Sanctus Real blog: Dove Awards in Atlanta – Violent Torpedoes of Truth

Haha. I put “Violent Torpedoes of Truth” because Charlie Sheen’s tour was coming to the Fox Theatre the following day, which I thought was funny. Anyway, here’s a bad picture of us in front of the bus before the Dove Awards…

#Winning?

You might notice that Mark isn’t with us, and that’s because the Graalmans are about to have their third child. We all agreed he should stay home with his family, so we asked our friend Anthony to fill in. He is awesome…plus he wears a good hat…but I might be biased.

We spent two days in Atlanta for the festivities. The first was for rehearsal as we were performing an abridged version of “Lead Me.” This was fun, and we got to play alongside our friends, Tenth Avenue North. They’re swell fellows.

It was funny walking into the theatre and seeing all these cardboard cutouts with artist's faces sitting in the seats

So we were nominated for three different categories. One was for the album, Pieces of a Real Heart, and the other two were for the song, “Lead Me.” We didn’t win any of them, which is ok because 1. we never win this kind of stuff, and our track record has prepared me (perhaps I’m a little cynical), and more importantly 2. great artists did win them.

A quick photo of the set while Kirk Franklin was rehearsing. He was dancing around, and it made me smile, which is appropriate since his song was called...well..."Smile."

I will admit that going to the Doves this year did generate a couple questions in me, and I’m curious what you might think. I don’t pose these questions to be a punk or anything like that. In general, I pose questions to myself because it’s important to believe in the things I’m apart of. Asking questions helps me refine my beliefs. In this case, if I’m apart of the Dove Awards, I need to believe it’s good to do so.

Question to self #1. If the intent of Christian music is to bring glory to God, is having an awards ceremony to honor the artists who make it potentially counter the intent? In other words, are we giving glory to the artists instead of God?

This is mainly what I wanted to sort out. I concluded that if I look at the Dove Awards as a competition, and winning as validation, then yes, and I probably need to rearrange my outlook.

Question to self #2. How, then, should I look at them? This was my conclusion. The Doves are a great way of showing love and support to the artists in Christian music who work hard all year round…akin to the love language of giving gifts. They’re not the point of why we work hard, but they are a time of celebration to lift up and encourage the artists for a job well done.

Question to self #3. Aren’t you just being too cool for school? Maybe you’re a little salty about not winning? Afterall, you did go out and buy new clothes for the occasion…

This is very possible, and I am pretty pumped about my new hat.

Question to self #4. Don’t you just secretly wish you had one of those cool trophies sitting on the mantle?

…I also wish I had a mantle.

So what is my point? I don’t have one. I’m just yakking. It’s my blog. If I can’t yak here, where can a guy yak?

It was a genuine honor to be nominated and asked to play, and we feel very grateful. If you’re able, you should watch the televised portion airing tomorrow on Easter Sunday (the 24th) at 7pm and 9pm EST on GMC.

That’s all I got for now. See you out on the road!

-dan

Question:

What do you think about giving and receiving accolades in the context of church?

…I had a good experience asking questions with Sammy Adebiyi on his blog, so I thought I’d give it a try here.