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Keith Green
Born on October 21, 1953, in Sheepshead Bay, NY; died on July 28, 1982, in Lindale, TX; married Melody Steiner, 1973; children: Josiah (deceased), Keith, Bethany (deceased), Rebekah. Addresses: Record company--Sparrow Records, P.O. Box 5085, Brentwood, TN 37024. Website--Keith Green Official Website: http://www.lastdaysministries.org.
Known for his uncompromising approach to both his faith and his music, Keith Green has become a legendary figure in Contemporary Christian music since his death in 1982. Taking on the role of a modern-day prophet, he earned a fervent following thanks to his explicit evangelical message and buoyant brand of pop-rock. Green was a critic both of secular society and of commercial tendencies within the Christian community. Since his passing, he has been the subject of several tribute albums and was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
From early childhood onward, it seemed certain that Green would become a musician. Born in New York, he relocated to the San Fernando Valley area of California with his family not long after. At age eight, he began to perform in stage musicals, appearing in such notable roles as Kurt Von Trapp in a local production of The Sound of Music. In 1965 he published his first song, "The Way I Used to Be," and became the youngest member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. That same year he signed a five-year recording contract with Decca Records and released his first single, "Cheese and Crackers."
Though Green was groomed to be a teenage idol, he never quite achieved success. The late 1960s found him experimenting with drugs and dabbling in various Eastern religions. His life began to turn around after he met (and eventually married) songwriter Melody Steiner in the early 1970s. Under Steiner's guidance, Green began to explore fundamentalist Christianity. Before fully embracing the faith, he began keeping company with singer/songwriters Larry Norman and Randy Stonehill, two of Southern California's best-known Christian rock artists. His skills as a singer and composer began to develop as he edged closer to religious conversion. Finally, in 1975 he became a committed Christian after becoming involved with the Vineyard, a well-known San Fernando Valley church. With a convert's fervor, Green became involved in a series of Christian music projects, including the band Good News and the stage musical Firewind. He also began writing spiritually themed songs, among them "Your Love Broke Through," which went on to become a Christian pop standard recorded by Randy Stonehill, Phil Keaggy, and others.
Dedicating his reawakened creativity to glorifying God, Green founded Last Days Ministries in 1977. He and his followers evangelized to young rock music fans, street people, and others not being reached by conventional churches. At the same time, he made his debut as a Christian recording artist, signing with Sparrow Records and releasing the album For Him Who Has Ears to Hear. This song collection displays the essentials of Green's musical style: exuberant singing, piano-based melodies, and well-crafted pop/rock production. Among the best-known tracks on Green's first album are "You Put This Love in My Heart," "No One Believes Me Anymore," and "Your Love Broke Through." Balancing the warm-hearted testimony of these tunes are some humorous moments, including "No One Believes Me Anymore," a mock lament sung from the Devil's point of view. Overall, For Him Who Has Ears to Hear introduced Green to the Christian music market as a gifted musical evangelist of enormous potential.
As his audience grew, Green made clear that his focus was on spreading Christian teaching rather than providing entertainment. He sought to challenge the assumptions of his fellow believers, criticizing Christians who took their faith for granted. Some compared him with the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, who decried the loose morals and weak faith of his generation. A number of the songs on Green's 1978 album No Compromise were addressed to the spiritually lazy. Most important among these is "Asleep at the Light," a ringing call for Christian activism sung by Green with palpable emotion. Less intense but still effective is the playful "Dear John (Letter to the Devil)" and the country-tinged "Soften Your Heart." All three of these songs received considerable airplay on Christian music stations.
Green was uneasy in his role as an emerging celebrity. He spoke out against the Christian music industry's increasing tendency to imitate secular show business ways. "Why do we idolize Christian singers and speakers?," he asked in a statement issued through Last Days Ministries. "We go from glorifying musicians in the world, to glorifying Christian musicians. It's all idolatry! ... It's true that there are many men and women of God who are greatly anointed to call down the Spirit of God on His people and the unsaved. But Satan is getting a great victory as we seem to worship these ministers on tapes and records...."
Turning away from the California Christian music scene, Green relocated to Lindale, a small east Texas community, in 1978. In addition to maintaining Last Days Ministries, he decided to launch his own record company, Pretty Good Records. Through this label, he released his next album, So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt, in 1980. This eclectic effort pokes fun at weak-spirited believers in its title track and offers a personal confession of need in "I Want to Be More Like Jesus." The most enduringly popular track proved to be "Oh Lord You're Beautiful," a powerful hymn that became a favorite at Christian worship services. In a bold move, Green announced that So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt would be sold for a variable price, even given away for free to those unable to pay. This decision sent shock waves through the Christian music industry, causing other artists to reconsider their album and concert pricing policies. An estimated 200,000 copies of the album were eventually distributed on a "pay what you can afford" basis.
