Christian Music Star Watched His Life Crumble 

I've "retired" from worship recently. I realized a long time ago (when I was still a worship musician) that worship is only a vehicle to get us to where God really wants us -- working one-on-one with people less well off than ourselves (Matthew 25, sheep/goats). Today I teach Bible to recovered alcoholics and addicts at a city gospel mission.

I so appreciate his vulnerability here. We are all so flawed. We ALL need God's grace and mercy!!❤

I’ve been blessed to be in the studio with John these past weeks working hard to release his first album in over 25 years. He’s the real deal and I’m excited to see what God does through this new music and his ministry.

The so called “Christian” music industry has got to take some blame for this, for not shepherding their sheep. So many stories like this. Bless you bro, amazing to hear of Gods faithfulness in your life.

I’m crying. Moved by John’s vulnerable honesty and by God’s incredible grace and mercy! Praise Jesus!!!!

Lord knows America needs missionaries. God bless you. God is good.

Thank You Lord for the redemptive Blood of Jesus!!! Thank you John for sharing your powerful story! Bless you man! ❤️

Two of my favourite Christian albums are “Going Public” and “Take Me To Your Leader”. They had joined with Steve Taylor, whom I also love, to create great music. Given the many Christian artists who have begun to question their faith it is refreshing to see someone be so raw and honest about what the Christian music industry can do to a person. I pray he clings to his saviour and moves forward and grows in his understanding of God’s grace.

Bless you brother!What a testimony of Jesus GRACE.

God is so good. Thank you so much for this testimony.

I saw Newsboys and DC Talk live at Bramalea Baptist Church in Brampton when i was 15 (51 now), when they were on their Hell Is For Wimps tour. It was an awesome show! I miss the original Newsboys. Thank you for sharing this testimony and valuable lesson on guarding your heart from the world.

What an amazing testimony. Thank you! 💯

What a story and the faihtfulness of God. He excels in totally restoring the broken. I know. I'm one of them. So grateful!

God bless and help John James. Thank you for your willingness to share your story. God bless you, your family and your ministry.

Praise God in Christ Jesus brother! John James you stayed alive and didn't kill yourself because you were and are a true son of God. Other's would have, and probably died already. But you, you chose to fight to survive. I did the same, I chose to follow Christ instead of of follow the world, where my best friend toured the world on Epic Records, I chose Jesus instead, he was more valuable a greater need in my life when I was seventeen. And when I backslid, like many of us do, I chose to want to live when a almost died of liquor poisoning. When went to work the next Monday after that episode my boss introduced me to them to be the minister to guide my to a fresh new journey the was similar to yours, where I also met my future wife now married since June 25th 1988. Peace in Christ. You inspire me Brother James.

What a sweet humble man.

Great testimony. So refreshing to hear someone who is willing to admit their failings and serve God humbly after experiencing such fame. God bless you brother

"A little compromise here and there" says it all. It doesn't take much to start the downward spiral. Walk Close to God everyday, as close as you can get ! ☺♥†♪♫ 7-13-24

Brother. I love your honesty and humility. I know that you believe and know you are loved. Keep confessing that and keep expecting God to work

So good to hear this story of redemption. I was a huge Newsboys and John James fan back in the 1990s and was able to attend a couple of their high energy concerts

Thank you so much for sharing you heart and life with us! They say it's not how well you start but how well you finish! Bravo!! May we all by His wonderful love and great Grace finish well. You are finishing well!! And may you take many saved souls with you when we see Him face to face. Never stop singing, ministering! Never stop!! You are golden!! 🌅🙏

Deeply touching and moving story! Always wondered what the story was behind you leaving the Newsboys and glad to hear you're doing wonderful!

God is so so wonderful 🙌Thank You Lord for loving us so much that You never give up on any of us....ours is to yield to Your will....Yes, submitting to You 🛐

That’s great news Man. Blessings in the Lord hallelujah. God is good.

This channel and Delafe have and are changing the lives of millions. Thank you so much! Se you all on the other side

Thank you James for being so vulnerable and real.. Your testimony of brokenness and repentance is greatly needed in the worship ‘focused’ community. The lure of fame, success and recognition could creep into our lives in the name of worship leading or ministry. Thank you for your great example and I will be sharing your video to many of my church mates later!

Echoes of the story of Daniel in this testimony. God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud.

I am so thankful for the healing for someone whose music I still enjoy and whose musical testimony made a difference in my life. God bless your humbleness brother to be real. I pray that you continue to truly prosper.

Thank you for sharing your testimony and giving God the Glory! May it touch others that need to hear it! ❤

Thank you for your honesty and transparency, brother John. I've followed your journey for decades and wept hearing your precious testimony. HE is the God who Sees! May HE continue to give you and your wife wisdom as you share Him with others. ❤

Thank you for sharing your testimony. We serve an awesome God!🙏🙏

What a powerful and truthful testimony, Praise and Glory to God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit! He is Sovereign and merciful, and will reveal Himself to all who come to Him in repentance! Thank you Jesus! 🙏✝️🙏

This is awesome!!! I’ve been listening to this band since their very first album in the U.S. and I remember hearing John James and band open for Petra back in the early 1990s in Medford, OR. It was a great show !

