A Note from Pastor Dustin Burke: What an amazing night this record represents! I’ve had the privilege of accomplishing some really exciting things in my music career. I’ve shared the stage with many of my musical heroes…played venues I only dreamed of….but I honestly think this night topped them all!! It’s one thing to look across a room of worshippers and watch as they go for it in worship…it’s a whole different thing when it’s your own family. It’s like the excitement of watching the super bowl from your living room super bowl party – versus – the excitement of watching the super bowl from the 50 yard line with your son as quarterback. When it’s family – it’s better!!! You catch every play, every yard, and soak up every second!! I was overwhelmed as I watched you run hard after the heart of God like I’ve never seen!! The intensity and passion was running high for almost 3 hours! “Will Play for Change” was sort of our way of bridging our response to God in worship…with our response to God in serving His people. John Piper may have said it best when he said “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is…missions exist only because worship doesn’t.” See…the need of man is temporary. There will be an age when eternity is all that remains. Hunger is no more. AIDS is no more. Sickness is no more. In that era…all that will remain is our worship to God, whether or not we choose to worship Him on earth. Not just in song…but with our lives. We can commit our lives to missions and still miss heaven. However – committing our lives to worshipping God BY serving and meeting the needs of His people is one of the greatest commands of all. In fact – the Bible says – to do this – is the truest, most pure, most authentic religion that there is. I’ve spent quite a lot of time in Nashville, TN. If you spend anytime downtown . . . you’ll notice every corner is riddled with country music’s “next big thing”. Men and women have left the comfort of their homes to pursue their dreams. Until that big break comes – they make the best of their tiny stage on the street corner with only a brief audience of the quick pedestrian passing by. Of course - it’s inevitable – the guitar case or bucket will be open and available for monetary donations should you like the music they played. They are truly playing for change, mostly nickels and dimes. Well . . . while we didn’t prop open our guitar cases on the night of this live recording, we were pouring our hearts out for change as well. We played our music and lifted Jesus high – in hopes that His people would donate money to bring change to the country of Swaziland, Africa. CLC has been deeply connected in Swaziland for several years now. We have seen firsthand the change that the church of Jesus Christ – committed to changing the world – can bring to a hurting nation. After building churches, orphanages, homes for widows, homes for pastors, etc, we have seen changed lives; people with names, people with real stories. I was in Africa in the weeks before this night. In fact…the closing song of the night is one I wrote sitting on a mountain in Swaziland looking over a valley of people that I knew had been ravaged with the AIDS epidemic and was full of people suffering from a multitude of preventable diseases and avoidable starvation. I was amazed to be apart of a community of believers that is working to change all of that!! I held the orphans we had helped rescue. I led worship in churches that didn’t exist a couple years ago. Truly – our church community is bringing change to that community and I believe we’re just getting started!! I believe God has done GREAT things in Swaziland – but I’m convinced – based on the God we serve – greater things are yet to come!! Thank you, CLC for worshipping with us that night. We raised $1,000’s for that worthy cause. And . . . we did it in an act of worship. Every note, every chord, every melody, every word, everything you hear on this record – from both sides of the stage – was done to make Jesus the main idea of the night. He is the song we sing….the one we’re looking for words to describe. He is the hope of the world. May all glory, attention, honor, accolades, praise, and every other good thing go to Him.