God's Not Dead: A Conversation with Michael Tait and Adam Agee from the Newsboys

The world is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny God. As such, we need thinking Christian to become as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian Podcast. I'm Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful, theological discussions, Thinking Christian highlights the ways God is working in the world and questions the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that hinder Christians from becoming more like Christ. Now, on to today's episode of Thinking Christian. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I am joined by my co-host, Nate Giartano. I almost always get that wrong. I think I kind of got it right that time. And Nate, I'm going to let you introduce our guests, so go ahead, man. Yeah, I'm sure anyone that listens to Christian music has heard of the Newsboys and obviously DC Talk, but we have Michael Tate and Adam Agee with us. We're really excited to have you guys. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having us, guys. Thank you. I got to tell you, my wife was, I told her that you were going to be on, and she said she wanted me to let you know that she was a big fan and that, you know, I'm taking her back to her younger days as a Christian, listening to you guys. So she was excited that I was having you on. So it's good to meet you. And always nice to meet some of the artists and have you guys on. So we're going to kind of talk a little bit today about God's Not Dead. The new movie is coming out, God's Not Dead and God We Trust. And you all have been involved with this for a while now. So why don't you just tell us, like, how did you get started with God's Not Dead? What was the genesis of your involvement with not only the film franchise, but also the music and all that kind of good stuff? Well, the song came first. We recorded God's Not Dead in the spring of 2011, I believe it was. Don't hold me to it, 11, 12-ish. And the song just took off, man. I mean, kids, I was surprised at the amount of kids that loved it. Like kids, you know, from three years old to, you know, to up. They just went crazy with God's Not Dead, you know, like a lion, roar like a lion. They loved that whole thing. I thought, how precious of a message, a decree, you know, an anthem about our faith and our creator, God's Not Dead. That just preaches by itself, you know. So the song came out and then we got approached about making it. Then our pastor at the time, Pastor Rice Brooks, wrote a book, God's Not Dead. And a couple of apologists kind of signed a book, kind of a book. And then we had a movie company approach us about making a movie. And we thought, okay, this is a funny story, actually. We thought, it's going to be, you know, probably a cheesy Christian kind of thing, but, you know, a few little, you know, cameras, whatever. No. We were on the road doing a tour. At the end of a four-show run, at the end of a 42-city tour, exhausted, show up to Houston, get off the tour bus, walk in, baggy-eyed, worn out, into this amazing movie set. And like, I mean, 10 cameras, staff, lunch, makeup, the whole nine. And we were like, crap, we have not learned our lines. We didn't even look at our lines. James, Nate, and I tell you, we didn't know our lines no better than you know our lines. Duncan and Jeff, we were like, go back to the bus, we got to learn our lines. Get to the bus, we start adding, we were rushing, rushing. And I was like, there's no way I'm going to remember this right now. I'm under pressure. I'm scared. I got to put in my own words. So finally, we basically just winged the whole thing. We got the idea of the scene and we just winged it. And thank God he gave us grace and mercy. The movie came out and it was like number three in the country a couple of weeks later. It was unbelievable, the ride of the first God's Not Dead. And people told me, the Christian movies at the time were still kind of coming around, coming out, you know, to where it was like... Before there was really that, you know, it was kind of heavy-handed, kind of, you know, a little weird and out there. But this one, you know, it had the newsboys in it and it was a little tangible premise. Kids in college fighting for their faith and existence of God or the non-existence of God, depending on what side of the track you're on. And it was powerful. So that started a relationship with Pureflix up until now. Duncan and I made an appearance, I think, in number three. It was two or three and we missed a couple and now we're in five. And I believe five could be the best one. Awesome. That's great. That's really cool. About the political climate where we are today in America. We didn't know it was going to be like this at this point, but man, what timing. September the 12th is it with everything going on, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. Go ahead, James. How much do you guys frame out? Like, were you involved in what the movie was going to be in that first one? So were you, you know, was that like sort of, were you involved at all in the creative process of the writing or anything like that? Or are they just sort of drawing on your song and then tailoring it to that college age audience? Yeah, that was it. The God's Not Dead has been the sounding board for all the movies. I mean, obviously the song itself. And they threw a script at us, you know, we got to kind of table what we kind