Michael W. Smith's new studio album
Kurt Neuswanger • October 30, 2025
Michael W. Smith is getting ready to release his first new studio album since 2018. Smith says “This whole record starts out with a bang... I don’t think I’ve had this many upbeat songs on any record that I’ve ever done. Those are really sort of hard to write.” But Michael says it’s not all “pop stuff.”
I have a song about communion. I don’t think we have enough communion songs. And there’s a couple worship moments that are pretty powerful, too.
The first three singles may remind you of his earlier sound from the 1990s, which some of us consider a good thing!
The first single, “Arms Around The World,” features Jesus on the drums! Well, it’s Jonathan Roumie, to be precise, the actor who plays Jesus in “The Chosen” series!
Michael says his “musical hero” is movie composer John Williams.
I went and saw Raiders Of The Lost Ark 28 times in 1981 and it changed my life. I went “Why do I keep coming back?” And it was the music. That was the year I began to write cinematic music.
That cinematic flare is included in his second single, “Your Love Is A Flood,” which has a 30-second counter-melody that sounds like it could be from “Jurassic Park.”
That same cinema sound also opens his third single is “Kingdom Come,” which Michael says is his personal prayer.
This one is so close to my heart, born out of the prayer I’ve prayed daily: ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ It’s a bold anthem of hope, healing, and God’s presence breaking into our lives.
At the end of November, Smith will join Amy Grant and CeCe Winans for a nine city tour, followed by his Christmas tour in December with special guest Riley Clemmons. But unlike Laura Story (who will be in Grand Junction for a free Christmas concert, courtesy of KJOL), you’ll have to go to Florida to catch Michael’s Christmas tour.
Forrest Frank has been everywhere this year. He even broke his back and wrote a song about it ( God's Got My Back ) while lying on his back! But one place Forrest Frank won't be this year is the Dove Awards . He announced that he will no longer attend any of the awards shows, including the Doves and the Grammys. “As Christians, it’s hard to know where the line in the sand is between being in the world and not of the world,” he said . Pondering where to draw the line between being in the world but not of the world, he said, “I’m convicted, personally, that a line that I can draw is that I will not receive a trophy for something that is from Jesus and for Jesus.” Frank added, “I was wrestling with this last year. I even said that on stage at the Dove Awards. I said, ‘I’m still struggling with the concept of receiving this award, but all glory to Jesus, every name will fade away, including mine, except for one name.’” So he decided "to go even a step further and say, ‘I don’t know if I even want to step on the stage. I don’t know if I want to step in the room.’ So I will not be attending the Doves and the Grammys.” “I hope to be an example to the youth that the trophy is our salvation ,” he added. “The trophy is that my name is listed in the Book of Life and I get to have eternal life . What good is a piece of metal going to do compared to that?” His absence at the Dove awards will no doubt be a problem for them. He’s nominated for four major awards: Song of the Year (Composer): Good Day Recorded Song of the Year: Your Way's Better Album of the Year: Child Of God Artist of the Year He is almost certain to win at least one of those awards. UPDATE : The Dove ceremony was broadcast Friday, October 10. Forrest Frank won three major awards! Artist of the Year Album of the Year (Child of God) Recorded Song of the Year (Your Way's Better)
We are so blessed to have a number of new listeners lately; and we are blessed to have some listeners who have been with us since the very start! If you were a listener during “the old days” before the KJOL radio network was sold...
Laura Story never set out to be a songwriter . She didn’t even know she could sing until she was in college. In 1996, while a student at Columbia International University in South Carolina, she met Shane Williams from the band “Silers Bald.” (Silers Bald is a mountain peak in Tennessee. It’s called a “bald” because it is not covered in trees.) Shane recruited Laura to join the band – as the band’s bass player! Then she began writing songs, and in 2002, she recorded her first album, Indescribable . But it was Chris Tomlin who made the song “ Indescribable ” a huge hit when he recorded it in 2004. Laura remained largely unknown until she released Great God Who Saves in 2008. Besides the title track, it included “ Mighty to Save ,” “ Bless The Lord ” and “ Immortal Invisible .” In 2011, she released the album “ Blessings .” The title song was born out of the difficult circumstances surrounding her husband Martin’s brain tumor (a story for another time). “Blessings” won a Grammy and a Dove for Best Contemporary Song. Most recently, Laura Story joined the Keith & Kristyn Getty Worship Conference, where she performed her latest song, “ Psalm 27 (The Lord Is My Light) ”.
