The concert, Love Riot, took place at Lifechangers International Chruch at Hoffman Estates on Oct. 7.

Before the crowd could go wild, one of the sponsors of the concert, Children International, stepped up onto the stage to give a brief message about their ministry.

Millions of children around the world suffer from extreme poverty, but this ministry wants to change that. They asked everyone in the audience to consider sponsoring a child with as little as $31 dollars a month. After this brief intervention, it was time to get this show on the road.

In the blink of an eye, the lights shut down and everyone held their breath for the very first hint of music. Before we knew it, the stage overflowed with a beautiful singing voice. You had to squint to see who it was at first. But then, a bright blue spotlight shone on whoever was onstage. It was none other than Graham Saber.

His very first song titled “AWFF” consisted of only his voice and a nice beat. The crowd however, went wild when he started singing the chorus. He sang a few more songs titled “If Money Didn’t Matter” and “Here, Now.” which mostly talked about our broken generation and how we obsess too much over materialistic things.

The lights shut off as a dark figure walked to the front of the stage. The sound of waves crashing filled the room as Ryan Stevenson sang the opening line of his first song titled “Eye Of The Storm.”

His voice was so soothing and definitely sent from heaven. After that came the hard part. He told us the story about how he lost his best friend to cancer. And through quiet sobs and the wiping away of tears, he told us another story about how that song was inspired by his other friend who lost his newborn baby girl to a disease.

But at the end of those stories, he smiled and said, “It’s okay, though, because I know that God is in control and I know that he will be with me until the end of my days.”

To give us even more hope, he sang TobyMac’s song “Speak Life” which talks about just that. How God is always in control even on the days we don’t feel like he’s there. It also talks about how we should remain firm in our faith and trust that God has a plan for our life.

He waved to the audience and exclaimed: “WE LOVE YOU CHICAGO!”

The crowd went wild once again. And through the waving and the high fives, the next band, The Afters, was on stage a playing their opening song “Live on Forever.” After all that craziness, they played one of their most well-known songs titled “Light Up The Sky.” The amount of joy that filled the room during that song was overwhelmingly special.

Joshua Havens, the leader of that band, talked about how even in our darkest hours, there will always be a God who will stand by our side and fight our toughest battles with us. This lead the band to play their most touching song titled “Battles.” The very last song that they played titled “Time of My Life,” definitely summarized the whole night.

After that, there was a 30-minute intervention. I didn’t notice I was sweating until then, but boy did it feel good. Time passed by so quickly that before anyone knew it, music was blasting and lights were flashing.

Everyone ran inside and there they were, the band everyone had been waiting for: The Newsboys. They started out with their most recent song and the title of their tour “Love Riot.” The phrase that got every single person on their feet and jumping was:

“Oh, what are we waiting for
Let’s take it around the world
We’ll start a fight and join the fight
In this love riot”

After their opening song, Michael Tait, the lead singer, told the audience about how much he loves Chicago. But he also mentioned how much blood has been shed here. He told us that although things might not get better, we should never lose hope. We should never stop praying because prayer is stronger than any violence and any hurt.

He also told us that God is not dead and that he’s coming back for those who believe in him. From there, he sang one of their most impactful songs titled “The King Is Coming.” It got people on their feet and hands in the air. They were definitely the highlight of the night. Not only were people jumping and praising God, but people were filled with hope. And even though it was only for a couple hours, this concert made you forget about all your struggles and all the hurt.

The band’s humor and stories made it even easier to connect with them. They sang a few more songs titled “He Reigns,” “Crazy,” “Hero,” “Guilty,” “You Hold It All,” and “No Longer Slaves.” The Newsboys are most famous for their song titled “God’s Not Dead.” So it was a surprise to everyone when the lights turned off and everything went silent. Although everyone was still on their feet and the adrenaline was still rushing through their body, no one wanted the night to end.

Everyone started chanting, “ENCORE!” “ENCORE!” “ENCORE!”

And just as everyone figured, the lights turned on and The Newsboys came on stage one last time. They performed “God’s Not Dead” and everyone was satisfied.

Needless to say, that night brought a sense of hope and love to everyone’s heart. You could feel God’s presence in every song that each band sang. God is definitely NOT dead.