Mark Lowry Talks Turning Down BROADWAY, Bill Gaither & What God DIDN’T Mention | Kirk Cameron on TBN

Mark Lowry joins Kirk Cameron for an entertaining conversation covering his early years in music, the significance of traditional hymns and advice for the next generation of Christian songwriters. Be prepared to laugh out loud and sing along here on Takeaways with Kirk Cameron on TBN!

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In 1977, I was on a trajectory towards a business degree, and the lord asked me, and the best he can to a Baptist.
You know, he never taught to us audibly because he knows we can’t handle it.
But it was louder than audible.
It was in my spirit, and he asked me, why won’t I do what he wants me to do so and he told me what that was going to music.
He never said a thing about comedy, or I would have found myself in the belly of a whale.
I’m telling you, I he didn’t let me in on that little nugget.
Fike is always so great to see you and and so great to talk with you.
And I I love listening to you. Tell your stories.
You’ve always got us laughing and, uh, and and your life has revolved their own music for all of these years.
I’m curious. What were some of your earliest experiences with music that got you so interested in it as a career?
Well, my mom She goes back to nearly whose mother doesn’t have such a big impact, but my mother played the piano in church.
And she loved to scan the audience. You know, she didn’t have to read the music.
She could scan that audience and sing that alto. Like a victory, and she’d be playing that piano.
And I’d be up in the back row of the balcony learning stand up comedy for all my friends.
And she’d be loving god having a great time until she spotted me in the balcony And above the singing, I’d hear her clear that throat.
And I knew it was a battle cry. But my mother loved to play. She loved to sing.
She taught me to sing. I sang my first time in church when I was 4, and I had my first recording contract when I was 11.
But that’s another life and another story. Wow. So so what got
you into performing and singing professionally?
Well, my mother knew I was hyper is is couldn’t tell.
And, uh, I was diagnosed with the ADHD before they knew how to abbreviate it.
But she read in the paper that they were looking for boys to come audition for parts at the, uh, for the local Houston place, right, Well, she knew I wasn’t athletic because I went out for pee wee, and they made me the water boy, and I didn’t like that.
So but I would sing in church and entertain new folks, and and I love doing that.
So she thought, well, maybe this took me down to the Houston music theater.
I auditioned imitating Louisa Armstrong singing hello dolly. And, got every part that came through.
The first one was music man. Uh, Tommy Thune is also from Houston. He choreographed it.
So he tells me, but they wouldn’t let me dance Kurt. We were baptists.
I could sing, and they wanted me bad enough that that they would let me stand there and not dance.
Everybody danced around me and I sang, right, and get this.
Tommy tune tells my mom, if you’ll let me teach him to dance, I’ll take him to New York.
To Broadway. Well, mom mom didn’t want me to go to New York.
She just wanted me not be so hyper. And she started praying immediately.
My mother did started praying that the lord would open up the world of gospel music to me that god would get me out of the theater and into gospel music.
Well, within weeks, I was singing at the International Song Festival through a whole another set of circumstances got a recording contract the next day with the Benson company.
Wow. I was 11 at this time. I was out of the theater into gospel music.
And then when I was fourteen, I finally met who I’d been singing about.
I went to church camp and met Jesus June 5 1973.
Of course, that changed everything because then I started running the lyrics through my mind, and I believed every bit of it.
A lot of my theology from my youth comes from the old hymns I sing in church.
That’s one of the things I miss most about music in churches today is that the hymns are so rich in theology.
And and that’s really where I cut my teeth too as a young man coming to faith in Jesus.
It was theology. It was understanding who god is, why he put us here, and, uh, and understanding a bit of history that really anchored me in my face.
Oh, yes.
And, uh, I just love his hands.
And and and I love
that you love the hyms.
It’ll be those songs that’ll get you through your MRI.
That’s writing some new ditty I learned on Sunday morning. Oh, well, let’s repeat a hundred times.
