Saturday, August 22, 1998

'Rock Your World' rally comes to town

By LORETTA FULTON / Senior Staff Writer

McMurry University's Radford Auditorium will be jammin' and rockin' next Saturday night as the popular "ZJAM Rock Your World" youth rally comes to town.

The rally, open to local teens and college students free of charge, will begin at 7 p.m. Aug. 29. ZJAM is a nationally syndicated radio call-in program broadcast every Saturday night nationwide, including on KGNZ in Abilene. It sponsors the "Rock Your World" concerts that are being held across the country.

The show at Radford will feature the highly acclaimed Age of Faith band and ZJAM host Bill Scott.

Jimi Ray, lead vocalist and guitarist with Age of Faith, promises a high-energy show.

"We really get the audience involved with it," Ray said in a telephone interview.

Age of Faith is enjoying the successful release in April of a new CD, "The Truth." The band is also enjoying the popularity of contemporary Christian music in general, especially among high school and college students.

"It's much more popular than it used to be," Ray said. "It's just gotten so much bigger than it used to be."

Ray, 30, started singing in a Baptist church in North Carolina at age 13. He later earned a degree in religious education from Gardner-Webb College in Shelby, N.C., and worked nearly four years as a youth pastor and workshop leader.

His desire to get back into popular music led him to form his band. It regrouped three years ago with the current members. But in the beginning, it was just Ray and his guitar.

"Then it just grew and evolved into what it is today," he said.

Ray grew up in a Christian home and always attended church. He said he never fell by the wayside or experienced any significant turning point in hi life..

"It was more of 'I need to get my act together type of thing,' " he said. "I've been to church as long as I can remember."

The message of Age of Faith's latest CD, "The Truth," is one that Ray discovered, while touring, that young people need to hear.

"God is merciful and he's a God of grace," Ray said.

Many young people seem to feel that once they've made a mistake, their life is over, Ray said.

"Everyone makes mistakes, but God forgives anyway," he said.

Ray said he discovered a few years ago that he had found the freedom in Christ that he now longs for others to know.

"I knew it was time to grow up and at that moment I began to experience grace and forgiveness," he said. "It was like an anvil had been lifted off my chest."