God bless you, John, for that amazing testimony. Love you, brother!

Bless John for his willingness to share his story. We in the church bear much of the responsibility for what has happened to so many "Christian musicians." It's a business and it has a bottom line that is profit.

Beautiful Mate! I love to see God’s restoration and redemption at work!

I am not a fan of most CCM because I worked in Nashville in the industry back in the mid 90's and was astounded at what I saw and heard. I wondered how most of them could sleep at night. Kudos to the rest of the Newsboys for telling this guy he had to go. Most of them now hide their members' true lifestyles or worse, outright defend it. I dont know anything about this guy's sincerity but I can say this....I cant help but compare and see the massive differences in this interview with the recent interview with Russ Taff. While this man talks of sin and brokenness and repentance, Taff cursed throughout the interview and never once mentioned repentance. It was all about him and how he had been so abused and mistreated by life. The differences in the 2 attitudes are quite striking and very apparent.

Thank you for your humble honesty. God bless you.

It’s his vulnerability that God decided to meet him and then build him back up to be used again. Glad he found his way to Him.

Praise GOD for HIS goodness. I cried overwhelmingly when stepped away ❤✝️

Love this. I was a young fan and had three newsboys cassettes. ❤

Thank you for sharing this

John you are an amazing man of God who is exactly that an imperfect person serving a perfect God. Thank you for being so open all these years and truthful with your story and the courage it must have taken😊 I will always have the upmost respect for you from the time I met you in Corpus Christi Texas performing at the local skating rink that I worked at and now own for over 25 years! Thank you, thank you thank you for sharing your story and never backing down from being open and vulnerable to not only respect, but also those who continue to shame on you. You are an amazing person and wish you nothing but the best in life God bless.😇

Thank you so much brother John James. Your testimony is very helpful and inspiring. God bless you.

What we define as "success" can devastate people. It is not success that is bad. It is our ability to handle or not handle it that will make or break us. Christianity is about losing your life to find it. What a GREAT story of restoration. He IS the GOD of creation and restoration, the One who is faithful and only true.

I grew up (70”s) listening to Rock / metal , parents had me in Catholic Church I totally believed in God and the existed before I became born again, and knew in my heart 1 day there would be cool Christian Music. When I heard of the Newsboys I thanked God I didn’t have to listen to secular music anymore. Thank you for creating the Newsboys. Peace & blessings in your journey. Baruch Haden Adonai! God is SO SO Amazing!! I still listen. ❤️

We all need to hear and respond to this profound message. Humbly come to the feet of Jesus and confess your sins and repent. Stay in God’s word and seek His will.

Thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you 4 this testimony. ❤

I’m so glad God isn’t like people. What a happy ending.

Oh so relatable! I too am a worshiper/musician, and if Jesus stops being the main thing, you’re toast…it’s so easy to get caught up in ego, lifestyles and people pleasing - Jesus help us keep our hearts and eyes fixed on You!

What a beautiful testimony! Thank you for sharing so honestly ❤️ God's love and goodness are so amazing!!❤

I grew up in Uganda in the 90’s and I was a big Newsboys fan. I always wondered where this brother went!

God bless you!!!! ❤️🙏

That was wonderful !

Praise God!

Raised my kids on the Newsboys. One of the few concerts I went to at the Fox theater in Detroit the “take me to your Leader” tour. The kids were jumping so much that the upper deck was moving.. so fun. I know the music industry in general can be very problematic. Glad he came full circle! ⭕️

Wow, such a heartbreaking and inspiring story. I always wondered what happened to him after he left the newsboys. Thank you so much for sharing this ! Brings back memories of listening to the newsboys where I was a teenager and I won tickets and went with a good friend of mine to see them live at Kings Island in Ohio . Take me to your leader tour. We had a lot of fun.

Thank you for sharing your journey. So uplifting to know how our Saviour will go further and further to bring us to Himself. Blessings to you and your family and the ministry Jesus has for you both 🙏✝️🥰

Beautiful story of Repentance & Redemption! God’s Grace and Provision is so incredibly MORE THAN what we can ask or think! We are the seed… God’s Holy Spirit causes His plan to grow into a heart that is willing to receive… into the TREE we are meant to be.

Glory to God, the Lord our God, merciful and gracious. Dare to hope in Him. His compassion for you will not fail. Trust in Him and you to will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

Wonder-full testimony. My late husband was a very well-known Christian musician. At the outset, we were taught that if it's not happening at home, it's not happening anywhere. Phew! And, a song challenged him in that 'you may have a revered public position'... but do you love your wife? I'm astonished the band sacked you rather than help you, and that your 1st wife left rather than go through it with you, but as you say, Father took you out to make you whole. One day, we played Robin Mark's version of The Father's song. My husband wept and wept. He had 2 fathers who never wanted him for a moment, but the Father of fathers made him whole, too. Yay. All of heaven's love and blessings to you and yours.❤

Even just hearing a testimony like this second hand is such a testament to God's grace. Makes it feel all the more real!

