No Compromise by Melody Green and David Hazard (2000)

Posted on 2024-01-05 by thelittleman

Rating: 4 out of 5.
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The Life Story of Keith Green

Over the past few years, I’ve read a number of celebrity biographies and memoirs, and most have been highly disappointing. I grew up loving John Denver, for example, but found out he was a philandering jerk. Brett Favre was the same, times about 1,000. It’s not like these men had ever been “heroes” in my young mind, but the truth behind the facades was pretty disheartening. When searching for a biography as encouraging as, say, Reggie White’s, I went looking in a place that I wasn’t even much familiar: the Christian-rock scene of the 1970s and ’80s.

A Little about Keith and Melody Green

Like most people, I knew more about Keith Green’s music than I did about the man himself. Songs like “O Lord, You’re Beautiful” and “There Is a Redeemer” are probably familiar to most readers. Some of his other piano-pop and humorous songs may not be. All told, the guy published 5 Christian albums before his untimely death in a plane crash at age 28, but his firebrand personality during his rise to stardom and the legacy that his wife, Melody, has carried on since his death in 1982 have kept his name familiar in Christian circles even ’til now, forty years later.

I chose this book because I wanted to learn more about this guy who did so much in such a short amount of time. I mean seriously, age 28—that’s even younger than the famous missionary to the Native Americans, David Brainard, who died at 29. Yet his legacy lives on, thanks in part to a music industry that has kept his songs available, but far more so to the faith and courage of his widow who kept their ministry going and kept Keith’s legacy alive. Melody wrote this book to explain their relationship, careers, and ministry together, but more importantly to recount the incredibly bumpy road they took spiritually as they sought (through a lot of drugs) the truth of life, the universe, and everything. Ultimately, this Jewish girl and her has-been musician husband found Christ, but even then, they had a lot of growing up to do.

Reading This Book with Ears Wide Open

It took me several weeks (or was it months?) to get through this book, and yet I really enjoyed the slow, plodding process. When I worked through 10-20 pages in the evening, I’d do so with YouTube at the ready. When Melody referenced a musician who’d influenced them or (better yet) a song they’d written together, I’d search it out and listen, sometimes following along with the lyrics she printed. It was an entire season of Behind the Music in book form, and the process introduced me to a lot of new songs. I must say for the record that Keith Green’s music style isn’t really my cup of tea, and his high voice makes it nearly impossible for me ever to sing along with him, but I appreciate his heart and really enjoyed this foray into his life and career.

The Greens and Their Growth in Christ

Trying to peg what religious stripe the Greens were (and are) is tough, because they moved through so many systems and stages. No matter how many times they ventured into tongue-speaking groups and Holy-Spirit-baptism meetings, the true telling of their spiritual convictions are found in their journal entries over the years. Melody doesn’t share much from her own journals, but she’s open and explicit about her doubts and discomforts throughout the book. At one point, she writes:

My dilemma was different. I could never let go of being Jewish or convert to another religion. But as I pondered all I’d read in the Bible, a few simple facts fell into place…By the end of the week, I had what my heart needed. I’d made what I called “the Jewish connection.” I wouldn’t be betraying my Jewishness to follow Jesus. I just needed to receive Him as the promised Jewish Messiah for all of mankind. (121-122)

What’s more pertinent, though, is her constant use of Keith’s journal entries, fervent and personal outcries to Jesus (even before he knew Him as God and Savior) that evidence his desire for truth and his growth into that knowledge. Take this early entry as an example:

“Last Monday I discovered the knowledge of the existence of the Holy Ghost. As the personal vehicle through which the Son comes into our personal lives… I feel so strong, my love for the Father and my trust in the Father. I am learning to love the Son and only now seeing the need to acknowledge a third entity, separate in identity, but one with the others in purpose…Please, Father, in Christ Jesus’ name, bring the Holy Ghost into my life and baptize me. Amen.” (115)

This desire to know God truly was a lifelong process for Keith, as he faced letdowns by different Christian leaders whom he’d respected, came face-to-face with hypocrisy in the church, and was spoken of unkindly from different Christian quarters. Still, he began following a difficult path of obedience despite all this due to his fervent pursuit of Jesus and his constant reading of the Word.