Our August drawing is of course over, but congratulations to our three winners of couples registrations to the Weekend To Remember Conferences. If you missed out, I want to let you know, that underway through September 15th, the Family Life Today Weekend to Remember Getaways are half off…so be sure to use the group nam
Big Daddy Weave released their new album “Let It Begin” in May. It was their first album in six years. There’s a reason for that. Most bands release new albums every two or three years, but on January 2, 2022, Jay Weaver died from COVID. He was Mike Weaver’s younger brother (hence the “Weave” in the band’s name). They spent the next three years processing the loss and putting their grief into song. In 2023, they released the duet with Katy Nichole, “ God Is In This Story .” God is in this story, God is in the details Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart, He never fails Later that year, Big Daddy Weave released “ Heaven Changes Everything .” In the light of eternity I have this hope Thank You, Jesus, Heaven changes everything In 2024, they released “ Let It Begin .” Mike Weaver said he had been intensely grieving the death of his brother and would cry every time he told the story on stage, until one night the healing began. Meanwhile, Matt Maher had written this song without knowing that Weaver's healing that had started. Mike remembered, “He reached out to me and was just like, ‘Man, I’ve had this song that has been on my heart for you guys.’ I read the lyrics, and it’s what I couldn’t say.” If my wounds could tell one story, Let it be a testimony That You don’t leave me where I’ve been. If this is healing, let it begin Their new single is “ I’ve Just Seen Too Much .” Listen for it on KJOL. Some days it feels like I’ve been losing more than I have found I won’t tell you that I’ve got it all together, If you know me, then You know my faith has wavered If you ask me why I trust Him When it feels like everything has come undone All I can tell you is, I’ve just seen too much
Chuck Girard of Love Song dies Chuck Girard , the co-founder of the band Love Song, died on Monday, August 11. He had been diagnosed with cancer which spread to his lungs. He was 81. Chuck Girard was one of the founding members of the iconic Jesus music band Love Song , which had its birth at Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa in 1970. (The band was briefly featured in Greg Laurie’s movie “The Jesus Revolution.”) After Love Song, Chuck had a solo career marked by his worship anthem, “ Sometimes Alleluia .” He gave concerts several times in western Colorado during the 1990s. Around 1976, Girard gave his testimony of how he and his friends had formed Love Song around 1968, before any of them actually knew Jesus. “We felt that drugs and psychedelics were part of God’s plan to reach men who could be reached by no other means. We thought that LSD was the key to spiritual knowledge. I thought the Beatles were Second Messiahs. I really thought they had discovered something and they were trying to convey it to us in little doses. “And when their White Album came out, I felt ripped off. I felt the Beatles had copped out, that if they did know anything spiritual, they were afraid to tell it, and perhaps they didn’t know. “So we got obsessed with this idea of having a band that could communicate God to people. And we started--in the middle of our psychedelic period--a God band that was called Love Song, and we would go into nightclubs and throw in our God songs in the middle of our music, and a lot of the songs would have Jesus’ name in it, and people were just not used to hearing Jesus’ name in a rock ‘n’ roll band in a bar! “And we would go out and evangelize people on our breaks. We would go out and say, ‘Hey why don’t you come out with us on Sunday. We’re gonna drop acid and get into God.’ It’s a classic example of the blind leaving the blind, of people who were sincerely deceived, sincerely wrong. “And 2½ years later, after we started that first band, the Lord was faithful to draw us up to a place called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, and for the first time in my life, the gospel was communicated to me. And for the first time in my life, lights went off and I went: That’s what it’s all about! And I really discovered that what I’d been looking for my whole life was Jesus Christ, the victorious Son of God who died on a cross and three days later, rose again from the dead!” ( transcribed from audio of an unknown source. Here is a similar testimony from 1971 at Calvary Chapel, when Chuck was just 28 .) Postscript: in 1971, a copy of the original Love Song record made its way to a small Colorado town called Wray, where a 14 year old boy listened to that album over and over after becoming a Christian. It was the first, and only, contemporary Christian music we had ever heard. And 54 years later, that boy is still playing Christian music for anyone who will listen!
