(We’re such romantics…)

And as it happens, that’s the song that got done first, and we wanted to release it into the wild.  So, here it is… The Gap Theory’s ‘So Much For Love’.

India’s population is about 80% Hindu and 15% Muslim, so we weren’t certain how we’d be received. But as we hoped, it turns out being an american rock band is a big deal there, and we found a great audience for our music, stories, and spiritual discussion.

There were several settings where we were asked (and allowed) to share openly about our faith, and to extend an invitation for people to begin a relationship with Christ. In those cases, we saw about 40 percent of our audiences indicate that they had either made a decision to trust Christ (about 400 people made that decision), or that they wanted to talk more with someone about God.

Getting to play for thousands of people is great fun. But we’re all about connecting people to a radical message of hope, redemption and love. To see 40% of your audience respond to that? I’ll do that all day. Every day. And I don’t care where in the world I have to go to do it.

So – we had a great time, and we’ll have more video up soon. In the mean time, here’s a song from one of the shows we played in Hyderabad:

Our Indian hosts tell us that they have 10-12 shows arranged; one is a partnership with the Billy Graham organization. They are excited that we’ll be able to play to many many thousands of people.

We’ll also do a public show in the Indy area next Friday.

To follow our adventures online, keep an eye on our website – The Gap Theory, for pictures and tour stories.

Here’s a video of us doing a new song called ‘So Much For Love’ in rehearsals.

So… here’s a previously unpublished story from the 2010 blue sky nine tour.

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- May, 2010

Recently, in addition to a bunch of colleges and other shows, blue sky nine played outreach concerts at 3 different prison facilities.

One was an outreach at a Level-5 security, ‘Supermax’ prison. At that event, we saw literally hundreds of guys make decisions to turn their lives around and follow Christ.

At another facility, we learned that mentioning that Adam (the band’s percussionist) is single is not such a good idea when you’re playing in a women’s prison.

Oops.

And at the third prison, we were asked to play some worship songs for anyone who chose to stay around after our ‘normal’ concert. About 30 guys stayed around for that, and it was, in a word, amazing. I have never seen people worship and celebrate their spiritual freedom with such abandon as these guys – and I have seen a lot.

It’s funny. Those guys, who have no ‘freedom’ and have had everything stripped away from them, were extremely honest, open and demonstrative in their worship. They had been given a legitimate, life-changing spiritual freedom through Christ, and it showed.

Maybe Janis Joplin was right – freedom really is just another word for “nothing left to lose”.

I realize there are easy criticisms to make regarding ‘jailhouse religion’, and all that. I’m pretty sure that God can sort out what is genuine and what is not. But those guys were experiencing a truer freedom than many people I’ve seen on the ‘outside’ in church.

On several occasions, we’ve heard prisoners tell us that they are truly grateful for being incarcerated, and it is the best thing that has ever happened to them. It made them come to their senses and realize where they were.

Spiritually speaking, I don’t think any of us ever get out of prison until we realize that’s where we are.