Singing Passport2Purity

Bob: You remember back in the summer of 1998 when gas was a $1.06 a gallon, there were no iPhones, and Michael Jackson was still alive during his History tour. Well, that summer at FamilyLife, we were hard at work putting the finishing touches on a new idea we had: a parenting getaway called Passport2Purity. We decided we would put Scripture to music so that kids could memorize these verses. One of the verses was Colossians 1:18:

Woman: (Singing)

He is also head of the body, the church;

And He is the beginning….

Bob: Now, you fast-forward ahead 14 years; it’s the summer of 2012—good thing you have an App for navigation because gasoline costs four bucks a gallon; and Passport2Purity—well, it’s still going strong; but for the summer of 2012, we’ve dressed things up a little bit. Our old friend, Colossians 1:18, has some new music.

Man: (Singing)

He is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the first born from the dead.

That in everything, in everything,

That He might be preeminent, preeminent….

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, May 22^nd. Our host is the President of FamilyLife^®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We want to thank our friends from Seeds Family Worship for updating Colossians 1:18 for us. I think I like the new sound better than the old sound, and today we’re going to hear from Jason Houser and others from Seeds Family Worship about the songs that are a part of the new updated Passport2Purity.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. You know when you think about the resources FamilyLife has created over the years, probably, the one people know the most about would be Resurrection Eggs^®, don’t you think?

Dennis: I think so.

Bob: Then, there are some Christmas—or some holiday resources—books that you’ve written—of course, folks who have been to a Weekend to Remember^® marriage getaway or the new Art of Marriage^® weekend getaway, but the one that just keeps coming back—you just keep running into parents who will say, “Guess what we just did? My son and I or my daughter and I just got away for a Passport2Purity weekend.”

It’s always interesting. In fact, you’ve run into people in some faraway places.

Dennis: I was just thinking about that. I was in Xi’an, China. I mean this is in the boondocks of China, and it’s a tourist attraction. We were there on a ministry assignment; but I was in an open air market, and I heard this voice go, “Dennis Rainey, Dennis Rainey. Is that you?!”

Bob: In China.

Dennis: In Xi’an. You’re in this crowded market. It’s got people pushing you from every different direction, and this missionary who lived on the coast of China had gotten away with his son—this was their Passpor2Purity weekend. They had the kit. He was there.

His son wanted to come to Xi’an because it was in Xi’an where they have what’s called Xi’an soldiers. They’re terra cotta soldiers, life size—football fields buried underground that have been excavated, and his son wanted to come there to see these soldiers.

Here’s the thing: It’s a safe way to be able to share about a bunch of issues your son, your daughter, is going to face in the adolescent years ahead of time; and the Passport2Purity weekend is not something FamilyLife hosts. We’ve created the journal, the parent guide, the CD’s—it’s plug and play. You plug it in, you play it, then you interact as we instruct you to do all throughout Friday night/Saturday if that’s how you choose to do it.

I think the reason, Bob, so many people call us, write us—I get letters from young people who have been through this—is, I think, it’s a life-changing weekend to take your son or your daughter into the most intimate of issues two human beings, a father and a son, or a mother and daughter, ever talk about in their lifetimes. It cements their hearts together at a level that is unexplainable.

But I’m telling you it works, and the decisions made by these young people prior to adolescence, I believe, are going to keep them out of all kinds of traps, all kinds of issues they face later on in the adolescent years and maybe even beyond when they are an adult.

Bob: Well, the sessions that are covered in Passport2Purity include one on peer pressure, there’s one on purity, there’s one on human reproduction and how the body changes during adolescence, there’s one on dating. Our team about a year ago started working on refreshing the experience, rerecording all of the audio, adding some sound effects and some interviews. They’ve redone the journal that the students use. They’ve really done a great job refreshing this.

Dennis: One of the areas you’ve really excelled in is really using all the sound effects in the theater of the mind—

Bob: Right.

Dennis: —of a young person to communicate with them. Of course, we all know how powerful music is, and you guys have done a great job with music.

In fact, you had a chance to sit down with the team at Seeds Family Worship that did the new music for Passport2Purity, and you had a chance to talk with them. I think it would be cool for our listeners to hear what went into just the thinking behind—really, as I mentioned the power of music and how to capture a young person’s heart and to drive these principles home in their lives.

