Grace On Demand to perform at
Archdiocesan Youth Rally
(Editor’s note: This is the second article in a series of occasional feature stories about Catholic musicians with connections to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.)
By Mary Ann Wyand
Grace On Demand, a contemporary Christian band from central Indiana, will lead praise and worship during the Archdiocesan Youth Rally again this year.
Band members also will sell copies of their CDs during the youth rally on March 4 at Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis and March 5 at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis.
Their first CD, titled “G.O.D.—Grace On Demand,” was released in 2005 and features popular praise songs that include “Yes, Lord,” “Here I Am to Worship,” “Love Endures Forever” and “More Love, More Power.”
Another song, “Sanctuary,” starts slow then picks up intensity with rap lyrics sung by Father Jonathan Meyer, archdiocesan director of youth and young adult ministry and associate pastor of Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish in Greenwood.
“The Way,” the band’s new recording of original Christian music, will be released on Feb. 25 and features “The Sea,” “The Way” and “Lead Me Back to You,” among other praise and worship songs. Father Meyer also sings a rap song on the new CD.
Austin Rahill, the band’s founder and youth ministry coordinator at Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Danville for three years, said after the archdiocesan Consumed 2006 retreat on Feb. 5 at Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis that he enjoys helping young people praise God through music.
“I love to look out and see the kids praising God, worshiping with music and finding themselves in Christ,” Rahill said. “I think the only reason I put on my guitar is to bring youth closer to Christ by showing them his love through them and with them.”
A former seminarian, Rahill plays the acoustic guitar and is the male vocalist for Grace On Demand. He also writes music, and created half of the lyrics for songs on the band’s new CD.
“I’m blessed to be a part of youth ministry in the archdiocese,” Rahill said. “Father Meyer has given us an awesome ministry and wonderful task to bring kids of the Catholic tradition [together] where they can feel free to worship and abandon themselves before God among their peers.”
Father Meyer, who often sings rap songs with the band at youth events, said “the proceeds are going to assist, promote and produce more CDs and music for our young Catholics.”
Since Rahill founded Grace On Demand two years ago, the band has provided praise and worship music for three Consumed retreats and two Archdiocesan Youth Rallies in addition to concerts at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Shelby County and St. Pius X Parish in Granger, Ind., in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese.
Rahill said the band’s goals are to praise God, evangelize, and increase participation in archdiocesan and parish youth ministry events.
“God really uses me through music,” Rahill said. “It gives me energy to work at music ministry, and it’s God’s gift. He gave it to me, and I’m giving it back. I started doing music ministry in 1992 when I led retreats and conferences as a seminarian at Saint Meinrad. It’s an awesome form of youth ministry. It’s just incredible to see kids responding to the music and praising God.”
Rahill said he felt called to youth ministry instead of the priesthood, and wants to help encourage thousands—rather than hundreds—of teenagers to participate in the annual Archdiocesan Youth Rally and the Consumed retreat, which focuses on reverence for the Eucharist.
Mary, Queen of Peace parishioner Monica Bollman of Avon, the band’s female vocalist, said Grace On Demand members like to introduce teenagers to praise and worship songs to help bring them closer to Christ.
“Music can change how you look at everything,” Bollman said. “It can inspire you to look at everything a little deeper than what you do otherwise.”
The band’s new CD is “a very collaborative effort,” she said. “We all helped write the songs. It’s very unique in its sound. It’s inspiring.”
Bollman has four children, teaches a third-grade class at Pine Tree Elementary School in Avon, and finds time to help with parish youth activities in addition to Grace On Demand’s part-time music ministry.
She hopes that parishes will start reaching out to children through music ministry to get them more involved in their Catholic faith at a younger age so they will stay connected to the Church through Mass and youth group activities during their middle school and high school years.
“I would love to see a [Church] program developed specifically for them,” she said, “because if we wait until high school then we have lost some of them.”
Marian College sophomore John Boyle, a member of Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Danville, plays the electric guitar and helped Rahill start Grace On Demand. Boyle is majoring in theology at the Franciscan college in Indianapolis.
“When we play, seeing the kids praising God really makes it all worthwhile,” Boyle said. “We felt like the Spirit … brought together everything that we had to offer musically and faith-wise, and poured it all into our first CD and our new CD, too. We’ve sold about a thousand copies of our first CD since we released it at the youth rally last year.”
Boyle invited Jon Hook, a drummer and music producer who is a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Brazil, to join the contemporary Christian band, whose other members are Catholic.
Hook said he appreciates this opportunity to praise God with teenagers.
“I remember one moment during the Consumed retreat,” Hook said. “All the kids were around the Eucharist, and they had their arms around each other. We were playing at the time, but … I almost forgot that I was playing [the drums] … because it just came natural to me. Just watching the kids—watching the Spirit move through them—was amazing.”
(Grace On Demand CDs sell for $10, and can be ordered by contacting Austin Rahill at ajrahill@hotmail.com or logging on to www.graceondemand.com.) †
