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"Is the church doing all it can to reach the lost?" "Why are Christians so hard on divorced people when Jesus tells us to love others?" "If God wants us to be like him, why did he make us the way we are?" These are just some of the hard questions that Todd Agnew has been wrestling with lately—questions that many feel aren't as openly addressed by the church as they should be. Agnew doesn't have any easy answers either, but he's challenging believers to work it out through fellowship, Bible study, and prayer. That's the underlying theme of his latest release Better Questions.

I hear you weren't initially planning to write new songs for an album at this time?

Todd Agnew After the second record [2005's Reflection of Something], I just really felt like I shared what I had to say right then. I write songs quickly once I start them, but I'm not the type of guy who has a Bible study today and then writes a song about it the next day. I write out of life, and usually I write about stuff after I've lived through it for about a year. I'll learn something, start talking about it with my friends, and start applying it to my life. Once it's real to me and part of who I am, then it starts to turn into art.

After Reflection of Something, the first thing the Lord did in me was start stirring the Christmas record, which was a real cool experience to create—turning the Bible into art.

But at the same time, this is my 18th summer at camp leading worship, and a lot of people keep asking, "Why not make a worship record?" And I thought, Well, because everybody else does it! I didn't think we really needed another worship record at the moment.

And I've been very fortunate with my label [INO/Ardent]. They don't have a spoon in the pot during the creative process asking, "What about radio?" Ardent is made up of musicians—every owner was either an engineer or musician at some point—and they really support me to let me go in and create. Once there's a solid record, then we sit down and ask, "Now what's the single?"

I guess that blows away the theory that your radio single "Our Great God" (with Rebecca St. James) was tacked on to the album last minute.

Agnew I think the record takes a pretty natural progression to that song. There definitely are records that sound a certain way and then a song or two that sounds totally different. The pleasure we have in doing what I do is that I'm all over the map, so it's okay for me to go in that radio direction and still make it fit. This album doesn't have the "Todd Agnew wall of guitars"—just one electric guitar and one acoustic, but it still sonically fits. It's like bringing in strings on a song. That's always going to change things, but most of my singles have had strings—even the rock songs!

So what led to your decision to re-record "Our Great God," considering it's such a memorable highlight from the City On a Hill series?

Agnew We'd been playing "Our Great God" for the past five years and realized it would be a unique chance to share this song with the church at large, because a lot of people haven't noticed it yet. Rebecca's a great friend of mine that's actually in a study group with me, and everything fell into place perfectly—just like it should in Christian music! It was a really great experience that I think the church will benefit from, and I consider it an honor to bring this song back to their attention.

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