What got me through is blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
When they were doing my MRI on my brain to see if I had one. No.
Literally, they were looking for MS. This was 12 years ago. And I was scared.
And I heard that thing clicking as it went around my brain, looking for signs of life, and I started singing to myself, bless of assurance.
Jesus is mine.
That’s right. You know who else does that? Is my my friend Johnny Erickson Tada.
I’m sure that you know, Johnny, and she’s just singing in that wheelchair all the time.
And it’s always the hyms. It’s always the hymns.
Is a reason they’ve been around so long that they’re so enduring.
Uh, now you also, uh, got your start in youth ministry.
What is it about youth ministry that blends so well with your love for music?
Well, I love young people, and I love old people, and everything in between you can have.
Young people are a clean slate. Old people, we’re clean in our slate.
And everybody in between is building their lives. Growing their careers, doing doing life.
The beginning is when you gotta catch them, and you can catch them at the end. They’re listening.
And I love that the first part of my ministry was from 1980 to 1988 when I was a young man, I did youth camps, youth meetings.
I knew the lingo. And then about 1988, Bill Gather comes along, picks me up, and drops me into a sea of geriatrics.
And I love them too. And now I’m one of them, but I always love those 2 groups.
And, uh, so I and I think what we’re missing out sometimes in church, when I’m hearing a lot from those that follow me on Facebook, uh, and YouTube, I I I go live nearly every day, and we sing these old hymns.
I sit and play them. We sing them. I put up the words.
Everybody sing along at home because they’re not singing them in church.
And what the local churches need to remember is old people have money. We’ve tithed.
And you ought to sing amazing grace every now and then. Wouldn’t kill you?
And you might learn something. The kids need to know amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I’m found. I was blind. But now I see. Oh my goodness.
How can you not love that?
That’s I I agree with everything that you’re saying.
And what what we love about you, Mark, is you also incorporate comedy and storytelling humor, uh, and and these great stories into your songs.
It almost seems like
Well, it didn’t mean to. No. How how did how did that happen?
It just sort of crept in?
Well, I thought the lord the lord called me to sing, right, in 1977, I was on a trajectory towards a business degree, and the lord asked me, and the best he can to a Baptist.
You know, he never talks to us audibly because he knows we can’t handle it.
But it was louder than audible.
It was in my spirit, and he asked me, why won’t I do what he wants me to do?
So I have me and he told me what that was going to music.
He never said a thing about comedy. Or I would have found myself in the belly of a whale.
I’m telling you, I he didn’t let me in on that little nugget, But when I would go to these independent fundamental Bible, believing Bible banging foot stomping, so when in door knocking baptist churches, they wouldn’t shout.
They wouldn’t clap for you. That’s giving glory to men, but they would laugh.
And that’s how I knew they were listening. And all I care about, are they listening?
Cause you can have the greatest content in the world. And if everybody is sleep? What good are you?
That’s right.
You know, Jesus held their attention.
He told stories about women who lost their coins and this and that and the other.
And people love to hear about people. You know? That’s why there’s people magazine.
People love to hear and read and think And so if you can find a story that tells your point and makes your point and is funny along the way, that way, you know, they’re listening, And before you know it, you lay them at in the lack of Jesus, and they never saw it coming.
That’s my favorite kind of story.
Mine too. Marco, talk to us a little bit more about music.
Sometimes we go to church, and we might leave church feeling like we just saw a singer performing more than we actually entered into worship with god.
Almost like Did did that worship leader think that they were just auditioning on the voice, or were they trying to lead me to the throne room of god?
Well, I I don’t wanna judge their motives and I like I’ll, you know, I’m so glad I came to Jesus when I was a child because I have really honed my skeptical skills You know, I can sit out there.
And if I’m not careful, start judging, well, listen.
What I tell all old people, my age now, let open your ears. Stand up.
I know they stand up too long now. We used to sit and open the hem knowing it was line.
