by Kristen Houp

Through his journey in the music business, singer and songwriter Derek Webb has developed a uniquely raw style that illustrates his journey, struggle, and passion for finding this Jesus and a life free of the laws that we have created for ourselves. Webb’s newest album, Mockingbird, released on December 26, 2005, is a collection of songs that are all dealing with this struggle and journey to find freedom. The album addresses the concept of freedom from the law and touches on subjects such as social justice, politics, and war. Webb has stated that he tackled these subjects to stimulate discussion and encourage people to bring about changes in what he sees as some of the greatest problems the world faces today. Webb believes that we are not called into a place of complacency and ignorance but to be alive and active in the world. He hopes that the album will spark discussion and, if nothing else, make you think. In order that a wider variety of people might listen to his new album, Webb has made Mockingbird available for free at www.FreeDerekWebb.com, where it is available for download until December 1, 2006.

Webb believes that music, whether it bears a Christian label or not, is beautiful art. In one of his podcasts, Derek addresses a question by a fan responding to him and his friend Donald Miller listing ‘secular’ artists as inspiring to them. She asked, “Don’t our indulgences in secular art have a tendency to dam the waters of intimacy with God. How do you justify publicly acknowledging inspirational source material that is clearly outside the realm of Christendom.” Webb talked, uncut, for twenty minutes answering this question, wondering first of all what exactly ‘Christian’ or ‘Secular’ music might be. Christians may try to define and defend our values, coming from a career in the industry, Webb posed an interesting suggestion: that when looking at it from a commercial standpoint, the label of ‘Christian’ might not have as much integrity as we may trust it to have. He himself has had to learn, as a Christian, to look beyond labels and realize that things like ‘Christian’ cannot, (if we trust that it implies something wonderful or special,) be structured and simplified into a genre or label, whether it’s placed on music or on people. This is not to say that he is justifying listening to ‘The Bad Music’. He would hope instead in our own good judgment and for us to free ourselves from this type of ‘New Law’ that we have felt the need to create for ourselves.

The main point of Webb’s message, especially in Mockingbird, is that true freedom in Christ cannot come through us, or even our so-called ‘Christian Spirituality’, but can only come through Jesus; a Jesus over whom we have no control.

“…the bad news is, there’s no formula to follow, no book to run out and buy, and no list of 10 easy steps that will fix you and your local church body. The good news is, this leaves us with a healthy dose of divine mystery, messy community in progress, worship that makes you sane, and most importantly----- it leaves us with Jesus”

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