IN THE BAD OLD DAYS OF CHRISTIAN ROCK MUSIC.

Whenever I tune in a Christian rock music station, I'm amazed at all the god-honouring tunes available to teenagers. When I was their age, music like that was difficult to find.

In my upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir, I wrote about the continual chiding I received from elderly members about my love of rock music. In this excerpt, I sought to find records that rocked as well as praised the Lord.

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While looking through the records in the Bible store one day, an exciting idea struck me. I rushed to the counter and asked the cashier, "Do you have any Christian rock music albums?"

"We only sell contemporary Christian music, but you might like this album by Emmanuel," she said. "They're a local group too."

I took a chance and bought it.

When I worked up the nerve to listen to the Crayons album, I liked a few of the tracks. I particularly enjoyed "You Colour My Life." With the proper promotion, the tune might have been a hit on secular radio stations. Most of the other tracks suffered from the same form of blatant pontificating common to that genre. I ended up listening to the handful of songs which appealed to me.

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How I Was Razed is the testimony of how God revealed his true character to me after charismatic house church elders misled me for more than fifteen years. You're welcome to contact me directly for more information about this upcoming paperback.