Unlike some of his Christian music peers, Green showed little desire to dilute his message in hopes of reaching a wider audience. His 1982 album Songs to the Shepherd concentrates on worshipful material, praising the Lord in musical settings ranging from uplifting pop ("You Are the One") to blues-seasoned rock ("O God Our Lord") to old-fashioned country ("Draw Me"). While these songs were little-heard outside the Christian community, they helped fire Green's already-committed audience to a greater level of devotion. Fusing his work as a performer and evangelist, he toured actively during the early 1980s, mixing personal testimonials and heartfelt exhortations in between his musical numbers.
Green's life was cut short just as he began to hit his stride as a musician and minister. On July 28, 1982, he boarded a small Cessna aircraft for a brief sightseeing flight around his property in Lindale. Also on board were his son Josiah and daughter Bethany, along with the pilot and eight other passengers. Overloaded, the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board. Recovering from her loss, Melody Green decided to carry on with Last Days Ministries and Pretty Good Records. Recordings of her husband's music were released posthumously, beginning with Prodigal Son and Jesus Commands Us to Go in 1983. Though lacking the cohesiveness of the albums released during his lifetime, both these song collections capture Green in strong creative moments. Prodigal Son's dramatic title track is a particular highpoint.
Melody Green continued to guide Last Days Ministries through the coming years and, in 1985, also took on the directorship of Americans against Abortion. Green's musical legacy remained vital as well, with many of his best-known recordings repackaged in compilation albums by Sparrow during the 1980s and 1990s. Multi-artist tribute albums also began to appear, starting with 1992's No Compromise: Remembering the Music of Keith Green. 2001 saw the release of Start Right Here: Remembering the Life of Keith Green, featuring spirited interpretations of his songs by such notable Christian rock acts as MxPx, Joy Electric, and Starflyer 59. Your Love Broke Through: The Worship Songs of Keith Greencontains covers of Green tunes by Michael W. Smith, Twila Paris, Rebecca St. James, and other top-rank Christian pop/rock talents.
On November 27, 2001, Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The honor served as an acknowledgment of his continuing influence in Contemporary Christian music some 20 years after his death. Green's intensity and dedication have continued to make him a role model for younger Christian performers, such as Rebecca St. James, who paid tribute to him in a Sparrow Records press biography. "I think what touches me most about him was that he was so committed to loving God and living for Him," she said of Green. "I know he was very strong-willed and people were sometimes offended at what he did and said, but it all came out of a pure motive of trying to be committed to Him in every part of his life. He wasn't going to back down just because of what people thought of him. That, to me, says that he was more focused on pleasing God than on pleasing man, something I think we should all try to focus on."
Keith Green's Career
Began career as child stage actor and composer, early 1960s; signed with Decca, released debut single, "Cheese and Crackers," 1965; began writing Christian songs, mid-1970s; founded Last Days Ministries, released first album, For Him Who Has Ears to Hear, 1977; founded Pretty Good Records, released album So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt, 1980.
Keith Green's Awards
Induction (posthumous), Gospel Music Hall of Fame, 2001.
Famous Works
For Him Who Has Ears To Hear , Sparrow, 1977.
No Compromise , Sparrow, 1978.
So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt , Pretty Good, 1980.
The Keith Green Collection , Sparrow, 1981.
Songs for the Shepherd , Pretty Good, 1982.
The Prodigal Son , Pretty Good, 1983.
Jesus Commands Us to Go , Pretty Good, 1984.
Because of You--Songs of Testimony , Sparrow, 1998.
Here I Am, Send Me--Songs of Evangelism , Sparrow, 1998.
Oh Lord, You're Beautiful--Songs of Worship , Sparrow, 1998.
Make My Life a Prayer to You--Songs of Devotion , Sparrow, 1998.