We worship god wide open and never had to stand when others standing.
So stand up instead of getting ticked off when you see lyric up there that don’t even rhyme well.
Look at the young people. Turn your head toward the young people.
They’re getting it, and it will bless you watching them be blessed. Don’t be so selfish on Sunday.
When you I mean, I do it all the time.
I look, oh, I could’ve written that in my sleep.
And then I turn and look at the people, the young people, they’re getting it, and then all of a sudden I get it.
And then I’m joining them in this worship experience, you know, but you can’t sit there and judge everything.
We’re gonna have mercy.
When I think of the scriptures and and the distinctions that we find there with regard to music, like in Ephesians chapter 5, uh, Paul tells us to, um, to sing hymns and songs and spiritual songs, making music in our hearts to one another.
I I don’t know. He Paul said it’s a must be important. Songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.
Now I never personally in our Baptist church. I don’t remember singing a Psalm.
We did we did hymns, which is something Fanny Crosby, I think, you know, that era.
That’s what I think of as a hymn. And spiritual songs, I guess, would be the new ones.
You know, something new because the lord did say sing to me a new song.
So he’s all about the new too. Yeah.
So but don’t forget to him, You know, this is the 1st generation that has left the hymns behind.
I mean, when, okay, Isaac Watts, When he came home from church, I I may not have this story, right, so y’all check me out, get my facts straight.
But, listen, he comes home from church, tells his dad, I’m bored with the Psalms.
His dad being wise said, we’ll go write some, write some new songs. He does.
Isaac Watts goes in there and writes a few new songs. And they were contemporary Christian songs at the time.
But as time grew, the church adopted those And then Fannie Cross became along. Let’s just say she’s next.
And we didn’t ditch Isaac Newton and Watts or whoever it was, we brought them together. Right?
Fanny, we brought them along. And then Gather comes along.
And we’re singing all these new Gaither songs in the seventies. I’ll never forget it.
They were taken over the church, but they brought Fannie too. They brought Isaac too.
And now this new services, they’re not really bringing them with them anymore.
You know, it’s like they’ve they’re not bringing Fannie. We need Fannie too.
We need Fannie and we need Isaac and we need all those that have that have taught us our faith.
Mark, you’re so creative with with the ways that you find to encourage and to inspire people.
Uh, talk a little bit more about just whenever. What is that, and what about Sunday Singhalongs?
Well, there’s, uh, there’s I do a do a thing called First Mondays with Mark with my friend, Colleen, and Philip, he plays.
She’s we sync trio. And then every day when I’m home, when I’m not on the road, do it when I’m on the road, of course, but when I’m home, I have a studio slash bedroom slash office.
It’s right here. And I have 2 lights, a camera, a green screen.
My the people who follow me, they send in beautiful pictures of of of their that they taken, and I’ll put them on the green screen.
So they love that. And then I go to I’ll just show you.
I’d go over here because I’m I go over to the song page where I’m on one side, as you can tell, and then I have the lyrics over here, uh, you know, so they sing along, and I change the lyrics.
It’s very simple. And I do it all myself. And look, I can even make myself bigger that way.
It’s it I’m a geek at heart.
So the minute I I joined YouTube in 2006, YouTube went live in 2005, I was an early adopter, but that was all video.
You had to record it and then upload it. Now you go live.
Which I love going live because it’s a high wire.
You know, it I could in one word, I could ruin everything I’ve ever leave.
I mean, just I just love that. I can with one word, I can ruin everything.
But with one word, I can encourage somebody too.
I can get on here and just start loving on and talking about Jesus.
I look in that camera and pretend fifteen hundred people are looking right back at me.
And I love it if you can’t tell.
Mark, I know you love to read the Bible, and you must get inspiration from from some of your songs by by reading through the Psalms.
So when David was writing Psalms and that word Psalm, I understand means praise And some of those songs are even, uh, battle songs as he’s going into war.
