Contemporary Christian classics coming to Hempfield church

A beloved oldies song comes on the radio and instantly you’re transported back to the time and place where you first heard it.

That’s the vibe created by the Greatest Hits Live Tour, coming April 26 to Word of Life Church in Hempfield.

The twist is that these golden oldies aren’t doo-wop or R&B or rock, they’re contemporary Christian hits dating back 30 years or more from Avalon, Bob Carlisle, NewSong, Nicole C. Mullen, Point of Grace and Rebecca St. James.

“When you listen to an old song, it can be like a flashback to that era,” St. James said recently from her home in Nashville. “You have an emotional reaction, and you feel the same feelings you had when you first heard it.”

Making music again

St. James hit the stage early in her native Australia, opening for Christian singer Carman on his 1990 tour when she was 12. In the late 1990s, her albums, “God” and “Pray,” both went gold, and the latter won a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best Rock Gospel Album.

In recent years, St. James — who is also an actress and author — stepped away from the stage to focus on raising her daughters, who are 5 and not quite 1.

“I felt led to come off the road and be a full-time mother, and I’ve loved being at home,” she says, but the time came when music beckoned again. St. James joined her brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, who comprise the contemporary Christian group King & Country, on their Christmas 2017 tour.

“That experience was like the scales falling from my eyes, and I felt like it was time to make music again,” she says.

She’s working on a new album and joined up with Greatest Hits Live in November. St. James has taken to the road with her entire family in tow, which was a priority for her and her husband Jacob “Cubbie” Fink, who is the former bassist for indie pop band Foster the People.

“We’re very committed to (traveling together as a family),” she says. “I’m learning about how to be a fully engaged mama, while still writing songs and going out on tour. I never want them to resent me doing what I’m doing. I felt that if God called me to do it, I’d be obedient and we’d be blessed as a family through it.”

One affirmation of her decision came, she says, when older daughter Gemma eagerly asked, “Do we get to go back on the bus?”

Night of classic hits

When the bus stops at Word of Life, the audience will hear “nearly 100 No. 1 hits among all six artists on the tour, and we’ll each be performing some of these singles for the first time in years,” says tour creator and NewSong founding member Eddie Carswell.

Here’s a quick take on St. James’s tour mates:

• Avalon — The group comprising two married couples has delivered hits like “Adonai” and Testify to Love.” They’ve won American Music and Dove awards and have three Grammy Award nominations.

• Bob Carlisle — A 1980s pioneer of Christian rock music, he wrote “Butterfly Kisses” for his daughter and won a Dove Award for Best Song of the Year and sold more than 2 million copies of the single.

• NewSong — Members of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the group’s hits include the popular Easter anthem, “Arise My Love.” They also founded another contemporary Christian music showcase, Winter Jam Tour Spectacular.

• Nicole C. Mullen — The first African American to win the Gospel Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year award, Mullen is the co-writer of hits like “On My Knees” and “Call on Jesus.”

• Point of Grace — The all-female trio has two platinum albums, 27 No. 1 singles, three Grammy nominations and numerous Dove Awards for Christian radio standards like “I’ll Be Believing” and “Circle of Friends.”