60 Christian Songs That Explain the '90s: "Home Run" by Geoff Moore and The Distance
Life can be like a baseball game.
So it’s August now. And if you’re in the United States, specifically the southeastern United States, it’s miserable outside. If you’re familiar with the South at all, I don’t have to explain the humidity to you. It’s unbearable. You can’t even walk to the mailbox without your shirt clinging to you from the sweat. This means we can’t walk our dog at lunchtime like I prefer. The road is just too hot. So we walk in the evening, typically around 8:00 when the sun has finished roasting all living things around us.
On a walk last week, I noticed a home across the street about four houses down from us with a massive Donald Trump banner adorning the front porch. In that house lives a couple in I assume their mid-50s. They regularly walk their dog as well, though he is not nearly as pleasant as our dog.
Then two nights ago, about five houses down from us, we saw a small red and blue flag by the mailbox with three simple words: Kamala Harris 2024. A single woman lives there, probably close to the same age as her neighbors across the street with the Trump banner.
I don’t know if these neighbors talk much. I don’t know if they exchange pleasantries when simultaneously doing yard work. I don’t know if they willingly share eggs or a cup of sugar when the other is in need. If memory serves me correctly, I think I saw them talking at one point earlier in the year. But that was well before any political banners and flags were erected. Now the man’s truck is adorned with a decal of Trump’s face on the back of it, and I can’t help but wonder what the Harris-voting neighbor across the way will do next.
But seeing all this in my own neighborhood and hearing all the endless bantering from both sides of the political spectrum has made me think about one thing and one thing only: I am super grateful for the Summer Olympics.
I’ve watched more of this year’s Olympics than any year before. Maybe it’s the combination of working remotely and events being on TV all day long, including the replays of key events at night. But honestly, it’s all been a great distraction from the constant noise of cable news and political hand-wringing. Maybe you’re like me, seeing the calendar and realizing we’re still three months out from election day and you’re already gassed. Just exhausted from it all. So I think I speak for a lot of us when I say thank God for Simone Biles.
Look, I don’t fully get gymnastics and how everything works. The movement. The flexibility. The mid-air twirling looks like something a human shouldn’t be able to do. My knees pop when I bend down too low. Not sure how Simone is doing it.
But strangely enough, we expected Simone to do that. She’s set the bar so high that she’s the only one that can jump over it. So her doing something called a double Yurchenko? No problem. But what about the athletes that aren’t expected to do as much? What about the underdogs, the ones that should just be happy to be in Paris at all? Those are the ones that I love to see. Thank God for Cole Hocker.
After all of these events, after the wins, the triumphs, each American athlete talks about the same thing: Team USA. The honor of representing the nation. To bring home a medal to the country that gives them the freedom to chase dreams. Not just individual athletes, but those working as a group. Those working as an actual team. To that I say thank God for Stephen Curry.
Yet, something’s missing. Among all the thrills of gymnastics, track and field, basketball, and even synchronized swimming, there’s a void. For a massive athletics event, America’s national pastime is nowhere to be found.
The reasons are many. Major league baseball is shy about releasing their players in the middle of the season. They’re dedicated to the World Baseball Classic, a World Cup-type event taking place every three years. But the real reason is this: France, the host nation for these Olympic games, stinks at baseball. It’s not their sport. So instead of investing in stadiums to host baseball and softball, they just chose to leave it off the list of sports. And I hate it. I really do. But I still say thank God for Sydney McLaughin-Levrone.
She’s so fun to watch. And she is incredibly humble. Gold medals and world records aside, not even Sydney can replace baseball. It’s what summertime was made for. How you can not include a game with so much international appeal in the Olympics? Regardless of who’s to blame, whether it’s MLB or the IOC, it’s a huge miss. As much as we all love table tennis, badminton, and watching 14-year-olds win skateboarding medals, baseball would’ve simply been the cherry on top.
Fortunately, there’s at least music to take us back to the glory days of the diamond. Come on, John Fogerty. Play that classic!
Nothing brings joy quite like old videos of Stan “The Man” Musial. Or the iconic Jackie Robinson. And nothing thrills me the way Hank Aaron’s twenty-something face. Legends of baseball. Hall of Famers in a sport defined by skill, athleticism, and making the grandest play of them all: hitting a home run.