It’s easy to look at the salvation testimonies of Keith and Melody Green as convoluted and rocky, especially if you’re one that requires someone know the date and time that they asked Jesus into their hearts. The Greens can’t really do that, but the true evidence of salvation isn’t a timestamped testimony but rather a transformation through rebirth and the outgrowth of the Fruit of the Spirit. The Greens had this. The only problem is that their transformation and growth were done in the spotlight of fame. Melody writes:

Because of his high profile as a new believer, he did a lot of his growing in the public eye. He didn’t have the luxury of years of obscure service so he could emerge in a more tidy way. Keith hit like a bombshell, then left just as suddenly.” (375)

They were novices in the faith who already had a platform as professional musicians, and they were expected to use that platform to lead. Christian leaders, however (like the elders described in 1Tim 3:6), should not be recent converts, and they were sort of set up for failure from the very beginning, at least until the years when they finally did grow up and start leading in a more mature way.

Ultimately, it seems that Keith outgrew the charismatic tendencies of his “youth” to be simply a passionate person of prayer. He often made rash decisions based on how he felt God was leading, which is a dangerously subjective way for any Christian to live, but his commitment to bathe these feelings in Scripture and prayer at least allowed for some safeguards.

Throughout the second half of the book, Keith is often described as a prophet, the one tasked with giving God’s bad news and then suffering for it. Melody put it this way:

It was easy to see how people in the body of Christ had different roles. Some were hands or feet, but Keith always felt like he was an elbow. “If I had my choice,” he lamented one day, “I’d much rather be the mercy shower than the prophetic voice. I’d rather be a loving hand that comforts people instead of an elbow in the ribs. It really makes me feel bad sometimes.” (320)

I don’t know where I stand on the modern-day office of “prophet,” but as long as it doesn’t require hearing God’s audible voice or speaking any new revelation, I can see how Keith fit this description. About their take on hearing God’s voice, incidentally, Melody recounts this conversation about prayer:

“Prayer must be a two-way conversation,” [our friend Richard Gene Lowe] insisted. “You talk, God listens. God talks, you listen.”
“What do you mean God talks? Can you hear him?” Keith asked.
“Some people have heard his voice. I hear him in my heart. He speaks to me in a still, small voice.”
I asked him, “How do you know it’s just not your own thoughts you’re hearing?”
“That’s why you need to get to know God. So you can learn the difference.” (129)

Like our modern-day evangelists who roam the country setting up revival meetings in local churches and city parks, there might be a place for a wandering “prophet” to host concerts in which he reminds people how bad things are, how wicked sin is, how terrible God’s wrath can be, and yet how wonderful his love and forgiveness are. That’s what Keith often did in his concerts, and no one can call him irresponsible for having done so.

Some Final Thoughts

My copy of this book is now riddled with underlines and bent pages, and I felt like I learned a lot from watching this couple grow together as a family, as new believers, and ultimately as Christian leaders in a circle that’s unfamiliar to me. There’s a progression of growth that Keith describes in his journals that’s also worth noting. It’s a growth in discipline and in knowing how to handle the talent that God had given him long before he was a believer in Christ. Melody shares these various quotes from his journal:

“I want to be accepted because I reflect the Lord, not because I blow everyone away with my music… All the talent in the world won’t buy me a godly character…and that’s what I want more than anything.” (165-166)

“If someone writes a great story, people praise the author, not the pen. People don’t say, ‘Oh what an incredible pen…where can I get a pen like this so I write great stories?’ Well, I am just a pen in the hands of the Lord. He is the author. All praise should go to him.” (207)

“I used to think discipline and self-control was a natural by-product of a supernatural holiness and revival. But now I see that lack of self-discipline is keeping my holiness (which I already have in Jesus) from controlling my life and coming to the surface. This is a brand-new view, and I believe I’ve isolated the enemy’s greatest stronghold in my life at this time… Discipline is not holiness, nor the way to holiness. It just helps you maintain it.” (286)

I also love Keith’s perspective on the Great Commission and missions that Melody shares:

“It’s either God’s will that the world’s going to hell or it’s the Church’s fault because we’re not being obedient to what the Bible says about going into all nations and preaching the Gospel,” Keith said. “If you stay home from going into all the nations, you’d better be able to say to God, ‘You called me to stay home. I know that as a fact!'” (343)

Conclusion

Reading this book not only drove me to listen more deeply to some of Keith Green’s music (again, a style not really to my taste) but also encouraged my wife and me to watch that newish movie, Jesus Revolution. Again, this branch of Christianity that borders on Pentecostalism is not my field, so I’m not endorsing anything specifically. I am however pointing out that reminders of the 1970s and ’80s when faith in Jesus was actually popular can be pretty encouraging! I heard a report last night that Gen Z-ers are more committed to improving their prayer lives than any other age group in America. Perhaps that’s because they’ve got the farthest to go, but it’s a spark of hope. Like with the Hippies before them who left the drugs to get high on Jesus, let’s pray that this screen-addicted generation leaves their distractions and need for likes and followers to become like and followers of Jesus.

©2024 E.T.

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