iwo jima and the monumental sacrifice
âSome people wonder all their lives if they made a difference,â Ronald Reagan once said. Then he added, âThe Marines donât have that problem.â That was certainly true of the Marines who fought and died on a little island called Iwo Jima seventy years ago now. In the final phase of the war in the Pacific, Iwo Jima was strategic and essential to America and Japan â and it would cost them both dearly. Two out of every three Marines on Iwo Jima were killed or wounded before the Americans took the island. The fierce, heroic struggle was captured in what would become the most famous photograph of the war: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. Joe Rosenthalâs photograph, like the larger-than-life men he captured on camera, became the basis for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Though dedicated to the service and sacrifice of the Marines in all of Americaâs wars, it is still often referred to simply as the âIwo Jima Memorial.â It is the tallest bronze statue in the world. The soldier figures are each over thirty feet tall, and the rifles are sixteen feet long. Photographs, to use Lance Morrowâs phrase, âimprison time in a rectangle,â but they can never tell the whole story. Raising the flag on Mount Suribachi wasnât the moment of victory â a triumphant point between war and peace. Three of the six men who raised the flag on February 23 would be killed in action on Iwo Jima in a battle that would rage on for another month. The flag represented hope when it was raised â it did not represent victory. Worthy Sacrifices The last time I visited the Iwo Jima monument, it was a lovely evening in Arlington. Visitors who walked around the base of the great bronze spoke with hushed voices. Even the selfie-snapping was reserved. The bronze giants basked in the warmth of the last light, and the flag snapped in the wind, much like the first time. It made me feel proud and humble at the same time. From the bluff, I could see across the Potomac the tops of Americaâs other monuments huddled along the great expanse leading to the Capitol. Marble and bronze â the stuff of enduring memory â worthy of the sacrifices they commemorate. At the time I was at Arlington, Christians were being shot, beheaded, even crucified by the Islamic State, and whole Christian populations were being utterly obliterated in Syria and Iraq. I thought to myself, âWhereâs the monument to their sacrifice? Whatâs left for the generations to follow to remember?â Tragically, all that remains are smoldering ruins, bloodstains, and boot prints, as their killers move on. Sometimes, even less than that remains. In November, a Christian couple in Pakistan were incinerated. Hereâs their story. The Barbarians Are Back Debt peonage has long existed in Pakistan, keeping generations of Christians in slavery working in the brick kilns. Once I walked through such a slave colony near Lahore when the master was away in order to hear the workersâ stories. Little children stacked bricks, men tended the massive furnace firing the bricks, and women washed clothes in a stream that doubled as the sewer. It was in this same area last November that two brick workers, Shahzad Masih and his wife Shama, were killed. They were in a debt dispute with their owner, and in order to settle the score, he accused them of blasphemy, of burning pages of the Koran. The blasphemy law in Pakistan is a convenient way of dealing with inconvenient people and usually works like this: kill first, then maybe ask questions later. The setting was readymade for a mob. Bricks were handy for stoning, the legs of the husband and wife were broken so they couldnât escape, and then they were thrown into the furnace. Shahzad and his wife, who was five months pregnant, were burned to ash. This didnât happen centuries ago in barbaric times â it happened in November. The barbarians are back. Tragically, the murders of Shahzad and his wife are just more of the same. In the past three years alone, between the work of ISIS and other al-Qaeda franchises, the number of Christians killed or displaced in Iraq and Syria is in the tens of thousands, including hundreds of girls taken as sex slaves for the fighters. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than seven thousand Christians have been killed by Boko Haram and al-Shabaab in the past three years. When We Hear of Persecution Itâs understandable that these al-wannabes tend to sound alike â their handiwork certainly tends to look alike. After more than a decade in the new world disorder, they are just names and numbers on the news crawl, accompanied with a blur of blood and bombs, of gun-toting âspiritual leadersâ doing selfies on YouTube as they crow about their latest kill. I think of the lines from a Patty Griffin song, âThereâs a million sad stories on the side of the road. Strange how we all just got used to the blood.â The unspeakable seems unanswerable; and so we shrug. What can  we say? What can  we do that would make any difference? As Christians we must not look at persecution as just âbad things happening to good people.â And we shouldnât look away either. Christian persecution is tied to the very work and nature of the gospel. Here are three truths to remember when we hear of Christian persecution, whether in distant places or when it comes to our own shores. 1. We are vitally linked to our suffering brothers and sisters. âRemember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the bodyâ (Hebrews 13:3). This is why we pray, why we speak, and why we hurt alongside suffering Christians â they are family. Through the power of the gospel, our lives are forever bound up in Christâs life and, therefore, forever bound up with all other believers as well. 2. God is glorified, and his gospel advances, when his people demonstrate trust, love, and grace as they suffer for him. âI want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fearâ (Philippians 1:12â14). Persecution has many outcomes â sometimes they donât make sense to us. But clearly, one of the outcomes is gospel advance. Saul-the-Persecutor-turned-Paul-the-Preacher was a powerful demonstration of this truth. In our day, he would have been the equivalent of an al-Qaeda commander; so his conversion was the talk of the town. âThey only were hearing it said, âHe who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.â And they glorified God because of meâ (Galatians 1:23â24). Samuel Zwemer, the apostle to Arabia, with his âBig God, Big Gospelâ perspective on the long campaign of Kingdom advance could write, When you read in reports of troubles and opposition, of burning up books, imprisoning colporteurs, and expelling workers, you must not think that the gospel is being defeated. It is conquering. What we see under such circumstances is only the dust in the wake of the ploughman. God is turning the world upside down that it may be right side up when Jesus comes. He that plougheth should plough in hope. We may not be able to see a harvest yet in this country, but furrow after furrow, the soil is getting ready for the seed. 3. Persecution is linked to Christâs persecution. âGod is turning the world upside down that it may be right side up when Jesus comes.â âBeloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christâs sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealedâ (1 Peter 4:12â13). Suffering that comes for the sake of his name is Christ-like. And so there is, in fact, a monument to Christian sacrifice â it is the cross, in all its blood-stained splendor. Unlike the inspiring flag-raising on Iwo Jima, when the cross was raised, it seemed to symbolize only defeat and death. Yet, secured by Sovereign Love and the empty tomb, Christâs work was so complete that everyone who comes to him will live forever. This is the reward of the Lambâs suffering. Only he could heal the hurt of his people, turning their sorrow into song and their death into life.