[Recorded audio begins]

Bob: Well, one of the significant upgrades, I think, our team made to the Passport2Purity material was with the music because as we’ve talked about—and as I’ve heard from some who have been through it even recently—it had a little Michael Jackson-ish sound to it; and it needed to be updated. We thought who better to update it than the folks at Seeds Family Worship.

So, we called Jason Houser with Seeds Family Worship and said, “Do you want to write some new songs?” He said, “Well, let’s talk,” and Jason is with us. Jason, welcome back to FamilyLife Today.

Jason: Great, Bob. Thank you so much. It’s awesome to be back here.

Bob: When we contacted you and said, “Do you want to put some of these verses to music for this project”—of course, that’s what you do is put Scripture to music—

Jason: Right.

Bob: —all the time, right?—

Jason: Right. Right.

Bob: —you and the Seeds team. So, it was a natural fit; but what actually happened was this series of songs became your new CD.

Jason: Right.

Bob: You added some songs to the CD, and then, we worked the rest into the Passport2Purity project.

Jason: Right.

Bob: Tell me a little bit about what it was like to put these songs together and to work for a product like this rather than just creating a CD.

Jason: Yes, it was a very different direction for us because you all had chosen the verses. Typically, we would have a theme, we would pray, and our team would write material; it had been very organic up to that point. With this, okay, we took some of the verses—and I’ll just say right off the top, “They were hard.” (Laughter)

One of the songs that we wrote is called Do Not Awaken Love from Song of Solomon; and we have yet to have written a Seeds Family Worship song from the Song of Solomon—

Bob: First time, right?

Jason: —as you—

Bob: —might imagine.

Jason: —might imagine, right? (Laughter) But what that verse said and how it just made us feel and the truth that was in that for young people to capture both the intimacy of what that looks like and also the epic truth that God is saying, “Do not awaken love.”

Seeds Family Worship: (Singing)

Do not awaken love.

Do not awaken love, until it pleases.

Ooh Ooh.

Jason: It was such an adventure in writing and seeing the Lord as He does—as we create these songs, I mean it’s His Word and we always pray and we ask for God’s divine inspiration for every single song because that’s where the creativity comes from; and He’s put this gifting in us. But we tap into Him, and these songs for the whole record, they—and I say this to the Lord—were inspired. They just came.

Philip Morlan, who is here with us, and one of the co-writers of many of the songs will just attest to how amazing it was for this project that song—we’d write a song, and it would be finished; and we’re like, “Let’s write another song. I just don’t want to stop.” So, then, a couple of songs would come—two or three would come in a session, you know?

Bob: Yes, Philip, talk about the song writing process for this. Again, you were handed a group of verses and, again, some of them—the one that says, “Flee sexual immorality,” that’s not an easy verse to try to figure out how do you put a rhythm and a melody to that, right?

Philip: That was a challenge, especially—we at Seeds write our music for family and for children. So, sexual immorality is not something that we typically write about. But again, God’s faithfulness was amazing to see how we take this subject, which is a heavy, heavy subject, and turn it into something that—the idea of the song didn’t land on the sexual immorality, but “Honor God with your body,” and it was incredible.

Bob: In fact, you brought your guitars with you today, right?

Philip: Yes, we did.

Jason: We’re always ready. You know that’s part of what we do. If we don’t bring them, then, we know, Bob, you would be like, “And your thing is? You’re worship leaders, and your guitars aren’t here because, why?” (Laughter)

Bob: So—

Jason: We didn’t want to have to like—

Bob: You came prepared. We’ve got the recorded versions of the songs, but it might cool for folks to hear that song—because that’s taken from 1 Corinthians, Chapter 6, right? Could you give us a little live—

Jason: Yes.

Bob: —rendition of that?

Jason: Well, yes. We’d love to do that. As we sing it and as Philip was saying, we talked about this verse of “Flee sexual immorality”—every other sin a person commits is outside the body; but then, this comes to saying, “Glorify God with your body.” So, we started with the chorus of the song, which, typically, you don’t do; but we wanted to say, “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body.”

As you hear the melody, the “Glorify God, glorify God,” is the high point because that is the point of when we obey God’s commands to us, when we do what He created us to do and who He created us to be; then, we get blessing of glorifying Him and the true joy and the true life. So, we wanted the—we are always seeking for the music to reflect the text of what the Scripture put the emotional context around, what the Lord is saying through His Word.

