Darren Mulligan, frontman for the Dove Award-nominated band We Are Messengers, recently spoke to ChurchLeaders about the band’s fourth studio album, titled “Where the Joy Is.”
“Where the Joy Is” released Friday (April 5) and features 10 new songs, including collaborations with Blanca and Ben Fuller.
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“I wanted to write an album that acted as the anthem to people’s lives as we move quietly and allowing obedience towards the direction of Jesus, as Eugene Peterson would say,” Mulligan said.
The theme of this record is joy, Mulligan told ChurchLeaders. He shared that although he has walked with Jesus for 16 years, he has only “really been walking in that joy” for the past few years.
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“I’m not talking about a goofy happiness type of joy where you have to force yourself to pretend or that comes from circumstances or consumerism or a joy that comes from chasing after things,” Mulligan said.
“I’m talking about a joy that is rooted firmly in the Word of God,” he added, “and in a life that is attempting—although very poorly at times—to walk close enough to Jesus so that I can care about the things he cares about, love the things he loves.”
“When you walk with Jesus in that way, you go where he goes, and you realize that suffering is not something to be mitigated or avoided,” Mulligan said. “But that a lot of the time, suffering is actually the opportunity to develop joy and trust and hope in Jesus as he suffers with you.”
The band’s hope for the new album is that listeners grasp that God’s desire is to turn all their “mourning to laughter,” their “sorrow to joy,” and their “feet towards dancing.”
We Are Messengers has never been a band that avoids discussing the hard things in life, including suicidal ideation, depression, divorce, infidelity, or whatever else they’ve encountered in their fans’ lives.
“We wanted to put words to maybe the things that people feel that they can’t articulate,” Mulligan said. “This time, I wanted to do it in a way that I know that I can get on stage and the audience can let loose.”