Uh, some of those songs are are the the lyrics are are tough to read.
In fact, I even saw a guy once.
He was a theologian who sat down at the piano at my house, and he began playing in these temples that I was not used to.
This four four stuff was was nothing of what he was playing.
And these were other ancient tempos that he said were more in keeping with the genre of music of the songs.
These were battle hymns. Uh, what kind of inspiration do you get from reading the Psalms of David?
I think some of those prayers, god heard, of course, but I think god probably winked at David and said one day you’ll learn to love your enemies.
Because there’s a greater than David coming, and his name is Jesus.
And he, you know, he said you’ve heard it said, I for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, love your enemies.
He is right. He is jehovah on foot. He is the clear revelation of god.
He’s not a prophet given his little glimpses of the truth. No.
Jeho Vonfoot has showed up and moved into the neighborhood and we can know him.
And he told us as hard as it sounds and as hard as it is to love our enemies.
So that’s, yes, right. A lifetime to do that. That’s right. That’s a lot. That’s a full time job.
Mark, you’re such a seasoned professional. You’ve written these songs.
You you’ve just invested your life into music and ministering to people, what do you say to young musicians?
People who are just coming up the ranks, they wanna be songwriters. What advice do you give them?
Uh, grow where you’re planted is the first thing I’d say.
Don’t just move to Nashville because great song, a great song that’s gonna find a home.
You don’t have to push them too hard.
Uh, it would I don’t know how it does it, but it finds a home.
Uh, right, right, right, right, right, all the time.
If you’re a true writer, which I am not, I am a 1 hit wonder, But if you’re a true prolific writer like Gloria Gaither and others that I’ve known, you’re writing all the time.
You live to write. You can’t wait to get in a writer’s room and sweat it out with a couple other writers.
I would rather have a root canal I don’t like that process.
I call it I have to get up in the stirrups and push them out.
You know, it’s a complete birthing process. Us. Now I am thankful that I did birth. Mary, did you know?
Um, you know, I love having written. I don’t enjoy writing. Does that make sense?
Yes.
Because who wouldn’t love having written?
You know, it’s a great, you know, I’ve written 2 books, but it was a lot more having written them than actually writing them because I had to go away and think.
You know?
Yeah. Yeah.
And focus and focus. That’s so hard for me. One of
the things that encourages me today is some of the modern him writers like Keith and Kristin Getty, They write songs like, uh, the power of the cross and in Christ alone.
Uh, and I think that this may spark a resurgence of him type songs again in this generation because it’s so needed.
Have you have you have you do you like their songs?
Oh, I do. And I’ve met them. They were one of Gather events, and I got to meet them.
Oh, absolutely. I’m thrilled that someone is taking up the the challenge of writing, uh, him that will I don’t know what makes a song to him.
I guess it’s you know, I think of the songs that we sing or or Horizontal.
Like, I’m singing to someone about him. That’s what a lot of our songs are. I’m singing about him.
I sing a song called Jesus Laugh. Well, it’s a whole song about him laughing. It’s not to him.
Where worship songs are to god. They’re not about him. Right? They’re to him.
And, uh, so I wasn’t raised singing those types of songs or those types of hymns.
So that that was new to me to sing actually to god, which I do a lot in the shower now.
But we didn’t grow up doing that. We sang about him.
The hyms seemed to the ones I grew up on seemed to be, you know, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazery.
You know, that type of thing. That’s right. Uh, blessed assurance, Jesus is right.
A mighty fortress.
That’s
right. I I I love all the
fortress. Is our car. That’s a real up church.
Like I said, I mean, you’re you’re starting a sing along right here on on TVN. And, listen, if you
You haven’t joined in yet.
Well, you sing much better than I do. I sorta I sound like a rooster with laryngitis, and I don’t I not I don’t wanna ruin your pretty sound invoice.
Mark, it it is always so great to have you with us. Thanks for joining us again.