of organized chaos down front
with folks holding signs and others trying to meet the swell of souls
which were quickly gathering behind me. Although I do not remember
which line I stood in that day I was handed my literature and when it
touched my hand and I heard someone say to me God bless you, I knew
that He truly was blessing me. I felt that
God had me. And that I was a missionary at that moment when I yielded
my plans to advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe I wouldn’t
leave for the shores of another land to serve Christ tomorrow but I
recognized that I would one day go.
I began
making my way to my seat with a sense
of purpose like I had never known before. After most had returned to
their seats Keith was still standing in the pulpit and began to speak
to another group of people who were intermingled with the rest of us
in attendance, those who did not know Jesus Christ as their personal
savior. He spoke to them of God's love for
us all and that God commended His love
toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ still died for
us. As he was beseeching people who did not know Christ to come
forward to except Jesus as their savior, they were already on their
way to the front. About two-hundred souls that evening passed from
death unto life before my eyes which at that point was the most I had
ever personally been a witness to. We all prayed for the new believers
as Keith led them in the sinner’s prayer. Afterwards, the entire arena
broke into spontaneous applaud for the grace and loving-kindness of
God.
Keith
directed the new believers to follow some pastors and counselors off
behind a giant curtain behind the stage for some discipleship
information and to spend some time in listening to the ministers on
what has just happened in their lives.
After
they were all together and out of site with the counselors, another
group of people began to emerge. As Keith was saying, now we are going
to take up the offering, he was explaining why he was taking an
offering at this time of the concert. His explanation was that he did
not want the people who were not followers of Christ to think God
wanted their money. After the new believers were gone, white buckets
which looked like (you know who’s) Fried
Chicken buckets without any markings on them were making their way
down the isles. When one of the unstinted vessels had reached us, it
was so occupied by coinage and bills to the point where money was
falling out of it. I stuffed the currency down the best I could, put
in my donation and passed it to the person collecting the buckets.
Keith
got a drink of water and sat back down at the piano and began to speak
of a new song he had just finished. He said it is the first worship
song about hell.
And he
began to sing…
Who ya gonna throw in the lake of fire, oh
God our Lord
Song
after song we listened to this instrument of God and felt His Spirit
and it filled Market Square Arena on a hot July evening.
When
the end of the concert was reached and before the last song Keith made
an announcement and said that this would be the last song and that he
does not do encores. He said at the end of this song I am going to
leave the stage and he didn’t want to hear anyone speaking. He wanted
us to think about what had happened there on our way out. He said,
“When you leave I only want to hear the shuffling of feet.” As well,
he mentioned that when you reach the exits, there are tables set up
where you can receive some of my music. You can pay whatever you can
afford and if you don’t have money feel free to take the music for
free but please just take one per family so we have enough.
The
last song ended, the stage-lights went out, the track floor lighting
came on and it was silent. And just as he said, as we all began our
departure from the arena…silently, thinking about the words to the
songs and his message to us. And for me, I carried not the hope that I
would serve as a missionary in a foreign land but the hope that it
would not take too long before my departure. And I for one would
never…never be the same again. And he was right…about it all;
there was nothing to say. There was nothing to say, and yet, my mind
was reeling because I knew there was much to do.
We made
our way out to the hallway of the arena and I was still stunned by
what just happened. We came up to one of the tables of music and
literature to witnessed swarms of people, as if they were bees in the
hive trying to get to their queen for their donation. And the five
feet tall clear Plexiglas boxes for donations were two thirds full
already and I realized that the ministry Keith and Melody Green
started was blessed by God financially that night as well as
spiritually. Keith Green was the personification of
"give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken
together and running over."
And
like the lightening bugs which came pouring out of my overfilled mason
jar as a child once I opened the lid; we all poured out of that arena
in Indiana with luminosity in our hearts and the understanding that
God loved us much more than we had know prior to entering that
temporary place of worship.
And a
young man of 28 was gladly used as a vessel for the living God to
change the path of a young man of 18 and when we made our way outside,
it was a wonderful, warm, black grape-bloom night. A couple weeks
later and Keith Green’s life on earth would end.
10
years later I walked onto Last Days Ministries
as a DTS student…but that is another chapter…
Regards,
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