I think this song—in a different kind of a way—but it captured it in a neat way.

Bob: Alright, grab the guitar—and in fact, we should add, Philip, that your wife is here, Jessica. Hello, Jessica.

Jessica: Hello.

Bob: And you’re going to be singing along on this, right?

Jessica: I am.

Bob: Because you sang along on the CD.

Jessica: I did.

Bob: Sweet. Get the guitars, and let’s hear how this goes.

Seeds Family Worship: (Singing and guitar)

You are not you own for you were bought with a price.

So, glorify God, glorify God in your body.

You are not your own for you were bought with a price.

You are not your own. No.

Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,

But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body,

Against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple

Of the Holy Spirit within you

Whom you have from God.

You are not your own.

So, glorify God, glorify God,

Glorify God in your body. Oh, yes.

Glorify God, glorify God, glorify God in your body.

Yes. So, glorify God.

Bob: How about that? Very nice. That sounded good. (Clapping)

Jessica: Alright.

Bob: So, again, kind of a tricky lyric to put to music, but it’s memorable. It’s the kind of thing that you can see how a young person will walk around after that going, “Glorify God, glorify God in your body.”

Jessica: Yes.

Bob: That’s what you want.

Jason: That’s what we want the heart of this song to be is “You were bought with a price, recognize the gift of every day and of your body, your soul, your spirit and protect and guard it and glorify God with it. It was made for a purpose.” So, there’s joy in that. It’s not the darkness; we wanted to bring the light and the joy in obeying God because He always wants what’s best for us.

Bob: There was this moment where I was just going to starting singing, “I can’t hesitate no…,” (Laughter) which could go over the cross—

Jason: It’s a groove.

Bob: Yes.

Jason: We love that groove. (Laughter) You’ll find that there are many Seeds songs that we just kind of like hanging out. Like I said, there’s an organic nature of Seeds.

Bob: Yes.

Jason: We like a little bit of the Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, the chilling light. We love the low—yes—it’s all good.

Bob: Now, we should say that you had some firsthand experience as—well, actually, you didn’t as a dad. Your wife did. Jessica, you had a little firsthand experience with Passport2Purity long before this project got underway, right?

Jessica: Correct.

Bob: So, tell us about that.

Jessica: Well, we have been preparing for many years; so, we had been praying about doing Passport2Purity with our kids from the time—well, I knew about it was probably when they—I guess, Maddie was probably five or six. For many, many years, we knew.

Bob: Do you remember how you heard about it?

Jessica: Yes, actually, some friends of ours, some mentor friends of ours had older children; and I have been watching her and gleaning from her. So, her kids that—she had taken her kids—two or three of them now—and so, I had seen the fruit of that. The preparation beforehand with both her husband and herself—and just had seen these kids blossom because of the truth of God’s Word and just being the ones that impart that knowledge and not allowing the culture or the world to speak into that.

Bob: Maddie is your oldest child, right?

Jessica: She is my oldest, yes—our oldest.

Bob: She’s 13 years old?

Jessica: Yes, almost 14.

Bob: And she is with us today. Hello, Maddie.

Maddie: Hi.

Bob: So, when your mom came and said, “Hey, I’ve got this idea,” what did you think?

Maddie: She just said me and her were going to go on a trip. She surprised me when I got there. We went up to Lookout Mountain in Georgia.

Bob: Okay.

Maddie: We stayed at a bed and breakfast called Chanticleer Inn.

Bob: That sounds nice. What do you remember from the weekend, from going through the CD’s—anything that stood out?

Maddie: One part that stood out to me was when my mom gave me my purity bracelet. It was a really special night because the spiritual moment with me and God; and when I signed my name for the passport, that was really special.

Bob: Let’s talk about the songs because your mom and dad, obviously, they write and they sing. Do you remember when the songs came on, on the CD? Do you remember what you were thinking?

Maddie: This sounds like Michael Jackson. (Laughter)

Philip: You nailed it, Bob.

Bob: This is pretty bad sounding, is what you thought, right?

Maddie: Kind of, I guess. They could have picked better people. (Laughter)

Bob: Well, I think we did this time, don’t you?

Maddie: Yes. Yes, I think so.

Philip: That’s a loaded question, Maddie, be careful. You need a ride home, so, proceed carefully. (Laughter)

Bob: Jason, when we first got together and started talking about this project, there was a song that we didn’t have included in Passport2Purity; that you said, “You know, I just think this fits with everything we are trying to say to kids this age,” right?

