The "Song of Jabez" has become a grassroots phenomenon. And I really believe that God has forever written it into the mythos of the Prayer of Jabez movement. With no label or promotional support whatsoever, this little-known song has somehow risen from obscurity to the status of modern Christian anthem. It continues to gain fans and support with each new day.

Last week, I was honored to get to speak to John Waller of According to John, the band behind the "Song of Jabez." John is the band's lead vocalist and primary songwriter. The band's latest album, Beyond What I See, which includes the "Song of Jabez," released to stores this week.

Robin: First of all, tell us how long it's been between the last album and this one, and what's been happening to you guys in the meantime.

John: Well, the last album was released in October of '98, so that was a long time ago.

Three years, almost. The obvious question would be, then, why the long wait between albums?

We were about to go in the studio to do our second record in October of '99. But then the president of our record company left, and someone else took over. And the belief in us just wasn't as strong with the person who took over. That company was kind of shaky, and eventually closed their doors. So we just kind of backed off, didn't want to record anything, didn't want to get stuck in any kind of legal battle, with the company shutting down. But we kept writing. Of course, probably 3/4 of the songs we recorded on this new record, were written way after we would have recorded that record in '99. I was so glad we didn't have to do it then. But we stayed busy, we did the Acquire the Fire tour for a whole year, and we were really just busy out there doing what we do. God has kept our ministry going. We've been out of the industry loop. It never mattered to us whether we were big in the industry anyway. We just wanted to keep the ministry going, and keep playing to people as long as they would have us.

Well, of course we have to talk about the "Song of Jabez." Tell me the story of how that came about.

We had done a big showcase in Nashville to try to find another record deal, in January of this year. We spent that whole [previous] year redefining exactly what we were about, and writing new stuff. So, when we went to do that showcase, we were really ready for it. We spent a lot of time preparing for that, and we really thought we'd find another label home. And just about all the labels were there, and it went really well, and we just knew that somebody was going to come through. But then we never heard back from anybody. So it was kind of like, "What next?" I was pretty distraught over it, and didn't know how we would get our music out there, and that was about the time that somebody gave me a copy of the book.

They felt like the book would really minister to me, because the main thing we were dealing with was, "How are we going to expand our territory?" Only we didn't think of it in those terms, as the prayer talks about it. But it was about, "How are we going to get our ministry out there?" I was really at the end of my rope. And then I read the book, and started praying that prayer. And there was nothing else I could rely on, but God, at that point. Everything else had been taken away.

I think sometimes He gets us to that point for a reason.

Oh, absolutely! And it hurts at the time, but praise God that He did it. I wrote the song strictly for our youth group, because our pastor was preaching on the prayer of Jabez. And after reading it, I thought, "Man, this is great -- this is something our youth needs to be praying." I lead music for the youth on Wednesday nights. So on a Wednesday, I decided to try to make a chorus out of it, just because I wanted them to be able to remember the prayer. So I wrote it, and had no music for it, but took the lyric to church with me, and wrote the music about five minutes before I played it.

Wow!

And we did it that night, and the kids really loved it. It felt like it was one of those praise & worship songs that had been around for a long time. But still, I had no intentions of recording it. The band hadn't even heard it yet. Then the chairman of my board of directors said he would put some money up, because he felt that strongly about it. And that's how it happened.

Sounds like one of those "God things." No pun intended.

Exactly. (Laughs.)

I heard that when you guys went do record the song, you were in the studio for a long period of time, trying to get it just right.

We spent twenty-four hours straight on it, to get it done. The chairman of my board had said that he really felt like we needed to record it and have it ready for Sunday morning. We were going to play the song Sunday morning at church, because my pastor had heard about it, and he was still preaching his series on the prayer of Jabez, and he wanted me to sing it. So my friend John felt like it had been impressed on his spirit that this was a timing issue, that this needed to get recorded, put on a disc, and given away to our church, and allow them to make copies of it and use it as a ministry tool.

