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When you say "left the church," do you mean you stopped playing at them as venues, or moving away from actually attending?

Furler Well, we played anywhere we could. We were young and selfish, so we'd play where anyone would have us if it served our purpose. When I say "left the church," I mean we didn't have a connection or a home base. We didn't have pastors and leaders in our lives. We just kind of were a group of nomads that roamed the earth.

How did you stay strong during that period of wandering?

Furler I didn't. I really didn't. That's probably why I'm back in church and why I believe in wise counseling—having men around you that you want to be like. For me, it wasn't so much in some big moral failure. It was more a failure of the heart. Where there is no hope, your heart sort of starts to void.

As I got older, I questioned not so much Jesus, but the plans and purposes of God. There's been a lot of talk about "purpose" in the past few years, but I began to realize I can't really enter into my purpose until understanding what God is doing. I started to get a real kingdom revelation; I realized there was a revolution that started a couple thousand years ago. Jesus died and he's building a kingdom, and it's the only hope that racism, poverty and all afflictions on earth are going to disappear. That begin to thrill me and it began to change our music a little.

If you were away from the church for fifteen years, that takes you up through the late 90s. Did you come back to church around the worship records?

Furler I think it was right about Thrive (recorded in late '01) that I remember a defining moment. I was asked to write a song for a band and I hadn't really done that. I thought, I'll give it a shot. While I was sitting and trying to write song, I really felt the presence of the Lord. I felt the Spirit of God saying, "Lead my people in worship"—and I felt conviction, 'cause I couldn't. I could give people their money's worth and make them walk out feeling encouraged and like they had a great show within a corporate setting, but I didn't know how to lead in worship. The first song I really wrote as far as that goes is "It Is You," which sticks out like a sore thumb on Thrive.

I saw all your tours since Not Ashamed (1992), and you were always so inspiring on stage. How did you pull that off despite that lengthy period of internal wrestling?

Furler You can play a song a thousand times, but it's always different when it's in a different setting with different people. Obviously we have songs like "Shine," "Breakfast," and "He Reigns," some of which have been played for a long time, but we never get tired of them, or of people. There's something about hearing people singing together in a room that's really powerful. A lot of the times I'm the one being encouraged!

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