While some songs on Take Me To Your Leader were overtly Christian—“God Is Not A Secret To Be Kept”—others like “Lost The Plot” held deeper lyrics that I only recently began to understand as an adult. As I listened again to that song, there was a lyric in it that wrecked me: For a time we stuck with the shepherd, but you wouldn’t play Santa Claus. In other words, sometimes as Christians we are happy to stick with Jesus when he gives us everything we want and all of the boxes of our life are checked. But the minute things start going downhill—someone we know disappoints us, we get hurt, or we don’t get something they want—like a spoiled child on Christmas morning, we lose the plot.

I believe that is the reason we are still talking about Take Me To Your Leader. It can still speak today to the same kid who first heard it in his local Christian bookstore for the first time, 20 years ago.

Much has changed for the Newsboys over the past 20 years. John James left the band before their next release, and Peter Furler stepped up to the microphone. They put out a disco album, a few worship albums and went through more lineup changes. In 2008, Michael Tait joined the band as the lead singer. And though the Newsboys have changed quite a bit from the six-piece band of guys in blue space suits, there is one thing that hasn’t changed: they still want to take you to their leader.

2 Responses

  1. Bethany Kimes

    Love it! Brings back so many memories for me as well. Newsboys and dc Talk were the first two bands I got into as a young teen and I remember listening to Take Me To Your Leader for hours on my Sony Walkman. 🙂 I still go back and listen to them (on Spotify now, of course) and am reminded of an exciting time in both my life and in Christian music. Thanks for the great post and bringing some nostalgia into my morning!

  2. Greg Koelln

    I must point out that a huge part of the album was the “unseen” member of Newsboys–genius producer and songwriter Steve Taylor, who was responsible for most of the lyrics on this and other Newsboys albums. Back in 2003, I went to Creation Festival East and saw Steve Taylor perform, as it was a special anniversary year. Newsboys followed, and as I was in line waiting for an autograph from Mr. Taylor, I heard him say as the Newsboys were playing, “I love this song!” I had to smile knowing that he co-wrote the song and that was lost on most people waiting in line.

Leave a Reply