Lamont Hiebert (second from left) and his band Ten Shekel Shirt have extended their worship from simply performing music to expressing it through social justice.

Lamont Hiebert has a new day job. In the early part of the new millennium, he and his band Ten Shekel Shirt scored a hit in the CCM charts with the song "Ocean," but shortly after they released their second album, they went on an extended hiatus. Through the study of Scriptures, God gave Hiebert a heart for exploited children, which moved him to co-found Love146, an organization that provides safe homes for victims of sex trafficking and abuse. Eventually the world took notice, and Hiebert's organization received high-profile awards from the likes of GQ magazine and MySpace. In this conversation, the self-described abolitionist explains this change of course, his return to music, and the inextricable connection between worship and justice.

Your band has been out of the spotlight for five years. Why the long hiatus?

Lamont Hiebert: In the making of our second album, Risk, I decided to become more than a spokesperson for the cause of abolition on behalf of exploited children. I just felt like once I heard that more could be done practically on the ground, it wasn't enough for me to be talking about an issue—I had to be more practically involved. So I founded a charity, Love146, formerly Justice for Children International. With a couple of colleagues of mine we founded this organization and, thankfully, now it's grown its own legs and it's much bigger than Lamont Hiebert, much bigger than the cofounders, and much bigger than Ten Shekel Shirt.

It sounds like you're truly changing the world. If that's going so well, what made you come back to music?

Hiebert: A combination of things, really. I was sitting at the charity offices a couple of years ago, and I got a call from Rounder Records that they wanted to meet me. I didn't know a whole lot about them—they're a mainstream record company out of Boston. I ended up sitting down for lunch with their A&R guy and he just said that they were interested in signing me. It kind of caught me off guard, and I ended up laughing out loud. But it put a bug in my ear that if it got to the place where the charity is stable enough, and if I wanted to pursue music again, I had an open door there. So I went ahead and recorded the album and ended up signing with Rounder after [that].

What was it like recording again?

Hiebert: I like to surround myself with good people. I'm the primary songwriter for Ten Shekel Shirt—always have been. But I always have good people around me to work with. So even though I've been away from the recording thing for a while, it was quite natural to return to that environment. I also had so much in me from life and from working with this charity [that I wanted to express], especially the need to help restore these survivors of tragic abuse. So hearing so many stories of their suffering and pain, I knew I wanted to restore and bring healing and hope to these children. So many of the things in the album reflect my heart for that, and hopefully listeners can hear that.

Your new label's web site calls you "an artist with a message." What is it like to be known that way after being associated with worship music for so long?

Hiebert: I believe that it's a natural step, from worship to loving our oppressed neighbors. As you know, the links in the Bible between worship and justice are incredibly strong and summarized by Jesus' statement that we are to love God and love our neighbors. As far as me being an artist with a message, I wouldn't say we're heavy-handed, which is a good thing. People who come to our shows need not worry about the guilt trip. There are a couple of intense moments—there's one song on the new record called "It's Slavery" that's pretty combative. But for the most part, it's very hopeful, empowering and inspiring and hopefully has the fingerprints of God in it.

So would you say then that today you're more lukewarm towards songs like "Ocean" and your past worshipful material?

Hiebert: You know, it's just a different audience that I'm trying to hit. Music and justice on behalf of children is something that most of us can agree on and come together on. In a world that is so divided, I have the privilege to do something where I can bring people together. Since most of my music is not specifically geared toward the worship audience anymore, it's a good common ground for people to come to. We do splash worship elements into our sets live, and I think people have an opportunity to connect and engage God at our shows.

Yeah, I'd say that while a new song like "Higher Ground" isn't necessarily a congregational anthem, it's still one of the most worshipful you have ever recorded.

