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The David Crowder Band album, Remedy (Sixsteps/Sparrow), came out of the band's concerns over social justice and compassion for others. In fact, the album kicked off the band's "Surely We Can Change Something" campaign which collected thousands of donated goods for local homeless shelters as the band toured around the country. (You can get a feel for that tour with the new Remedy Club Tour Edition DVD & CD which includes the album and more than 85 minutes of live music shot in high definition.)

As David Crowder was encouraging listeners to "be the remedy" in their communities, Ignite Your Faith knew he'd be the perfect cover guy for our Fall Issue that contains several stories about serving others. Here is a transcript of Ignite's interview with David about the purpose of Remedy, the difference between compassion and justice, and why some homeless shelters were shocked by Crowder fans.

The readers of Ignite Your Faith named you the best worship leader of the year. Do you have a message to pass along to the readers?

Well, most of my self-worth comes from winning awards like this. So they're going to get me through another year. I've now got one year that I can know that I'm doing alright. I'm just kidding. Seriously, this is a pretty big deal. But you know, our band looks at what we're doing in really simplistic terms. We're just a little band at a little church in Waco and we're writing songs to try to voice faith for the people that we know and live life with. It's amazing to see these little songs find life and voice elsewhere. Since that happens, it's proof that what God is doing in a little space in Waco, Texas, is meaningful and can give grace to people far from where we live. Which is really, really cool.

You mentioned how your songs come out of your church community. So what discussions are happening in your community right now?

I think Remedy is a good indication of where our conversations have been—and seem to be pretty indicative of the whole of our culture. We've been talking a whole lot about social justice issues. What's our responsibility as people who have been blessed with a lot? How do we pull the people up who are downtrodden? How do we go about loving our neighbor in our current culture? Our neighbor has gotten really, really close, thanks to technology. Because the other side of the world is just a click away, a lot changes.

It's a beautiful moment right now. Everyone from American Idol to corporate America are working to help other parts of the world. But what does this social justice focus mean for us? How do Christians designate themselves as different from the world when the concerns are universal? When the mission of the church lines up with mainstream culture's attempt at interacting with the global community, it seems like there's a slightly missing piece that designates us as a people of faith. I mean, what makes us different?  What makes our attempts to help any different than the attempts of the atheist? If a Christian and an atheist are working along side each other in hurricane recovery, what's the difference between the two?

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