“Is this still what He wants us to be doing?”
That’s the question the members of Christian band Big Daddy Weave ask themselves at the beginning of every year.
Next month marks the 17th anniversary of the band that’s been making Christian music, selling out tours and gathering fans across the world. Front man Mike Weaver tells Guideposts.org that asking this question and listening to God’s direction is the reason they’ve remained successful in an industry where plenty of “it” artists come and go.
“As long as we get a yes [from God], then we go again,” Weaver says.
The guys definitely got a yes when it comes to their latest round in the studio. Their seventh studio album, Beautiful Offerings, a follow-up to their certified gold track “Redeemed,” dropped Sept. 18th. The newest musical showing is a combination of everything fans love about the group’s sound: compelling lyrics, creative arrangements and a commitment to producing straight forward worship music.
“It’s kind of where ‘Redeemed’ left off and the work we saw God doing in our lives and the lives of others as we shared the testimony of that,” Weaver explains. “Not only are we forgiven, what’s been purchased for us is this new identity. God has allowed our life to be an opportunity to give back to Him what it is He put in us.”
Big Daddy Weave formed while the members were in college at the University of Mobile in Alabama. Back then, they were just a group of kids who played music too loud for too long and annoyed their neighbors at the duplex they lived in. Weaver admits the only reason he was elected to be behind the mic was because the group “started consistently not finding a singer.”
Almost two decades later, the multiple award-winning group continues to resonate with fans because of the courageous honesty in their lyrics. “Redeemed” was born from Weaver’s struggles with weight and body image issues and his inability to accept himself just as God had created him.
“I hated myself and I didn’t even know how to say it,” Weaver says. “Being overweight, there was a part of me that really felt like I was defined by that. One day, I was sitting in my garage and I just told God everything I hated about myself and then His presence showed up. He told me ‘Let me tell you what I think about you for once.’ I’m sitting there, ready for this life-changing statement and He said ‘I like the way that you smile.’ That’s the one thing looking back at pictures, I was always [happy with] was my smile.”
“That was the beginning of something. It’s not that I’ve never struggled with that again but what I have noticed, which I think is a victory, is the recovery time.”
With acceptance and gratitude, Big Daddy Weave have now entered into a new period in life and in music, with a message of hope for fans.
“I really love this record,” Weaver says of Beautiful Offerings. “It’s weird because as soon as I say that, I feel like I’m going to sound like I’m promoting us and we’ve never been that way. I’m a hater. I scrutinize myself. But the work the Lord has done in me has allowed me to really appreciate. That’s something I never had in my whole life. I see his goodness in this record.”
Weaver’s wish is that the latest album will help others draw closer to God as well.
“In the Old Testament, wherever God had done something good, they’d build a monument, or an Ebenezer stone, a stone that reminded them what God had done in his faithfulness,” the artist continues. “This [album] to me is that. I want people to know the God that inspired this record.”
