Joel: I tell you, it is the most amazing thing. To be honest with you, I can't believe it at all. I mean, we are not business people at all. The whole thing developed because I'd go somewhere to sing, before the big worship wave really hit, like at a camp or something and everybody would run up to me after the thing and want me to write up the chorus to the song that I had just done. I'd be like man, sure ... But after about the third time it was driving me nuts! I couldn't take it anymore. They would be asking me for tracks to take back to their churches to sing the songs. A buddy of mine said you ought to start a company. It was like "whoa ... ding"! So we just started out with this really cheesy mailer for the national network of ministers that we made up. Immediately we got about 150 people signed up. We're were like "We don't have enough music! These people paid for music! We better go make some more music". So we made the music and it's just grown every year. It's so weird to hear. I'll go play at a church and some 25 year old kid will come up to me and say "I learned to play music from SPIN". Over and over again. Or a praise band will come up to me and say "Yeah man, we learned how to play our instruments through SPIN when we were in high school". That just blows me away. I think right now that there are about 150,000 students every week using SPIN. It's crazy. We're excited though.
Kim: What is going on right now in the life of Joel Engle?
Joel: My church is going through this book called The Purpose Driven Life.
Kim: Hey, we're doing that study!
Joel: I was real skeptical about it at first because of the name. You know, I've heard the name so many times now that it was like another Christian marketing deal. You know what I'm talking about? It didn't have this really spiritual name. I was like "man, what am I doing this for?" Then we started going through the book and it is just rocking my world!
Brian (Kim's husband): Doing a lot of bleeding on the inside are you?
Joel: I'm bleeding on the inside!
Kim: What day are you on?
Joel: I'm on Day 28.
Kim: We're on Day 33.
Joel: So you guys are like a week ahead of us. The stuff about fellowship just hammered me. You can't have worship without having biblical fellowship. I mean, you can sing songs all you want, but if you're not incorporating Biblical, honest, authentic fellowship with other believers in your life, you're never going to become like Christ. Being real, being authentic, dealing with temptation and trial and why God allows things to happen ... It's really been rocking my world. The book is so simple and straight-forward. It's almost like you've heard it before, but there's a way that he's expressing it that's just very different. It just hit me and the guys in my Life Group. We're just blown away. It's like salt is just pouring out of me right now like crazy. Right now I'm also in the process of talking to a record label about signing a recording contract. We're probably in the very, very final stages of that. So I'm working on the songs for the record, which is kind of a transition for me because this record is going to be more of an artistic record. Like a worship art versus a congregational worship record. It will more like songs about worship, but not necessarily songs that everybody's going to sing to. I'm really excited about that. For about six months I've felt like I was just shut up inside of myself, writing wise. It's like trying to write a hit song versus being real. You know what I'm talking about? I'm just writing what God is doing in my life, making it as purely honest and unfiltered as possible. I play these songs for people and they're just like "Oh my gosh!". I don't know what's going on, but I'm really happy with how the songs are coming out right now.
Kim: I will definitely look forward to hearing that.
Joel: And I love being a dad!
Kim: Your little girl is about a year old now isn't she?
Joel: She turned a year old last Friday. I'm telling you, that's another thing that is just rocking my world. I knew that I would like being a dad, but I didn't realize that it would be the greatest experience of my whole life.
Kim: Kids can bring you the greatest joy and the greatest pain.
Joel: She's only a year old, so so far I only know the joy and pain of changing diapers!
Kim: To me it really gives you a little perspective of how God must feel, once you have children.
Joel: Oh man! No kidding.