At first, it kind of struck me as crazy, but I was certainly open to it. And if he wanted to put up the money, I certainly loved going in the studio. So we did that, got it done amazingly fast. We made about a hundred copies of it, and we gave them all away to our church, told them to make as many copies as they wanted, give it away, and let God use it. And it just kind of multiplied from there, and became this whole grassroots movement thing, and I'm sure that's how it ended up in your hands.

Yeah.

It ended up everywhere. It's going to be airing on James Dobson's show on July 27th. Somehow they got a copy of it. And we didn't send it to anybody. We just gave it away to our church members.

And from that, all this has happened.

Yeah. I think God is choosing to do this in a way that we can always look back and say, "Nobody did that but Him. He expanded that song. No record label, just Him."

Awesome. Speaking of record labels, tell me about Nobox Records.

Well, we figured we needed to put something on our CD.

(Laughs.)

(Laughs.)

Apparently it's gotten to be a pretty big thing, because now you've got Diamante/Servant distributing it nationally.

Yeah, this whole thing has been, like you said, a God thing. I look back at everything that's happened and I can't believe it. I mean, I literally asked God to expand our ministry, and look what He did. But anyway, Nobox simply came about because we didn't want to put God into a box. We thought for so long that we had to have, The Formula -- the big three that make an artist work: management, label, & booking. And we didn't have any of that. So, we decided to call our label "Nobox Records," because there's no box here, no formula. God can use it however He wants, and we're not going to limit that to a box.

Is it just going to be you guys, or do you have any aspirations to sign any other artists?

We don't have any plans of any kind, really. We're not trying to do a label, in the traditional sense. We're certainly open to that, though. If it were to be successful monetarily, and it works, I think it'd be neat to see a different way of doing things for a label in this industry.

It sounds like everything that's happened, that's gotten you to this point, is mainly because of that song. Like it's all happened, almost without your involvement. Do you feel like that?

It happened because I prayed the prayer, and God said, "Okay, here's your answer: this song." He gave us this song at a really crucial time. And we're not trying to ride some Prayer of Jabez wave. And you know, I feel like our record has a lot more to say beyond that song. But anyway, regarding how far we've come -- for an independent artist, there's so many politics involved. It's hard to get in the door with radio, it's hard to get in the door with any kind of distribution. God gave us that song that crossed a lot of boundaries and opened a lot of doors. People just embraced that song all across different age demographics. Christian bookstores loved it, and said they wanted to carry the record. Christian radio stations -- I guess there's like 110 stations that I know of that are playing the song.

If there's one thing I've learned from this, it's that God won't be held back by any of man's circumstances.

One last question. What has God been teaching you lately?

Man. I've been reading the new book by Bruce Wilkinson [Secrets of the Vine], and it's incredible. It's awesome. I think the main thing that He's been teaching me is that He wants me to go beyond where I am now, He wants me to "much fruit." We just got back from England. This is our third year; we do a missions trip over there every year. A lot of kids come to the Lord. I got to meet a lot of kids who came to the Lord from our past two trips, and see how they've grown. I think that mainly God wants to prune me, and He wants me to own nothing. He's teaching me that I can't be in bondage to circumstances, in whether things go one way or another, if I don't claim rights to any of it -- if I own nothing, and submit it all to Him. So, the main thing He's teaching me is owning nothing. And there's such a freedom in that. If it's all given back to Him, and surrendered to Him, on a daily basis, then no matter what direction you go or what happens, your peace is not taken away because your foundation is not built on these things.

Sounds like a song in the making.

Yes! Definitely. But I'm not going to entitle it "Secrets of the Vine." (Laughs.)

(Laughs.) Yeah, that would be a little too obvious. Well, that's all the questions I have. I really appreciate your time.

Great, man. Thanks so much for all your help, and for all you're doing for us at your Web site!

Thanks:
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