Matt Maher: Musician, storyteller, pilgrim for Christ
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
Two-time Grammy nominee singer-songwriter Matt Maher is in a hurry to proclaim his love of Christ through his music.
“It’s like when you are driving, and in your enthusiasm you want to go from zero to 60,” he admitted. Maher, a 39-year-old Nashville-based Christian recording artist will share that enthusiasm Sept. 19 as he joins Te Deum’s Array of Hope organization in a two-hour concert experience in Lakewood’s Strand Theatre.
Sponsored by and in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Newark and the Dioceses of Trenton, Metuchen and Paterson, the experience will feature song, story, videos and powerful witness by Sacred Road, The Costa Crew and The Bosco Boys and a performance by Maher in a return trip to the Garden State.
Maher opened up about his musical and personal epiphanies of faith, how they have led him to Christian music and the upcoming Strand concert during a recent telephone interview with The Monitor.
“I definitely look at life like one big pilgrimage,” Maher began, describing his circuitous journey toward a life in Christian music. Born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada, Maher immersed himself into a wide range of musical outlets: piano lessons, choir singing, concert ensembles and garage rock bands. A scholarship to study jazz piano led him to Arizona State University, but his need to forge stronger family ties drew him to accompany his cousin to a Phoenix-area charismatic Catholic church.
“It had a very active relationship with Christ, a great vibe,” Maher recalled, and he soon became involved in its youth ministry. “That music lent itself to guitar,” he continued. “It led me to innovate. It gave me freedom. I needed to find more praise and worship type music, so I wrote it. I never had a good voice until I met the Lord.”
A change in parishes led the young musician to reconsider his plans to make a living in Los Angeles and the movie music industry. “My conversion came through a parish and a community; [it] was a great hotbed of people who were passionate about serving Christ,” Maher remembered. “Their youth ministry led me to innovate.”
The young Catholic’s song-writing earned him a record deal with the Spirit and Song division of liturgical publisher Oregon Catholic Press, which released his first three collections. Maher won Best New Artist of the Year at the 2003 Unity Awards and his “I Love You, Lord” single garnered the organization’s 2004 Praise and Worship Song of the Year.
With these successes, Maher began touring in 2005; two years later he signed with Essential Records and released his fourth album “Empty and Beautiful,” which won the 2008 Praise and Worship Album of the Year award from Canada’s Gospel Music Association. When Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. in 2008, Maher was asked to lead worship for the thousands in attendance at the Rally for Youth and Seminarians held in Yonkers, N.Y.
In 2009, the label issued Maher’s fifth album, “Alive Again,” which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard magazine’s Top Christian Albums of the Year; his subsequent album, “The Love in Between,” won the 2012 Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year at the Canada Covenant Awards. The two-time Grammy nominee has released his seventh album, “And All the People Said Amen;” he performed the track “Lord, I Need You” for World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
“I love the idea of writing songs,” Maher admitted. “I want to write music in a way that if people heard it and didn’t know anything about Catholicism they would still say, ‘Huh, I never thought about it that way!’ I still very much write from the viewpoint that I do believe in God. It’s a new vision…
“The Internet changed music in a short period of time,” the artist continued. “Stories are told through images and videos, like sitting around a verbal campfire.”
When asked about his reasons for partnering with the Array of Hope team for the Sept. 19 concert, he explained, “I had heard of them, and it kinda worked for us to team up. They are trying to reach people [to ask the question] growing up Catholic: is your faith an inch deep and a mile wide? Does God want it to have more substance? They don’t [present the message] in a confrontational way.”
Maher’s interview was interrupted by a good-bye kiss from the musician’s three-year-old son; he and his wife Kristen also have a 10-month-old daughter. The father, musician and self-proclaimed pilgrim admitted life as a troubadour for God, though not easy, was necessary in order to spread the ever-changing yet ever-constant message of God’s love.
Maher will share a bit of his faith journey during the Sept. 19 concert in the Strand Theater and how it has deepened his love of Christ’s love. “I’ve changed as a person. My level of expressing has changed over time,” he said. “I have songs and stories, I will lay out my life and faith from my own perspective.”
The Array of Hope/Matt Maher concert is an example of outreach comprising part of a larger evangelization movement for the Catholic Church, especially for its youth. During his trip earlier this month in Korea, Pope Francis told its bishops their country’s “prosperous, yet increasingly secularized and materialistic society” should not distract the Church from its essential duty to evangelize.
“I am convinced that if the face of the Church is first and foremost a face of love, more and more young people will be drawn to the heart of Jesus ever aflame with divine love in the communion of his mystical body,” the Pope added.
Youth and young adults in the Diocese of Trenton are urged to consider evangelization a part of their core mission as well. Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M. noted, “The Array of Hope experience offers us here in the Diocese and throughout the state a unique opportunity to enrich our faith in an exciting and powerful way. This concert, with nationally renowned contemporary Christian musician Matt Maher, is truly an example of the new evangelization in action. As Bishop of Trenton, I encourage our families and parish groups to take full advantage of the opportunity this concert presents to us.”
Rudy Gomez, youth ministry coordinator, concurs. Anticipating the unifying nature of the evening at the Strand Theater, he stated, “It’s an opportunity for youth, young adults and their families to come together to hear their message of faith, hope and love. Array of Hope is a unique sensory experience; it’s really well done, professional, and an example of the new evangelization.”
The concert featuring Matt Maher and Array of Hope is scheduled for Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. in the Strand Theater, Lakewood. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at www.itickets.com or by calling 800-965-9324.
