Nashville, TN (March 4, 2013) – GRAMMY® Nominated singer songwriter Matthew West appeared at the NRB Convention on Monday to share the story behind his current single “Hello My Name Is” from his current album Into the Light. West’s song was inspired by the real-life story of Jordan Jeffers, who overcame drug addiction with the help of Teen Challenge.
Both West and Jeffers shared about the song and story at a press event at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on Monday March 4th at 12:30pm.
“Hello My Name Is” illustrates the Biblical message of new life in Christ by depicting the tearing off of old labels and putting on new ones through the power of Jesus Christ. Jeffers submitted his story to West after West invited people to share their lives as inspiration for his album.
“I remember where I was when I read Jordan’s story,” West said. “I was actually sitting on our tour bus in the middle of a tour. And I was just telling my bass player, Dave, ‘Man, these stories I’m reading are so heavy…I want to read one that makes me want to jump up and down and cheer.’ And I kid you not, I opened my computer, and I read, ‘Hello, my name is Jordan…’ And all of a sudden I started crying, and I read it out loud, and my bass player and I are jumping up and down going, ‘there is a God and He’s in the business of changing lives and giving us a new identity!’”
Jordan’s Story
Jeffers shared that as a “good Christian kid” and seven-time All-American athlete, addiction wasn’t something he struggled with until he began abusing prescription pain pills after a college football injury. “Prescription pain pills are really expensive on the street…and I was a college student, so I didn’t have a lot of money. So obviously I had to steal, and I had to lie, and I had to hurt those that I loved the most. I had to hurt my grandparents and I hurt my mom and my dad. And this happened for four and a half years.”
“My senior year I failed a drug test… Immediately when I failed the drug test, my mom and dad, they entered me into a Teen Challenge… and I said, ‘Mom, there’s no way you’ll leave me here. You love me too much to leave me at this place.’ She said, ‘Son, I love you too much to take you home.’”
“Through the twelve months at Teen Challenge, God changed my life. He began to restore, he began to heal… Once I graduated, the story didn’t end. I had to go back home and I had to go finish my degree… And I got to go back and run track at the same college that I’d been kicked out of, and I ended up becoming a coach there.”
Jeffers said, “The world tells us that we’re drug addicts, and that we’ll be drug addicts for the rest of our lives… But that’s not what God says. Right? He says we’ve been set free, that we’re a new creation… And I believe that. And I no longer refer to myself as a drug addict. I refer to myself as Jordan, a child of the One True King.”
West connected “Hello My Name Is” to the larger theme of the album. “The title of this CD…is called Into the Light, and that’s what this is about. It’s about people like Jordan teaching us all what it looks like to step into God’s marvelous light with all of our stories – not just the good parts.”
Teen Challenge USA President Jack Smart was also on hand to share about the life-changing ministry of Teen Challenge. “The exciting thing about Jordan’s story and Matthew’s song is that that is repeated over and over again in Teen Challenge… We go ground level with people and what their needs are and help them to be able to do some of the basic things that they need to do as a Christian. And as a result of that, God works in their lives. Marriages are restored, families are reconciled.”
“Hello My Name Is”
Both Matthew West’s current album, Into the Light, and his 2010 release, The Story of Your Life, were inspired by true stories from the lives of real people – over 25,000 stories submitted to date. West shared that some of his passion for storytelling began as a young boy impacted by visits to his church from Teen Challenge students.
“The Bible talks about the word of our testimony, and Teen Challenge taught me about the power of a story. My dad’s a pastor. He’s been a pastor for 38 years in the Chicago suburbs, and growing up every few months he would have a group from Teen Challenge come and visit our church…and one by one these men would stand up and share their story.”
“Hearing those Teen Challenge guys had me on the edge of my seat, and I thought, ‘Man, I want to be as real and authentic as them.’ Because those guys, even as a kid I could sense it, they were standing up and they were saying, ‘Hey, here’s my story. It ain’t all pretty, but look what God has done.’ And you know what? When we tell our stories that way, guess who gets all the glory? God does.”
West went on to emphasize God’s ability to use stories that many people might find untellable.
“What I noticed is that many of the people that wrote to me to share their story, they didn’t share with me about the best day of their life. Not one story wrote to me about how much money they have in their bank account or what their 401k is like. They didn’t write to me about their accolades or greatest successes, but a lot of people shared with me about their weakest moments in life, the worst day of their life, the addiction they battled, the cancer that they’re struggling through, the job they lost, the marriage that seems beyond repair, the depression that they’re facing every day. And what I realized is…that when we place the stories of our lives into the hands of a healing God, not a single word of our story will be wasted. But the devil goes to work on each of us, trying to make us believe that those shameful parts of our stories, they’re damaged goods, God couldn’t use those. But Jordan’s story proved to me that that’s a lie, and that God can restore and redeem.”
For a time, Jeffers believed this lie. “I struggled with being referred to as a drug addict…until finally God, he kind of sat me down, he woke me up one night, and he said, ‘You know, Jordan, you don’t live with that past regret. You don’t live in your past anymore.’ … See, I’d been set free, I was sober, but I hadn’t set myself free. I hadn’t forgiven myself. I allowed God to work a great work in my life. I no longer refer to myself as a drug addict… I’ve not referred to myself as a drug addict in two and a half years.”
“There’s a greater need for Teen Challenge than ever before,” said Smart. “But you know, the one thing that Jordan’s testimony and Matthew’s song is about, is hope. Hope that no matter how deep a person goes into the pit of sin and addiction, that God can bring them out, that Jesus Christ can set them free. And that’s what Teen Challenge does and will continue to do, by God’s grace and blessing. And with the support of people in God’s kingdom, we’re going to continue to see thousands of lives changed.”
About Matthew West:
After receiving over 10,000 personal stories from all over the globe for his heralded 2010 album, The Story of Your Life, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Matthew West, who has been forever impacted by the outpouring of stories, felt as though there was even more for others to say during this season of his music. The new studio album, Into The Light, was released on September 25, 2012, featuring 12 tracks inspired by 10,000 new letters submitted after West invited people to, once again, send him their stories. The songs comprising Into the Light were inspired by stories touching on everything from the power of forgiveness, drug addiction, the rejection of apathy, domestic violence and many other topics. The project quickly climbed to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes® Christian & Gospel Albums chart upon release and to No. 39 on the overall iTunes® Albums chart.
Two-time GRAMMY® nominee Matthew West’s discography includes acclaimed releases: Happy (2003), History (2005) and Something to Say (2008). His 2010 studio album, The Story of Your Life, was inspired by 10,000 stories from every state in the U.S. and 20 countries. The album released on October 5, 2010, and garnered attention from CNN Online, Fox News, Billboard, Country Weekly, American Songwriter and more. The Story of Your Life gave West the largest street week debut of his career selling over 10,000 units the first week landing at No. 3 on Christian Soundscan, and No. 41 on the Billboard Top 200. In conjunction with Harvest House Publishers, West teamed up with bestselling author Angela Thomas for The Story of Your Life book. The Heart of Christmas marked West’s first full-length Christmas project which also boasts the Top 10 mainstream AC radio hit “The Heart of Christmas.” A multiple ASCAP “Song of the Year” winner, West has had four No. 1 radio hits including his latest GRAMMY®-nominated tune, “Strong Enough.” His songwriting credits include cuts by Rascal Flatts, Billy Ray Cyrus, Diamond Rio and more. West was recently nominated for a Primetime Emmy® Award for Original Music & Lyrics for “The Heart of Christmas” from the film of the same name.