of wanted to do because you don't want to, you know, you don't want to look like a doofus. You want to be, you are too. They've been so easy to work with and it's always been a neat little script or part for those boys to enter the film and make a splash. We're not actors by any stretch of the imagination. So it's nice to have a little spot that was, that made sense for us. Yeah. That's very cool. For all our listeners out there, I know everyone's probably heard that song at some point. I know my kids grew up to it with the, like you were talking about earlier. But when you guys wrote that, did you think afterwards, like, oh, this could be like as big of a song as it is, or this is a legacy song for us? Did you have that feeling or? Actually, Daniel Basia, a good friend of mine, ours, came to us with that song. It's called Like a Lion. And I think Crowder, David Crowder cut it and David Basia cut it himself. But sometimes, you know, it's like we did the DC talk in the light was cut by a lot of different artists, but in the light became a DC talk song. So God's Not Dead has become a Newsboys song since we did it. And of course we changed, rearranged and made it our own. Our version, the third time was a charm. Our version was the version people bought into. So it worked out well. Very cool. So you've got a, you've got a new song in this movie, right? Because it's God's Not Dead In God We Trust is the name of the movie. So you've got In God We Trust. That's part of the soundtrack of this movie. So talk a little bit about the new album, the song, you know. I don't got a story about In God We Trust. Tell us the story. It's a great story. It's kind of wild how that came about. We were, it was a year ago or something that they sent, they sent me the script for the new movie and it didn't have a title on it. And so it's like, but this is going to be the new God's Not Dead movie. Okay, cool. And so they sent me the script. They're like, you know, we need you guys to write. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text guide to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text guide to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. A couple of songs for it. And so I read through the whole script and I was just kind of making notes on my phone as I'm reading through. And so then fast forward a couple of weeks, we fly in our buddy Paul Duncan from LA and we're in the studio with one of our favorite producers, Colby Wedgworth. And we're sitting there. We're like, all right, what are we going to write? And I always ask the songwriters, you know, that do

That's awesome. Yeah. And so when is the new album coming out? I mean, obviously that song's released as part of the movie, but when does everything happen with the new album? The album is, we're going to release it in two parts because we had, we wrote about 50 songs for this album. Oh, wow. And so we wanted to put out as much of that as we can, but we didn't want to wait till it's all done because it takes forever to get some people to sing songs in the studio, and so we released part one July 19th, and so it's out available everywhere you get your music. Worldwide Revival. Worldwide Revival part one. And so yeah, you can get that anywhere. And then part two is coming out TBD. Yes. Our label is like, you guys need to turn this in. We gave you a date and we didn't make that date. And so now we're going to try to make the next date that they gave us to turn it in. But hopefully sometime early 2025 part two will be out of Worldwide Revival as well. But yeah. That's awesome. That's cool. I kind of love that the music is still driving a little bit of the franchise, you know? I mean, not only God's Not Dead, but now a second song. Do you guys write, you know, have you written other songs for other movies? I don't know it that well. So, you know, do you have songs on the other soundtracks or is this kind of rare? Not really. I think Guilty was used in number two. Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah. But then after that, I think three and four, they kind of went away and did their own thing. And I think this is the first time that they've asked us to write specifically for the movie again. We've had the most, I think as far as even having a song in a movie or a song influenced in a movie, we've had a good track because we believe it'll influence the movie. That was pretty solid. But the God's Not Dead franchise is obviously the one that's like, the song is right, the phrase is right, the charge is right. It just makes sense on so many levels, you know? Thus, Continuation, so one, two, three, four. Yeah, it's like fast and furious. Now let's just keep it going. It worked for Vin Diesel. I don't see why it wouldn't work for you guys. Eight Harry Potter movies. Why don't we just keep it going? Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. Very cool. Did you get to meet any of the actors from the movie? Oh, yeah. David R. White's one of our good buddies. He's a ham. He's a funny guy to hang out with. He's very colorful, very interesting. He's the L.A. boy. So, you know, he's our dude. Yeah, we got to meet a couple of others that were in our scenes. Obviously, Mike Huckabee. Mike Huckabee, yeah. He's Governor Huckabee. Yeah. But they're all cool. They're all super nice. They didn't make fun of us for our acting skills or anything. They were very cool. So it was great. That's awesome. I was telling the guys before the interview, I just got done interviewing David and Scott Baio. And so, yeah, that was another one when I told my wife I was having Scott Baio on. She's like, from Happy Days? And I'm like, yeah, but also from God's Not Dead. So, yes. Hopefully a whole new generation will only know him from his God's Not Dead. From God's Not Dead, right? Yeah. The Happy Days crowd is probably around my age area, you know, demographically. They'll be like, Scott Baio? Like, I was like, my husband's in the movie. I was like, it's Scott Baio, Happy Days? The Fonz. Hey, the Fonz. Yeah. Maybe in six, we'll get the Fonz. We'll get him, yeah. Yeah, I think I grew up with him on Charles in Charge. And so it was pretty cool to get to meet him. Oh, yeah. You guys remember that? Oh, yeah. I just remember Chachi and then referencing that, like, in Three Ninjas Kickback or whatever when I was a kid. Like, Joni loves Chachi. You know, like, joking about that song. But I was going to say, it's very encouraging. We've had a lot of conversations with other people and ourselves right now, just kind of where the world is at, kind of you alluded to earlier. But I think it's really important to reiterate again, like, we can't put our hope and faith in anybody but the Lord. And right now, it's so easy for even Christians, and I'm guilty myself, to get fearful. And you look around, you know, you do some doom scrolling. You scroll through and look at everything in the news, or you listen to stuff and it's like, you know, it's easy to get our eyes off of God. So this song and this movie pointing that back and reaffirming that for us and for the world, I think is really, really important. So I'm super grateful you guys responded to the call and wrote that song and are putting this movie out. I think it's really going to inspire and encourage a lot of us. That's awesome. And that brings me joy in my heart. So, yeah, that's why we do it. I mean, if you ask why do Newsboys still do what we do? Because we believe in what we do. We feel called to what we do. And this movie franchise and Newsboys touring period, it's a ministry. It's like an, it's another outlet to share a message of life, eternal life to souls in the balance. We all know it. You know, but. Yeah, and that's what, I mean, we, we tour, we play to thousands of people each night, which is great. But then you put out a movie and it hits millions of people. And so the impact is just, it's incredible. And we're just grateful to be a part of the team and you know, great writers and great actors that are, you know, doing it for the right reasons. That's right. Absolutely. Will there be a tour coming up? What's what's coming up for the Newsboys where everyone can see you guys out on the road? Yeah. Yeah, just check out. I mean, check out newsboys.com and you can find all of our tour dates. We're touring a bunch. Actually, this is the first night of our fall leg of the Worldwide Revival Nights tour. Yep. Here we're in Arkansas somewhere. And so, yeah, we'll be, I think we've got like 25 shows or something like that this fall. So come check it out. And then I'm sure in the spring we'll be touring again. So yeah, we'll let you know all about it. A little unknown factoid. Little Rock, Arkansas, God's Not Dead part two, the guilty video we shot in the courthouse in Little Rock, Arkansas. Oh, wow. Here we are in Arkansas again. We're not in Little Rock, but I'm saying, but yeah, speaking of God's Not Dead in the whole franchise, yeah, this was one of the places that we filmed. Very cool. Yeah, it's awesome. I have kind of a question for you that I asked the other guys about the movies, but I'll ask you about the song. You know, you said you were the, I think the third people to cut the song, right? And it just kind of hit. Any sense of why it hit? I mean, obviously that God's Not Dead message is going to resonate with a lot of Christian listeners and, you know, it does have a really, you know, great message to it. Do you think that's all it was, or do you think there was something more to it? Like, do you have a good sense when you're cutting a song, like, yeah, this one's going to really, really work? Well, one thing for sure, and I'll say this for sure, Daniel Baptiste did it. I mean, we're pop heads. I mean, you know, Crowder's a good friend of ours. One of our buds. We've known for years. He's a bit more, you know, raw alternative. And then Daniel Baptiste is kind of worship leader kind of guy. Didn't really want to go in and make it this big whatever. Newsboys does everything big, which is crazy. We like big pop electric songs from the stage. So I said, let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free Retirement Defense Guide. Or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. We sat down for about a couple weeks and tried to make this thing pop more. And one of the things we did, we changed the title from I Like a Line to God's Not Dead. It's still the first, but we kind of made that front and center. Because that was really the punch of it. More than like,