Welcome to the seventh installment of 60 Christian Songs That Explain the ‘90s. This week, we’re talking about “Home Run” from the great Christian rock group Geoff Moore and The Distance off their 1995 album of the same name, Home Run.
While The Distance rotated members throughout the band’s decade-plus duration, Geoff Moore was, obviously, the constant. Born in Flint, Michigan, Moore didn’t step into the world of music until after high school. At Taylor University in Indiana, Arlin Troyer was Geoff Moore’s roommate. Arlin Troyer also happened to be a bassist in a band on campus. One night, that band’s lead singer got the stomach flu and couldn’t perform at a show. Desperate for a singer, Arlin approached Geoff. He’d heard Geoff singing just goofing around, and figured what could it hurt? The band was just doing two songs. Geoff agreed to do it.
And so it began. No, this isn’t Poison or Twisted Sister or any of the ‘80s hair bands you’re familiar with. But one of the two songs Geoff Moore did that night with his roommate’s band was a cover of Larry Norman’s classic, a song asking the question we all need answers to: “Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?”
Oh, look! Norman himself makes an appearance in the video. That’s pretty cool. In the audience that night at Geoff’s concert debut was a staff member from the organization Youth For Christ. He invited Geoff and his band to come to an event they were having the following month.
That would be the origin point for Geoff Moore the musician. But the plan was still to graduate college and go into the family business. Upon graduation, he got married to his wife Jan and made what some might see as a crazy decision. He decided not to return to the family business and instead moved to Nashville. If music was going to happen, this would be the place.
But upon moving there on Halloween night in 1983, things fell apart. Jan’s job fell through. Connections Geoff had planned on didn’t pan out. So he did what any level-headed person would do while trying to survive: he got a job.
Geoff Moore worked at a men’s clothing store in Nashville. During his time there he questioned everything. In a podcast with Andy Chrisman, Geoff talks about that first year of marriage being the foundation for the rest of their lives. It strengthened their faith.
Still, he couldn’t have felt farther from where he was supposed to be. That is until one day at work when a young man tapped him on the shoulder and asked for his help in buying some pants. Geoff struck up a conversation with the man, a guy named Michael W. Smith. This was the connection point Geoff needed. From there he’d meet with Bill Gaither, some guys from Whiteheart, and eventually founded the band that put him in the CCM spotlight.
When you look at the seven studio albums Geoff Moore and the Distance released from 1988 through 1997, two similar themes pop up: devotion to friends and devotion to Christ. 1993’s Evolution featured “Life Together”, a song about childhood friends. On that same album is “If You Could See What I See”, a song about another type of friendship….marriage. The album has its own upbeat, fun, bouncy songs like “Evolution…Redefined” and the aforementioned “Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?”
In 1994, A Friend Like You, the band’s fifth album came out. Devotion to Christ is shown in the band’s most streamed song “Listen To Our Hearts” and the guitar-driven jam “House Of Faith”. The title track is the one I love. You can never not be happy singing a song that references Batman and Robin or Snoopy and Charlie. And you can never not love seeing one of Geoff Moore’s best friends make an appearance in the video around the 2:11 mark.
Well, hello there Steven Curtis Chapman. We’ll almost definitely cover Steven in a future post, but two facts you should know about SCC and Geoff Moore:
They’ve been super close friends for decades and help each other with charity work.
Geoff co-wrote two of SCC’s biggest hits: “The Great Adventure” and “Speechless”.
In 1995, the group puts out Home Run. And the song Home Run kicks off the album. The theme is tied to baseball, of course. And the album version is great, but the version of “Home Run” released on the band’s double-disc Greatest Hits album puts you there, in the ballpark. It’s the live version, complete with the organ playing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. The cheers during the announcer’s home run call. The crowd singing the chorus to just a drum beat. It’s a Bon Jovi song wrapped in a Christian message.
Gotta keep your eye on the ball
Swing straight and true, and follow through
Don't be afraid, what-ever the call
Because we're never alone
Our coach is there to cheer us on
The song talks about swinging for the fence, trying to get a home run. Why? Because, as Geoff Moore sings, “I got some friends on base I gotta get home.”
Home Run the album is full of even more songs about friendship, both with people and with God. “Best Days” takes us on a timeline of relationships: a boy and his dad fishing, a young man meeting a girl and falling in love, and then a man thinking about the day he sees Jesus face to face.