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Two-time Grammy nominee singer-songwriter Matt Maher is in a hurry to proclaim his love of Christ through his music.
“It’s like when you are driving, and in your enthusiasm you want to go from zero to 60,” he admitted. Maher, a 39-year-old Nashville-based Christian recording artist will share that enthusiasm Sept. 19 as he joins Te Deum’s Array of Hope organization in a two-hour concert experience in Lakewood’s Strand Theatre.
Sponsored by and in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Newark and the Dioceses of Trenton, Metuchen and Paterson, the experience will feature song, story, videos and powerful witness by Sacred Road, The Costa Crew and The Bosco Boys and a performance by Maher in a return trip to the Garden State.
Maher opened up about his musical and personal epiphanies of faith, how they have led him to Christian music and the upcoming Strand concert during a recent telephone interview with The Monitor.
“I definitely look at life like one big pilgrimage,” Maher began, describing his circuitous journey toward a life in Christian music. Born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada, Maher immersed himself into a wide range of musical outlets: piano lessons, choir singing, concert ensembles and garage rock bands. A scholarship to study jazz piano led him to Arizona State University, but his need to forge stronger family ties drew him to accompany his cousin to a Phoenix-area charismatic Catholic church.
“It had a very active relationship with Christ, a great vibe,” Maher recalled, and he soon became involved in its youth ministry. “That music lent itself to guitar,” he continued. “It led me to innovate. It gave me freedom. I needed to find more praise and worship type music, so I wrote it. I never had a good voice until I met the Lord.”
A change in parishes led the young musician to reconsider his plans to make a living in Los Angeles and the movie music industry. “My conversion came through a parish and a community; [it] was a great hotbed of people who were passionate about serving Christ,” Maher remembered. “Their youth ministry led me to innovate.”
The young Catholic’s song-writing earned him a record deal with the Spirit and Song division of liturgical publisher Oregon Catholic Press, which released his first three collections. Maher won Best New Artist of the Year at the 2003 Unity Awards and his “I Love You, Lord” single garnered the organization’s 2004 Praise and Worship Song of the Year.
With these successes, Maher began touring in 2005; two years later he signed with Essential Records and released his fourth album “Empty and Beautiful,” which won the 2008 Praise and Worship Album of the Year award from Canada’s Gospel Music Association. When Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. in 2008, Maher was asked to lead worship for the thousands in attendance at the Rally for Youth and Seminarians held in Yonkers, N.Y.
In 2009, the label issued Maher’s fifth album, “Alive Again,” which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard magazine’s Top Christian Albums of the Year; his subsequent album, “The Love in Between,” won the 2012 Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year at the Canada Covenant Awards. The two-time Grammy nominee has released his seventh album, “And All the People Said Amen;” he performed the track “Lord, I Need You” for World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
“I love the idea of writing songs,” Maher admitted. “I want to write music in a way that if people heard it and didn’t know anything about Catholicism they would still say, ‘Huh, I never thought about it that way!’ I still very much write from the viewpoint that I do believe in God. It’s a new vision…
“The Internet changed music in a short period of time,” the artist continued. “Stories are told through images and videos, like sitting around a verbal campfire.”
When asked about his reasons for partnering with the Array of Hope team for the Sept. 19 concert, he explained, “I had heard of them, and it kinda worked for us to team up. They are trying to reach people [to ask the question] growing up Catholic: is your faith an inch deep and a mile wide? Does God want it to have more substance? They don’t [present the message] in a confrontational way.”
Maher’s interview was interrupted by a good-bye kiss from the musician’s three-year-old son; he and his wife Kristen also have a 10-month-old daughter. The father, musician and self-proclaimed pilgrim admitted life as a troubadour for God, though not easy, was necessary in order to spread the ever-changing yet ever-constant message of God’s love.
Maher will share a bit of his faith journey during the Sept. 19 concert in the Strand Theater and how it has deepened his love of Christ’s love. “I’ve changed as a person. My level of expressing has changed over time,” he said. “I have songs and stories, I will lay out my life and faith from my own perspective.”
The Array of Hope/Matt Maher concert is an example of outreach comprising part of a larger evangelization movement for the Catholic Church, especially for its youth. During his trip earlier this month in Korea, Pope Francis told its bishops their country’s “prosperous, yet increasingly secularized and materialistic society” should not distract the Church from its essential duty to evangelize.
“I am convinced that if the face of the Church is first and foremost a face of love, more and more young people will be drawn to the heart of Jesus ever aflame with divine love in the communion of his mystical body,” the Pope added.
Youth and young adults in the Diocese of Trenton are urged to consider evangelization a part of their core mission as well. Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M. noted, “The Array of Hope experience offers us here in the Diocese and throughout the state a unique opportunity to enrich our faith in an exciting and powerful way. This concert, with nationally renowned contemporary Christian musician Matt Maher, is truly an example of the new evangelization in action. As Bishop of Trenton, I encourage our families and parish groups to take full advantage of the opportunity this concert presents to us.”
Rudy Gomez, youth ministry coordinator, concurs. Anticipating the unifying nature of the evening at the Strand Theater, he stated, “It’s an opportunity for youth, young adults and their families to come together to hear their message of faith, hope and love. Array of Hope is a unique sensory experience; it’s really well done, professional, and an example of the new evangelization.”
The concert featuring Matt Maher and Array of Hope is scheduled for Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. in the Strand Theater, Lakewood. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at www.itickets.com or by calling 800-965-9324.
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