Mark - I read a book called "Tuesday With Morrie". It's great. It talks about how true happiness is finding a community, finding your gifts in that community and then giving back to that community. For the group of folks that I hang out with here in Nashville, they don't know me as Mark Schultz the guy who has records, they just know me as Schultz. They don't ever see the side of me that travels so they're not afraid to say "man that was stupid" or "you're a moron". It's great to have that balance. Otherwise you're just a kite that gets the string clipped. I think you see that stuff in like the Superbowl half-time show. I mean, they're just folks who aren't living in a normal reality. They live somewhere else.
Kim - It amazes me that people are still talking about that stunt and the Madonna-Brittney thing. Stunts like that may have a lot of impact, but is it good or bad? I believe it's bad and I'm glad that Christian artists hold ourselves to a higher standard. That leads to the question - do you believe that the general public holds Christian artists to a higher standard than God holds them to since mis-steps and mistakes can lead to the end of careers in ministry, as if perfection is a requirement?
Mark - I never thought of it like that. I was a youth director for almost ten years. I learned from those kids. I never wanted the kids in the youth group, as they got older, to look at something that I've done and say "Man, that doens't look like the Mark Schultz that we knew". I think that if you're doing things for other people's reasons, that's not good. I think that you should know in your heart "This is who I am and this is who I want to be." For me, that is what I learned from those kids. I learned that who I really was was who those kids loved. I would hate for a day where one of them thought "That sure doesn't seem like the Mark that I knew". Just to see the disappointment in their faces would be enough for me to know that I'm way out of bounds.
Kim - I get mail and see websites where some people go after Christian artists and music that isn't straight out of a hymnal. You do shows and you watch the message that God has given you flow through the music and touch people's hearts. So how do you respond to people who come against the music because of the style?
Mark - The deal for me is that I know that when I do the songs that I write, God's smiling on that. When you think about the body of Christ, there's some people who are the hands, some who are the knees and some who are the feet. Everybody has a different job. My job, and where I feel God the most, is not in writing hymnal music. It's writing the stories that I've seen and the kids in the youth group and their families and the experiences they've gone through. All the experiences I've seen with the kids ... I feel like that's my job and that's God saying "Man, this is what you were made to do". For some people it's praise and worship music that makes them feel like God's smiling down on them saying "This is what you should be doing". I think it's individual for each person. It's going to be different for me from the Gaither Vocal Band and different from them to a praise and worship band. I think God finds the people and puts the message through the way that they were supposed to have it.
Kim - Not so much the beat, but the message itself.
Mark - Exactly. There's a Christian rap guy that I met and my first thought was "Rap music, what's that all about?" But the more that he talked the more that I thought "You know what? That's a pretty solid message right there." I didn't even believe it going into it, but after hearing it I was thinking "That's pretty cool".
Kim - What else is going on in the life of Mark Schultz?
Mark - One of the things that I'm excited about it the relationships that I have here. It's hard to keep relationships going on the road. They've been really rich for me these last few months. To really be present in real conversations is a blast. Pretty soon I'm heading out to go to my Tai Kwon Do class. I just started, not to get a black belt or anything, just so I can touch my toes and be more flexible. (laughs) I take a class with a bunch of home-schooled kids so it's me and about 25 kids under the age of ten. It's a blast.
Kim - Sounds like it. It will help with your stamina and your flexibility. Well, Mark it has been wonderful talking to you. I wish you the best on all that you're doing.
Mark - Thank you. I appreciate the time.
