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Mockingbird addresses the question of, "We are set free, but unto what?" If the thing that I've been talking about on these records, if the message is about being set free and liberated by Christ, if that's true, then the big question becomes, "How do we live in light of that freedom?" What are the fruits of that freedom? There's a point at which the rubber of our theology must hit the road of ethics. There's a point at which, if we pride ourselves in knowing about God's character, our knowledge of that character must inform the way that we love and live with people.

Is that realization something new for you?

Webb I went for too many years knowing about theology in a very cerebral way, which is a good pursuit. What do we believe about God and his character? How does it impact us and our world? That's a great study. But if that study never brings us to a point where it informs the way that we are actually loving our neighbors and even our enemies, then we're nothing more than ringing cymbals and clanging gongs. That's what Scripture says, and that's what Mockingbird is all about.

So it's about action more so than words.

Webb Yes. But I want to make clear that it's not about action apart from faith. There has been some misunderstanding even among my closest community, folks whose opinions I care a lot about. They've been misunderstanding that with this record is like I'm coming down on everybody: "You have to live like this. You have to do these things." But that's not at all what I'm saying.

There's not enough that we can do. You can't give enough money. You can't love the poor enough. You can't give enough of your possessions away to earn the love of the Father. Only Christ keeping the law on your behalf can do that. But if God does in fact love us that much, we are compelled to value the things that he valued. And Christ really had a special place for the poor. Matthew 25 shows how to judge whether or not you have real faith—faith that can justify you before the Father. When we look at the hardest people in our culture to love, how do we love them? So although the record is about action—no doubt about that—it's action in the context of liberation in Jesus.

That sounds great on paper. How do you live out this truth in practical ways?

Webb There's a lot of things in my personal life that were very instrumental in bringing me to write on some of these issues. Over the last year or so, my wife and I moved from the west side of Nashville over to the east side to be part of City Church East, which is here to minister to the poor, racially and economically diverse community of east Nashville. That was a real struggle for us, whether or not to leave our other church, to leave a level of comfort that we could afford—to sacrifice our idol of comfort, and make neighbors of people that are not like us, to learn how to love those neighbors and take care of them.

But that's not to say that that's a new law—that everyone has to move to the urban side of town. If so, all of God's children would be in one area. We're a diverse people with different gifts, with many circumstances and callings. Some of us need to stay where we are, some of us need to go. And for us, we needed to go. And it's difficult, but that has been part of the story for me in the past two years.

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