I think it’ll be like a long, lost friend
Coming back to His family again
“The Vow” is a declaration of commitment, one made regardless of who’s watching. For some reason this song makes me think about See You At The Pole, when students gather around the flagpole on a particular school day to pray.
Right here, right now
In the midst of the crowd
I stand alone
And I make my vow
This idea of faithfulness to others, most of all to God, is woven throughout Geoff Moore and the Distance’s discography. To me, this is shown best sonically and lyrically in the band’s final studio album Threads, which came out in 1997.
After beginning with a raucous rendition of The Who’s “I’m Free”, the album leads into “The In Betweens”, a song focused on how we as Christians live our day-to-day lives. Then there’s “Desperate Men”, a song about being passionately committed to Christ.
We are desperate men
Rebels and fools who’ve been rescued
We are desperate men
Desperate for the good news
In 1996, the band released a song found only on their greatest hits album titled “More Than Gold”. Its release coincided with that year’s Summer Olympics in Georgia. The point of it is simply this: the years of training, the sweat, the tears, the pains, the glory, all of it has its place. And winning gold might seem like the highest achievement possible. But there’s more than that to life.
That when the flame is gone
We want the world to know
That we have come seeking
More than gold
The 1996 Olympics were incredible. Muhammed Ali lit the flame. Michael Johnson dominated the 100-meter race. Kerri Strug helped the women’s gymnastics team win gold on a broken ankle. I got to go in person and see the men’s basketball team crush Lithuania. The Olympics, those Olympics, were phenomenal.
They were also tragic. You might recall what took place. On July 27, a bomb exploded in Centennial Park, killing one person, injuring over 100, and causing fear across the games.
Like other events throughout the world, that bombing showed us a picture of life we rarely consider during moments of triumph and greatness. It showed a mortality. A fragility to life. And that as wonderful as winning a gold medal might be, it is far from the most important thing.
Geoff Moore and The Distance produced great albums. Songs to sing to, laugh to, and be moved by. “Home Run” is just one of many. But the one song I keep coming back to from this band that can, in the right moment, give me a lump in my throat is “Only A Fool”.
1 Corinthians 3:18 states this: Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. The standards of this world are not God’s standards. And in the song, Geoff Moore sings about three people.
First, it’s Charlie. A guy with a nice job. One we can assume comes with a nice income. But Charlie does something weird. Something foolish. He quit his job to go and minister to kids.
He said he was in love with Jesus
But his friends didn’t understand
He could’ve had it all
But he just smiled and said that
He already did
Next, it’s Sarah. The beauty queen. Like Charlie, she could’ve had it all. But she walked away from it so she could serve as a missionary.
She said she was in love with Jesus
But her friends called her a fool
They said she’d never find happiness
But she just smiled and said that
She already did
Last, it’s us. We’re the third character in the song. We’re here, looking at Charlie and Sarah, wondering if we could ever be so brave to step away from what we know to do something crazy. Something foolish.
Show me the big in the small
Show me the beauty in the call
Show me the road that I should choose
I’ll take the job
Only a fool could do
Friendships. Fun. Faith. Foolishness. All of it can be seen in this band’s legacy. And in the singular legacy of Geoff Moore. After the band ended in the late ‘90s, Moore went on to do several solo albums. These days he spends much of his time running Fellowship Adventures, a nonprofit designed to provide incredible outdoor retreats to people serving in ministry.
If you’re wondering, Geoff Moore and Steven Curtis are still great friends. He still gets together from time to time to do shows with The Distance. He and his wife recently celebrated their 41st anniversary.
And for a time it didn’t look like much. It didn’t seem that Geoff Moore would do the things he felt called to do. But only a fool steps out with such faith. Only a fool runs after God to where there’s nothing left but to trust in Him. And at the end of it all, if we can look back on life and say we follow God that closely, I’d say we’re all worthy of a gold medal. Or, at the very least, a trip around the bases after hitting a homer.
Hey, thanks so much for reading this week’s post! You may or may not be as passionate about 90’s Christian music as I am, but I really do appreciate your time. And now, I do ask if you haven’t heard it recently or ever before, check out “Home Run” by Geoff Moore and the Distance. Catch you next week.