Hiebert: Absolutely. That is a very vertical song. I like to put it like this: metaphorically speaking, if we hold our hands in the air for too long, we become spiritually constipated. And if we hold our hands out trying to help everybody all the time without God, then we become frustrated, burned-out, and bitter. So the posture I propose—and I'd like to think it's represented in my new songs and in the psalms of David—is have one hand up to God, reaching out to him for help and giving him praise, and the other hand protecting the vulnerable citizens, bringing healing, hope, and comfort to them.

Helping "the least of these" can be very worshipful, too.

Hiebert: There's a strong sense of God's presence in a worship moment, for sure. But there is also such a strong sense of God's presence when you're with the broken. It's good to bridge those two things. The song "You Rescue," the first verse, is about God rescuing us from bad choices—I know I've made a few and I've needed God to rescue me. But then the second verse is really about being victimized and abused, and so the chorus is a reminder that God is our rescuer. From a Christian perspective, that song sums things up pretty well. I hope the church incorporates it, because it's very singable.

More and more celebrities seem to be championing charitable causes these days. How can a Christian remain engaged for the right reasons, as opposed to doing it because it seems cool and trendy?

Hiebert: One thing that was incredibly helpful to me was to do a study in my house with one of the co-founders of Love146. We met three times a month studying what the Bible had to say about justice. It became such an internal passion of ours that it just had to come out. I think it's dangerous for us to simply hear about things and become hyped up about something, then jump on the bandwagon for a certain cause. I think God calls us to not just think justice is "cool," but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly. I think learning in a Christian community about God's heart for the oppressed is important; it's a good place to start. It really boils down to the heart, as with all things in Christianity.

In working with at-risk urban teens, I've found that there's no turning back once you've chosen to take up a cause—you have to stay the course. Is it like that for you as well?

Hiebert: Absolutely. That's very well said. It would be turning my back on my faith to turn back and not engage this issue on behalf of exploited children. It's something that's inside me now.

What projects are on the horizon for Love146?

Hiebert: We have just broken ground at a new property, a place where we're going to have new safe homes, so I'm very excited about that. We're always training other caregivers. Through the year we have training sessions for different levels of social workers and caregivers, so we end up being really helpful to other organizations as well. We didn't want to reinvent the wheel or step on anyone toes, so what we did was try to fill the gaps—do the things that weren't being done. Some of those things include expanding after-care facilities and training staff. Increasing the amount of buildings and workers has been a huge blessing to all of us.

Any stories from the mission field you could share with readers?

Hiebert: Sure. The story behind the song "Jubilee" was inspired in part by the ancient meaning of the word "jubilee," which is about emancipation and justice on behalf of the oppressed. And I sort of mixed the meaning of that word with the story of a girl in a partner's safe home in Thailand. We expanded one of their facilities; unfortunately, they didn't have room for the youngest of the girls caught in the sex trade, so we built a home for them—girls 6 to 12 years old.

One of the girls that came into the older home, I believe she was 16 at the time, she walked in the front door and as soon as she saw the picture of Jesus on the wall of the safe home, she fell down on her face and just began to weep. After she gathered herself she said, "This is the face, this is the place that I've seen in my dreams." So the song was inspired about her. An odd thing about the song is that I kept thinking about heaven, but I tried not to. For some reason the song just felt like heaven to me. Yes, I was describing a safe-home experience; yes, I was talking about being free from slavery; but I couldn't get away from this feeling of heaven, and it almost haunted me.

What then?

Hiebert: So it was about a year later I saw the director of that home at one of our training sessions in Thailand, and I told her, "You know, I just finished this song but it feels a lot like heaven." And I told her it was inspired by a girl, and told her who it was. And she said, "It's funny you should say that. She just died of AIDS." She died with so much hope and peace in her heart and in her life, despite everything that happened. Now she's experiencing the ultimate jubilee. It just makes me ecstatic to know that it's not about me or my songs—it's about God's heart.

Read more about Hiebert's work as Ten Shekel Shirt by visiting our site's artist page for the band. Also, please visit www.love146.com for more information about Hiebert's organization. You can read our review of the album Jubilee by clicking here. Visit Christianbook.com to listen to song clips and purchase the music.

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