28 years ago, I spent a summer in Long Beach, California. In fact, I spent two summers there, two memorable, life-changing summers. During that first summer, in 1982, I had the chance to go to a concert by Keith Green, a free concert he was giving at the Long Beach Arena.

Keith Green was a contemporary Christian singer whose music had a deep impact on me when I was a teenager. As I dealt with teenage angst and adolescent passions, I spent many a night listening to the profound lyrics of some of Keith’s songs (as well as some of the playful ones). It’s strange to me to hear some of those songs sung in a church setting today, “purified” from the pounding rock beat of the original.

The concert was powerful. The crowd was a bit rowdy, as far as Christian concert crowds can get rowdy. At one point they started a chant of “We love Jesus, yes we do, we love Jesus, how ’bout you?”, bouncing back and forth between two sides of the arena. A college classmate that was there with me leaned over and said, “This isn’t chapel at ACU, is it.”

A few weeks later, I had returned to Texas and was watching a show on TV, when they gave a short news report. One of the headlines: “Singer Keith Green was killed in a plane crash.” I was stunned to hear the news.

Hearing the postman at that moment, I went to the mailbox and found something addressed to me.

A postcard.

From Keith Green.

A standard postcard sent to thank me for attending the concert and to invite me to receive more of Keith’s materials. (He published the Last Days Newsletter)

Wow. That was a moment to remember. July 28, 1982.

That was 28 years ago. Keith Green was 28 when he died, so his widow and some others are doing a webcast tonight as a tribute. I won’t be able to watch, but if you’d like to see it, visit www.keithgreen.com for details.

I’ll include a video of one of the songs that meant a lot to me when I was young: “My Eyes Are Dry.” No, it doesn’t sound much like what you find in Songs of Faith and Praise. I only wish I could be at a congregation that could sing this song with the same passion.

{Photo taken from wikimedia.org; copyright of this photo is held by Last Days Ministries}