For more than a decade now, RIAA Certified Gold-selling band Delirious? has provided the soundtrack for Sunday morning worship services worldwide. Tracks like “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever,” “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?” and “History Maker” have inspired congregations to lift their hands and praise God with abandon.
But when Sunday morning has come and gone, what does it actually mean to be a Christian the rest of the week? What tangible difference are believers making in a hurting, impoverished world? Do our lives actually reflect what we say is important?
These questions, not to mention the band’s first-hand experiences among the poorest of the poor in India, Cambodia, South Africa and beyond, have inspired Delirious? in unimaginable ways. Simply put, it’s been the fuel for their latest album, Kingdom of Comfort, and the driving force behind how they structure their ministry.
“Playing in places like India makes us think about how we distribute our finances and how we’re living our lives,” Smith says. “It’s imperative that we reach out and be a friend to the poor. That’s the only way that God’s light will shine upon us.”
That particularly timely theme of reaching out to those who have no hope is one that’s urgently communicated in the songs of
Kingdom of Comfort, the band’s 12th album.
“Seeing children looking for scraps on the rubbish dump they call homes in Cambodia and the education and feeding projects in the slums of Mumbai really had an impact on us,” says lead guitarist Stu G. “It wasn’t possible to simply proceed with business as usual. We had to ask ourselves, ‘What am I building? A kingdom of comfort? Or a kingdom of heaven?’”
The idea behind
Kingdom of Comfort came from a sermon from popular Mars Hill pastor/author Rob Bell. “Rob was talking about the contrasts in the lives of David and his son Solomon,” Smith shares. “David built a kingdom of heaven. And Solomon was more concerned about himself. All the decisions he made regarding intermarrying and wealth led to building a kingdom of comfort. Of course, hearing that makes us ask an obvious but important question: ‘Are we focusing on building our lives with eternal things?’”
Like the old saying goes, though, “actions speak louder than words,” so Smith began considering how he, along with the international Christian music community, could truly make a difference in the world together.
After 18 months of prayer, countless business meetings and careful planning, Smith’s dream came true when the first annual Compassionart conference met in Perthshire, Scotland. In what he described as a “I-can’t-stop-pinching-myself moment,” Smith, along with Stu G, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Darlene Zschech, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Israel Houghton and other internationally-respected songwriters teamed up to write songs with 100% of the proceeds from the songs and forthcoming album going to the charities of their choice.