Jason: Yes, we wanted to add a couple of songs from the Seeds team that would just add, from a worshipful standpoint, to this. I had written a song with Matthew West about five years ago to Jeremiah 29:11. So, one of the messages that I want young people to know—and as I teach young people—is that God wants what’s best for you.

With purity, we’re feeling all this pressure from all these other young people and even parents; and kids are in a really tricky place nowadays. You go to a friend’s house for a movie, and everybody is watching this but you. So, you’ve got to call your—at our household—you’ve got to call Mom and Dad and say, “Hey, this movie”—

Bob: Can I watch it?

Jason: —and our 13 year old, if it’s PG-13, some are acceptable, some are not. It’s hard to do that for them, but it’s good for them. That’s the beginning of standing up and saying, “I’m going to guard my purity. I’m going to guard my heart.” Trusting that the reason that—and I tell my kids, all of them—the reason that we do this is because I want what’s best for you—

Bob: Right.

Jason: —and that’s how God is, you know? So, this song just says that—I love how it says so succinctly that God’s plans and God’s purpose for you is the very best.

Bob: You want to sing this one for us too?

Jason: Love to. Yes!

Bob: Alright—

Jason: Alright!

Bob: This is Jeremiah 29:11.

Jason: This is a song—I wrote this with Matthew West. Actually, he was gracious enough to sing it for the project; but he’s out with Casting Crowns or something—whatever! (Laughter) So, you are going to get to hear us do it.

Seeds Family Worship: (Singing and guitar)

Hey!

“Well, I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord.

“Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

Prosper you and not to harm you,

Prosper you and not to harm you,” declares the Lord.

“Plans to give you hope and a future,”

Yeah, yeah.

“Hope and a future,”

Yeah, yeah.

“Well, I know the plans I have for you,”

“Hope and a future,”

Yeah, yeah. Alright.

Matthew West: (from Passport2Purity)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord.

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord.

[Recorded audio ends]

Bob: Well, that’s just a couple of the songs that the folks at Seeds Family Worship put together for the brand new Passport2Purity resource. I say brand new even though Passport2Purity has been around for 15 years. The makeover here was pretty substantial.

Dennis: Well, it was top to bottom. I mean, Barbara and I rerecorded everything we did. We’re talking about issues today that we weren’t talking about 15 years ago.

Bob: We added in interviews and some sound effects and some new dramas and some—really refreshed everything about this including the music and the travel journal that the students get. The goal of the whole resource is to make it easier for you and your son or you and your daughter to have these kinds of conversations.

Find out more when you go to FamilyLifeToday.com. There’s information there about Passport2Purity, how you can have one of these weekends—everything you need is available. Go to FamilyLifeToday.com for more information, or call 1-800-358-6329. That’s 1-800- “F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then, the word, “TODAY”. Ask about the Passport2Purity resource when you get in touch with us.

Now, we are grateful for those of you who help support the ministry of FamilyLife Today. We are listener-supported. The cost for producing and syndicating this daily radio program is covered by folks who appreciate the program and will call occasionally to make a $10, $20, $50, or $100 donation. Some of you have done even more than that, and we appreciate whatever you are able to do.

Particularly, here during the month of May, we are grateful for those donations because we’ve had some friends who have agreed this month to match every donation we receive on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to a total of $650,000. That is very generous of them; but in order for us to take advantage of that matching gift fund, we need folks like you to be generous as well. So, would you consider making a donation today?

Go to FamilyLifeToday.com and donate online; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY and make a donation over the phone. When you do, that donation is going to be matched dollar for dollar up to a total of $650,000. 1-800-FL-TODAY is the number to call to make a donation over the phone, or donate online at FamilyLifeToday.com. Again, thanks for whatever you’re able to do. We appreciate your support of this ministry.

We hope you can join us back tomorrow. We’re going to talk about the challenge of peer pressure, and let you hear from a young man named Caleb. He just went on a Passport2Purity weekend with his dad and faced some interesting peer pressure not long after. We’ll introduce you to Caleb tomorrow. Hope you can be here for that.

I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.

Woman: (Singing)

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Bob: FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.

Artist: Seeds Family Worship

Album: Purity (p) Seeds Family Worship 2012

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Singing Passport2Purity

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