Modern Disciple Magazine - June / July 2004 Issue
Modern Disciple Magazine for Men (MDM4M), published in Canada JUNE / JULY 2004

Cover
One-On-One with Jeff Frankenstein
by Ryan Richardson
Socially Acceptable Sin
by Jeff Consiglio
The Music of Duvall
by Justin Taylor
More Than Accountability
by Andrew Chamberlin
God in the Wild
by Stephen Barkley
The Pond or the Power
by Warwick Cooper
Surrender
by Alan Penner
LifeLine
by Quinn McFarlane
Viva III
by Ryan Richardson
MDM4M: I understand that you're involved with worship at your home church. Does that influence your music with Duvall?

Josh C: - Being in front of people is natural for me, but when I started leading worship it took time for me to be comfortable with it. Being a leader, you have to direct people; you have to know what to say. At some of our Popes' shows I wouldn't say more than 2 words. It helps to be able to transition between songs, pray, and praise the Lord. It has a lot to do with developing confidence. It's an interesting difference. The focus isn't on the musicians. People in the audience have their eyes closed. They're not looking at you, which is great. You feel like you're sort of involved in corporate worship - a spoke in the wheel. You have to be filled with the Spirit, and be lead by the Spirit in leading other people. You have to be prayed up in order to do that. I love leading worship. Since I started leading worship, I've grown as a musician and as a performer. I'm able to bring things over to Duvall. I want to do even more than that. I pray that the Lord will make Duvall more of a ministry. I love praise and worship music. Lyrically a lot is effective for corporate worship, but it's not really from a personal point of view, the way it's supposed to be. There are songs that are Christ centered - biblical truths, but I'm trying to have a quality in our songs that's more something that a person can relate to. I don't want the songs to be just a description of Christ, and the glory of Christ. I want them to be a description of my life with Christ, and the way it's been affected by my relationship with Him. It's a more effective way to reach unsaved people. We play a lot in secular environments, and we have a quality that appeals to unsaved people. I want to keep that without watering down the message.

MDM4M: How did you get saved? What led up to your conversion?

Josh C: - There was a lot of drinking and drugs with the Popes, and it reached a climax. We were on tour and went to a party after a concert in L.A. and were partying all night, and I was doing a bunch of stuff (drugs and alcohol). In the morning we had to go back to the hotel to try and get a couple of hours of sleep. It was so weird. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to die. My brother was in the room with me. I asked him to take my pulse. He said that he didn't need to because he could see my heart beating through my shirt. He told me to "go on the balcony and relax and I'll call an ambulance". I was convinced I was on the brink of a heart attack. I started to pray. I made a deal with God: "If I make it through this one, I'll turn my life over to you". He let me live through that one, and I tried to seek Him after that but I didn't want to become a Christian. Everything I knew about Christians I got from the movies, and I hadn't seen anything that portrayed Christians in a positive light. I looked for God in Buddhism, and 'New Age' philosophy for about a year. I became frustrated because I wasn't finding God there. And then one day I was browsing though the religious section of a bookstore and saw 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis. It looked interesting so I picked it up and bought it. Half way through it, it clicked; a light went off. I understood the gospel for the first time. After that I went out and looked for a church and started growing as a Christian. Here's the history of my faith: My conversion happened during the last year of the Popes. I read that book ('Mere Christianity') in February of '98, which is when I also became a Christian. For the rest of the year, I tried to incorporate my faith into the Popes and felt like it wasn't working, and that my faith was going to die out if I stayed in that environment. In December of '98 I did the last show with the Popes, and in January of '99 I announced that I was leaving the band. It was 2 1/2 years from that point until Duvall was formed. October, 2002 was the first Duvall show.

MDM4M: Would you agree that your music is very similar to that of the Smoking Popes?
All articles in MDM4M are copyright the author. Opinions and views are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the opinions of MDM4M.