That's what Phil Joel's aiming for these days—becoming the man God wants him to be.

With his most recent CD, Bring It On (inpop), Phil Joel says he's essentially asking God to bring it on—whatever it takes to make him God's man. One song in particular, "The Man You Want Me to Be," addresses that desire powerfully. Joel, the bass player for Newsboys with a budding solo career on the side, says fatherhood has taught him much about what it means to be a man of God. We sat down with Joel recently to talk about these things, and much more.

Your song, "The Man You Want Me to Be," is powerful. What's the story behind it?

Phil Joel: The chorus says, "Jesus, make me the man you want me to be." That was the initial prayer that kind of set things off. It really began one night on the back porch. My daughter, Phynley, was about six months old. I kind of felt like I was in over my head, like Whoa, I'm a dad and I have this awesome responsibility toward this child. I started asking myself, "What's she really going to see in me? Is she going to see a guy who is hungering and thirsting for God on a daily basis? Or is she just going to see a guy who tips God every now and then, maybe picks up the Bible occasionally?" It was kind of humbling. I began really examining my life, putting everything under the microscope, and realizing that many of the necessary things had fallen by the wayside.

Like what?

Joel: The biggest thing that slipped was a solid quiet time. I'm ashamed to say it, but my quiet times had been in tatters, just maybe giving God a little bit of time in the morning and then heading on out the door and telling God I'll see him later. So, I made a commitment: If I really am serious about God making me the man he wants me to be, I need to commit to getting up early, rising before my daughter does. Over the last two years we've just done that. My wife (Heather) and I get up an hour-and-a-half before she does and spend time in the Word and in prayer. It's just been so revolutionary. Phynley's growing up with that now. Sometimes she'll wake up in the middle of our quiet time and she'll say, "Are you still reading your Bible?" I say, "Yep." So she goes back to sleep, and we'll go back and finish our quiet time. And my daughter is beginning to see what the life of a man who is trying to pursue his God looks like.

Aside from family matters, what else does "that man" look like?

Joel: Another thing that went under the microscope was my church life. I was pretty much on the periphery, sort of hanging in the back row, with sporadic attendance because we're on the road so much. I knew that had to change. I had to be at least involved in our local church and serve. And I'm doing more of that now. I've also seen the need to meet with other guys in sort of an accountable sense. Basically, the last two years I've been allowing God to reshape the way I see all these things.

What else has God been teaching you?

Joel: I kind of liken it to being on a sports team. You get a jersey, and you're all pumped. You learn the team song, you get excited about the coach, and you're going to be the greatest team ever. But if you don't turn up to practice, you're not going to know the voice of the coach. You won't know the plays, so he won't put you in the game. You're not going to get dirty at all. You'll sit on the bench wearing the jersey, looking good singing the song. I think so many of us live like that when it comes to our faith. I can attest to that because I've lived like that. I don't think you know how sick you can become until you get healthy. The only way to get healthy is to spend time with God. And all of this stuff ended up on the record.

Tell me about that.

Joel: The album title is Bring It On, and that's the last line on the last song too. I'm just crying out to God, saying, "Bring it on. Whatever it takes, whatever you want. I'm so done with me trying to become the person I think I'm meant to be. What should my life look like?" There are a lot of songs about starting again, about being broken, about being passionate. With "The Man You Want Me To Be," I really wanted to catch the passion that you see in movies like Braveheart. So I thought, Let's use some of those Celtic instruments. I even tagged that "the Braveheart section!"

Since you're making these changes in your life, what role has Scripture played?

Joel: I recently read the story about Mary and Martha. Jesus told Martha to stop sweating the details, and Mary's got it right: "She's spending time with me. We're communing." I realized everything pivots on that, on spending time with God. We need to be in that book enough and understand what God requires of us. It's just basic Christianity 101.

How is your increased church attendance helping in this process?

Joel: Right now in my church, we're all reading The One Year Bible, reading the same passage every day. That makes things kind of simple, and it holds us all accountable to spending time in the Word. The pastor will elaborate and reveal different truths about what we've read through the week. I recently read the verse, "Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength and soar as on wings of eagles" (Isaiah 40:31). I always thought it meant to sit and wait. But waiting for what? For God to come back? He hasn't gone anywhere. When I read it this time, I understood it to mean those who wait upon the Lord, those who serve the Lord, will renew their strength. It makes more sense to me that way.

Based on what you've learned, give us a checklist of things people can do to grow in faith.

Joel: I think there are four things we need to do every day: One, we need to be obedient. Two, we need to be worshipers. Three, we need to be serving. And four, we need to be spending time with God. We just have to get back to the old-school quiet time. It's such a powerful thing. All the great men of God rose early to seek their Creator because they knew they needed him desperately. But for some reason we just forget that. The most important thing is that we live a life where we are abiding in Christ, where we are walking with him.

Learn more about Phil Joel at our artist page for him, as well as our page for Newsboys. Click here for our review of Bring It On. You can listen to song clips and pick up your own copy of their album at Musicforce.com.

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