an album called How Many Times. Yes. It feels like a special song. It should be picked up. And it's so far so good on that, but we'll see, we'll see what happens. But yeah. Everybody I've ever talked to everybody I've ever talked to about that same thing. It's like everyone wants to figure out the formula, but there's really no way to do it. I know. Give me a guess. I always say a hit in a hit till it's a hit because we can write what we think is a hit, but public has to weigh in. Radio has to weigh in. It's not hit until everybody says, okay, we love it. We like it. Yeah. Because you find the guy, you have a good idea of what it, we have a good idea of what a hit smells like, but there's a lot more hurdles to jump after that. Totally. It's just interesting. I, I don't have a musical bone in my body. Um, I can barely, you know, keep tune clapping, right? No rhythm, no anything. But, uh, Uh, I grew up Lutheran, so it was, you know, the frozen chosen singing the hymns, right? You know, no swaying, no clapping, no anything. I've never heard that. That's the title of our new album. There you go. Perfect. It's right up my alley. But yeah, no musical, no musical talent whatsoever, but I write a lot and I, I am always interested in hearing people who do these creative activities because writing is fairly creative and it's like when you're writing something, you have a sense, it's like, oh, I feel like I'm really putting this together well and this is going to make sense and it's going to be good. But I've had pieces where, uh, the, the, the ones that the, the people really like, I would have said, uh, yeah, that was sort of the mediocre one. I would, you know, you should read this one. And, you know, the ones I really love, most people have never even looked at. And so it's, it's such a crapshoot, um, depending on, you know, what you're doing. And so when you approach that creative process, do you guys, you mentioned, uh, having writers in the room, you know, so it sounds like it's pretty collaborative, but obviously you bring ideas to the table as well. Do you kind of find that inspiration in daily life, just like in the things God is doing in the, in the things people are looking at, watching outside of your realm? Like how do you come up with those creative thoughts? Yeah. Usually it's just an idea will pop in my head because of a, you know, situation we're dealing with or, you know, family stuff or church stuff or, or whatever. And I'll just kind of put little notes in my phone or if I get a little idea or something, I'll sing a little voice memo into my phone and just kind of keep a, you know, an archive of all those things. And then, you know, when you get in the room, sometimes I'll just write it myself with just an acoustic guitar and then we'll sort it out later. Or sometimes we'll get in a room with a couple of writers, uh, you know, with a purpose like, like we did for the movie. Yes. Um, try to come up with a theme for that specific situation. Um, or sometimes it's a TV and film placement thing where they're like, hey, can you write a song that's kind of a little more like rock that we could put in with a college football trailer or something like that? Okay, gotcha. We'll work it out. Um, but most of the time it is just a, you know, I'm kind of, I'm laying in my bed and I'm halfway asleep kind of in that magic zone of where your brain is weird. And I think of an idea and I lean over, I grab my phone and I, you know, type it in and go back to sleep. And I look the next morning. Most of the time it's terrible. Sometimes it's awesome. It's like, okay, cool. One thing for sure, you get the idea. I've lost, I think I've lost, I used to joke about this with Toby Mac back in the day. We've lost so many ideas. You land in bed and you in a sleep zone and it feels so good and you're thinking, okay, this thought, I'll remember that. I'll remember. I don't have any thoughts. And you know what? I'm like, hey guys, I never freaking remember it. Right. Like it's bad. But Adam's so good at jotting down. He's a jotter, man. He'll jot thoughts down on the line here and on there. You know what's funny? You might not even know this, but, uh, I wrote a song in the first God's Not Dead movie called Ones and Zeros. And, uh, it, I wrote it just like that. Like I was asleep and I don't even remember writing it. I just, I remember being in that zone and I leaned over and I grabbed my phone and I just started writing and started writing and started writing. And I woke up the next morning and it was, it was done. It was the song. Wow. That's awesome. That's, that's happened once and that was it. But yeah, it is incredible. It's fun being in a session too, where I didn't like, we were doing God's in God We Trust and you're writing it and you throw an idea and go, I like that one. And the other guy goes, then you go all the way, hold on. Then that piece, that piece, that, and you get so excited. Everybody, it's like these brains, this, this chemical energy is happening. It's, it's great, man. It's a cool process. Yeah. And this, this new album is really, I love, I love it because it's all of our, all of our styles and all of our history. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide. Or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. Yeah, it is. You've been doing it 30 plus years. I've been doing it for 25 years. And we've kind of just been on our own musical journeys. And all of our styles kind of just collided on this album. So it's got a bit of an old school feel, but it also feels fresh. And lyrically, the message is the same. It's just trying to come up with creative ways to say what we're saying. But yeah, it's been a cool process making it. And that's why part 2 is taking so long is because we don't want to just put out music to put out music. We want it to be right and we want it to be really good. I just part 1. Okay, guys. I mean, just keep your main middle notes. Don't rush us too quickly, you know. I actually like that nowadays. A lot of bands are doing that where they release songs just a little at a time or part 1 and then part 2 because it kind of builds like the excitement and the anticipation. And then it's like, oh, there's a new one that's not blurred out. That's, you know, shadow like this one's out now. And so I'm excited. I've heard part 1. I'm excited to hear part 2. So we'll be watching for that. I think it's crazy. I don't talk about technology much, but if you give a kid a Christmas card, if you give a kid five or six toys, let's say you give them eight toys, 10 toys, they'll have one in the garage, one in the day, one will be outside on the porch during the day, one will be in the backyard, one will be in his bedroom, one will be in the basement. You give them two or three gifts, the back under the tree because each one matters to me. You begin to value things more when you have less of it, you know? You give them an album of 20 songs on it, it can all be, you know, great songs. But man, 20 is a lot to digest. Give them eight at a time, you know, kind of cherish each one of them. That's my thought. Or sometimes you can overlook a song and then you come back months later and you're like, man, I totally missed this one. This one's actually really good. That happens to me all the time. So I kind of like that. And I'm, I'm a big music nerd. You guys probably know, but, but yeah, I'm super excited to hear the new stuff. So are you only planning two? Because you said you wrote 50. You're only planning two albums? Yeah, that's the beauty of, of songwriting. I mean, you know, as a writer, like, you are never going to hear those songs and they're never going to see, you know, half the stuff that you write. It's just not going to happen. They're not

And then I'll let you decide which one of you wants to answer first. But it's Thinking Christian is the podcast. So I like to ask, what do you think Christians should be thinking about now to be and make disciples more faithfully for Jesus Christ? I think Christians should seize the moment. Carpe diem, not to be cheesy and borrow from that movie. But yeah, because time is short. And I know my mom and dad said that when I was a kid years ago. But the return is for sure. What is it gonna happen? I don't know. But I believe we're living in crazy, perilous last day times. And I'm encouraged by the youth of America right now, because not so much in the numbers that are following, because that's not the the massive number. It's the intensity of the ones that are following. And they're bringing up the rear with excitement and fire, and they show up at our concerts. They show up in their high schools or colleges and in society. So I'm just praying for a move that the records go out revival for a reason. It starts in our homes. It starts with our kids. It starts with each other, our mates, the neighbors across the street, because God is moving and doing something special. So that's that's what I'm thinking. Yeah, it's a similar, similar thing. A friend of mine told me a long time ago, just about being being content with wherever God has your ministry at the moment. And, you know, especially when you're in a band or you're, you know, wanting to get to that next level or whatever. And don't just don't be afraid to, to do what you do and say what you believe and tell people about it with whatever platform you've been given. It could be just your friends at school, or it could be, you know, on a, in a, in a local church, or it could be on an international touring band, you know, stage. It's just, we all have our different ministry platforms that God has placed us in, in this moment. And it might not be forever in that moment, but wherever you are right now, use whatever that is to make disciples and to, to tell people about what you believe. Bloom where you're planted. Yep. I was just going to say that, Tate. I know you were. I was thinking that. I was looking at that. That's part of the running process when somebody, somebody's sitting in the running process and they haven't said anything all day long. And the guy comes with a great line and he goes, well, I was about to say the same thing, man. Oh, you got me. That's awesome. Well, guys, thanks for being here. This has been, this has been fantastic. And the movie drops September 12th officially in theaters. So go check out God's Not Dead and God We Trust. Go pull in and, and check out Newsboys worldwide revival. The first part of the album is already out, dropped in July. So check it out. You can find it online and we'll have links in the show notes as well. But really appreciate you guys being here and thanks for having the conversation. It's been great meeting you and talking with you and just good luck on the tour. Be, be praying for you and hopefully it goes really, really well. Thanks James. And we appreciate you guys. Thank you guys, man. Thank you guys. Love you too, brother. All right. We'll catch everybody on the next episode of Thinking Christian. I just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. God invites us to cultivate thankful hearts by turning our eyes toward him in good times and bad. To listen to more Abide Christian meditations, just go to lifeaudio.com or search your favorite podcast app for Abide Christian Meditation. You can also download the Abide app for more biblical meditations at abide.com.