Praise Jesus brother

How are you ever gonna fix a guy like me. I love this so much.

Needed to hear this similar journey myself

AMEN!!!!

Imagine a world where the destructive person restores bc they came to Christ! Especially the men, fathers!

Thank you for sharing John. The church doesn't have a good answer for all the algorithm's set against families in this and other apps pulling men away from their families. With a lack of discipleship and only one hour a week sermon how will the men survive? They are not. Leader after leader is falling. Ironman a Christian response group is the only thing I have seen that successfully helps. The current structure of the church does not unfortunately only seems to perpetuate the problem with limited access to community, God and pretty options.

True repentance. God honors that point of being so honest in our lives.

Hell is for Wimps is awesome! Thanks for your gift. I understand fame exposes things we don't want others to see. However, you impacted so many in a positive way. Repent and forgive yourself. God is amazing and can use any circumstance to bring Him glory.

Phil. 1 18What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. It is too bad that so many of these Christian artists were so worldly behind the scenes and some have now complety apostacized.😢 Nevertheless, in His mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ used them in the lives of many young people, who like me have grown up to raise Christian families who we trust will faithfully, by His grace, bring Him glory in the next generation. I look back fondly on my younger days when I listened to the Neesboys. I am so grateful to hear of the sanctification in this brother's life. May God be glorified!

I truly believe the other members of your band would be privileged to have you be a part of a reunion tour.

Thank you. My opinion: as CCM got bigger, its music became more commercialized and less cutting edge. At the same time, too many Christian artists put career above Christ. And too many Christians put spiritual and idealized demands on people that were musicians, not desert saints. Emotional and spiritual trauma has been the result in too many cases. I am glad you found healing through humility and repentance. God bless you, your wife, and your family.

❤

Of John Baptist and his message to repent: ‘He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and sons to the fathers…..’

Only Jesus is able to change lives

😘💕💕💕

Wow. Beautiful. Our Daddy is sooooooo good.

The Newsboys were the only Christian band I could stand.

🙏❤️‍🔥💪🛡️🕊️🙌

Not sure what to think I pray his repentance is real . He is an amazing singer! And very gifted . He needs a male Accountability partner so bad and yet will he find one . Cause the church has no programs and is more worried about its reputation than redemption and healing to have a good program for fallen men or struggling men !

GOD!!! IS!!! GOOD!!! All!!! THE!!! TIME!!! BE!!! BLESSED!!!🕊🤍

Anyone who wants to follow Him MUST pick up his cross (that is, must be willing to die on it) if not, He says you are not worthy to follow Him. So, if you're willing to pick up your cross, He will help you carry it till the end!

Christian music and success were not the problem. His own personal choices were. Peter Furler never had these problems.

yeah i heard it was alcohol that brought him undone and why he was fired from the newboys, really weird

I thinking why has he got an Australian accent....Iam from Australia and always thought they were from USA.

I had a vision of all the homeless giving their lives to god

Matthew 19-9 clearly says 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

And why are the Newsboys not talking to him anymore? This guy is a repented man. Bring him back.

Did he repent or was he biding his time to get back to America? I do believe in true repentance, but upon hearing his testimony, it really sounded like he wanted to get back to his old ways to me.

The Bible warns not to put a novice in leadership, they are done wrong when that happens. It exposes them to temptations they're not ready for, when they haven't had a chance to grow roots, learn humility & God's word. They don't belong on a platform or in a pulpit, they need mentoring and time in church & with God. Their soul is more important than any ministry.

Christian music “star”…that’s where things went wrong

It’s simple. This entire “praise and worship” nonsense is of the flesh. It cannot feed the New Creation so it just feeds those elements of our human psychology that, if not held in check by genuine Faith, metastasize into complacency and backsliding.

The story is redemptive but I don’t agree with him remarrying. It is in unbiblical.

Character is built by the righteousness of God; NOT RELIGION. The church is using people to portray false analogies on character!!!! Don’t buy into these lies!!!!!

John, you don’t know Christ. That’s evident by the kind of music you performed, and by your lifestyle. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16) You need to truly repent of your sin, and turn to Christ in faith. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)

While I'm certainly happy for anyone's restoration, I've honestly run out of sympathy for people who annihilate their lives, and especially the innocent lives around them, through relentless disobedience to God. Despite millions of people demonstrating and testifying for thousands of years to the emptiness of fame, materialism, vanity, "success," position, power, etc...people are STILL foolish enough to crave it and obsessively pursue it. And we all get what we deserve.

Incredible.🥲🙏🏻🙌🏻

Back when the Newboys ROCKED...not the watered down mess they are today