The Contagious Excitement of Forrest Frank

On Thursday, my daughter and I had a blast praising the name of Jesus together at the Forrest Frank concert in Minneapolis.

Forrest Frank is a star.

If you are a middle schooler to a college student, this probably isn’t news to you. 
If you are a parent of a middle schooler to a college student, this probably isn’t news to you.
Forrest Frank is one of the biggest Christian music artists right now.

Currently, the Christian singer-songwriter is toward the end of a 29 city American tour. The Jesus Generation Tour has completely sold out across all 29 markets, moving over 470,000 tickets, including a concert in a soccer stadium in Nashville to 30,000 fans. And it isn’t just southern cities. On June 11, he sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Relevant Magazine’s article on his tour begins with this sentence: “Forrest Frank isn’t just having a big year in Christian music — he’s having one of the biggest touring years in music, period.”

While that has the markings of an AI sentence, it’s still true. Pollstar listed The Jesus Generation Tour as the fifth highest-ranking tour on their LIVE75 list, behind only Bad Bunny, BTS, Luke Combs, and Iron Maiden.

Forrest Frank is a star. AND he never stops talking about Jesus.

As a father of three kids, ages six to twelve, Forrest Frank is playing a lot at my house. It doesn’t take long to go through a dozen of his songs, as he very much fits the modern trend of short, under-three-minute songs. His tunes are meant to be catchy, easy to remember, and easy to sing along with. Many songs reveal his country roots from growing up in Texas. But Gospel, Christian Contemporary Music, and even Latin music all show influence as well. His songs are meant to be fun and singable, and we’ve had a great time rocking out together.

When we found out about the concert tour just before summer, my daughter set her heart on going. She held lemonade stands specifically with the purpose of raising enough money for tickets. And after earning enough to buy both of our tickets, we went to the concert Thursday night in Minneapolis. The place was packed with Christian fans in Christian t-shirts, having a blast and praising God for three hours straight. Again emphasizing the sing-along nature, the lyrics were often up on the big screen above the faux green hill in the center of the building that was the concert “stage”. And, in the center, a large, illuminated, unadorned cross.

For as big a star as Forrest Frank is right now, it is clear that the real focus of the evening was on Jesus Christ.

Iron Maiden fans go to a concert to listen to their favorite Iron Maiden songs. 
Forrest Frank fans go to a concert to praise the Lord through Forrest Frank songs (and Tori Kelly songs, and Cory Asbury songs).

That was certainly the best part about the show. The bright lights and fun songs are great in themselves, but they are even better as vehicles to get excited about our Lord and sing His praises. At the concert, Christians of all types gathered together in worship.

I have no doubt that Forrest Frank is not a Reformed Christian. The concert explicitly shared the gospel(!), but with an Arminian plea and the “sinner’s prayer”. Frank told a story of his grandmother praying in tongues over him, and Cory Asbury sang his theologically suspect “Reckless Love” song. Many songs can share some of the vague feel-good-ness that Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) lyrics are full of. Many songs envision Heaven as the beautiful hope and future that it is for Christians, but I haven’t heard a song yet that speaks about the final New Heavens and New Earth that we look forward to in eternity.

Nevertheless, my hope is that we, too, as Reformed Christians, can share in the boldness and excitement that saturates Forrest Frank as a person, as a songwriter, and as a performer! 

We see all of life, indeed all things, through the great sovereignty and providence of God. This should be more than enough to motivate us to dance and sing like David, giving glory to God the Father.

Even more, we know that Jesus Christ died on the cross, atoned for our sins, and rose to triumphant eternal life for us personally -- all those whom He has called.

Our sins are deeper and more “total” than any Arminian could recognize. And thus the love of God shines all-the-greater in our hearts!
We all know that (a hopefully humble and respectful) stoicism is the status quo in many CRC churches. (And an untethered emotivism can be a terrible plague on the church!) Yet enthusiasm and excitement are often contagious. Might many of us, myself included, benefit from embracing a bolder, more excited posture in our daily lives?

Let cry out with the zeal of Forrest Frank that “Jesus is the King and He’s alive!”