Christian Performer Matthew West Lets Humor Bring Gospel Joy in Songs of Grace

By Paul Lintern, Editor, the Joyful Noiseletter

Matthew West is a popular Christian songwriter and performer firmly in the middle of his career: a quarter century of public performing and songwriting, nearly two decades in the forefront of Nashville Christian artist. He is able to be at home on any stage — in a full auditorium, or large church sanctuary, on a cruise ship, at a county fair — and I know that from having seen him perform in each of those settings, including a night last September at the Wayne County Fair in Wooster, in front of 3,000 of his friends.

His songs reflect grace — over and over — surrounded by the circumstances that need such grace, with many lyrics reflecting his ability to listen to the stories others tell of their lives and put them into song.

It is easy to see how each song points to the miracle, wonder and joy of being set free by the love of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb.

Matthew’s concerts include many of the songs people want to hear, as they have for years, a full concert worth of the familiar – with the opportunity to introduce two or three newer songs – the next favorites. He has more than 250 songwriting credits, recorded by a variety of Christian and country artists.

His accolades include awards and nominations in writing and performance areas throughout the industry and he has authored seven books that complement the song themes. He and his father, a pastor very much involved with the concert background (and on stage for a prayer and blessing) have a devotional ministry called Population: We.

But what also accents the concert is the humor, good-natured and lively, that keeps the audience engaged and unable to predict. All this in an atmosphere of praise to Jesus and pointing to his promises.

I met with Matthew a few minutes before the concert to ask about his thoughts of joy in the Good News and the place of laughter in his concerts.

“A lot of it comes from a desire not to take myself too seriously as an entertainer, to be full of life as a follower of Christ and demonstrate what that looks like,” he said.

“Of course the Bible is full of a lot of examples of that joy and we want to be good examples of what that looks like,” adding that the concerts are able to bring the “full spectrum of emotion.”

Did being on a county fair stage provide anything unusual?

“You deal with different smells than you would at a church,” he quipped, but added, “The fair atmosphere is a blast. They’re already having fun eating funnel cakes and corn dogs, so we lean into that, the amusement, good-time feelings that we sense from the crowd.”

It showed in the rapport, the joking with the audience about sing-alongs, eating fair food and competing with tractor pulls.

I asked him to what extent he thought Jesus embraced humor.

“I know the way Jesus lived his life made everyone that followed him see that he could relate to them, to all of the things they were going through,” he said.

“So I would think that he was fun to be around. He rejoiced with those who rejoiced, wept with those who were weeping, mourned with those who mourned, and so I imagine humor was a part of it to some extent.”

Matthew’s latest release in his “Don’t Stop Praying” album is called “Last page of the Bible,” which features joy and hope in the midst of the world’s turmoil, hinting at the reason laughter has its place in Christian music and worship.

“As Christians it is hard to keep a heavenly mindset when our feet are stuck on the ground, and yet, there is a tremendous mount of hope that we can live our lives with, when we can see through the lens of Heaven,” he said.

“Billy Graham once said, ‘I’ve read the last page of the Bible and it’s all going to turn out all right.’

“So when you think about that, the ultimate hope and victory that we have is that we aren’t going to stay here.

“So as bleak as it might look in our world, we know that we are going somewhere, so we are reminded of the victory, the hope we have in heaven; it can help you live with more joy right now in the meantime,” he said.

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