ADDICTED TO BASS >>> Graham Robinson [Belfast]

Some people love the mountains,
Some people are into golf,
Others prefer coffee and DVDs.

It's the drums that give me life,
A wall of sound puts a smile on my face.

Hundreds of people queue outside a club,
Their place of worship,
Electricity of expectancy,
Impatience and desire.

The bassline thumps,
The crowd jumps,
This my place
To be consumed by the presence of God.

In the midst of a dark dirty throbbing mass of people
I lose control in Worship,
Here I push my body to its limit in honour of our King.
Bring it on David and the heavenly angels,
For these few hours I challenge you
To a dance off.

Later on the house lights come on,
But everyone keeps on dancing,
Squeezing every last drop out of this encounter.
Mascara all down that girl's face,
Sweat in his hair,
A bright red face over there,
But no one cares.

We're all too busy grinnin'.

Well done Mr DJ,
A fine sermon of beats, rhythm and bass.

I step outside, the cold air bites,
Wrestling with burger vans,
Into a taxi,
Back home.

Sit back, relaxing into tomorrow,
Members of the congregation
Discuss how much it rocked our world.
What else is going on?
__________________

That's club culture to me. The same place where organised crime sells potentially fatal drugs to underage kids, where drinks are spiked, louts fight, and thugs are paid to control them. So I want to encourage all you Christian clubbers to keep going - and let me tell you, this encouragement is really important, because I've found it can be hard to be a Christian clubber. It's easy to doubt when you hear the lies that clubs aren't good places for Christians to be, that it's too dangerous, that I should jack it all in, keep everyone happy, repress myself. But then I listen to 'Racing Green' by High Contrast, or the Thin White Duke remix of Royksopp's 'What Else is There?' and I just can't help but thank God that he made sequencers; I just can't help wonder what the Psalmists would have done with an 808 drum machine; and I just can't fight the smile appearing on my face when I see this vision of Jesus standing there nodding his head along to the beat going "OH YEAH!"

[ Adapted from Shine Angel, Graham's chapter in NIGHT VISION ]