Jack Heaslip/Bono Audio: Elevation Tour Blessing/Prayer

This audio (click) recording (video below also if the audio format doesn't work for you) of Bono introducing Pastor
Jack Heaslip (U2's chaplain/pastor...kinda) to offer a prayer/blessing on the opening night (Miami) of U2's 2001 Elevation tour, is wonderful on so many levels.

For one, try playing it   without revealing who it is (too bad the Irish accents are so obvious) to a CCMfundagelical,  or one skeptical of U2's faith, just mentioning that it's a prayer by a band's pastor on a tour's opening night.

Their complaint couldn't be that it wasn't evangelical enough (It could have come from a Michael W. Smith or Third Day gig), but that is is too evangelical; it's not just a quick opening prayer, he even prays over every inch of wire and sound equipment. Yeah, so evangelical that it's too (uh oh) "charismatic" ("Gee, he sure used the 'a' word a lot in that prayer.").

I love how in the introduction Bono offers all the band's staff, roadies, etc. the "centered set" opportunity to participate in the blessing, without apology... but without coercion or exclusion. He's bounded and centered. "Seeker sensitive," even...(Maybe he has been hanging with Bill Hybels and Rick Warren too much! (:......) Who could turn him down when he asks "if anyone wants a blessing"?

I also enjoy Bono's casual, almost apologetic (in both senses of the term) self-effacing (!) remark at the band about feeding the hungry "apparently"(yeah, like he had nothing to do with it!) on the band that night.

Wow; and with that prayer; and Pastor Jack coordinating prayerwalks of the stadiums and venues each night of the tour...no wonder it turned out like

this:

"God is in the room; more than Elvis. It feels like there’s a blessing on the band right now. People are saying they’re feeling shivers—well, the band is as well...it feels like God walking through the room, and it feels like a blessing, and in the end, music is a kind of sacrament; it’s not just about airplay or chart positions."
-Bono, about the Elevation tour.

And of course, Bono practiced the prayer the rabbis have long called "elevation" every night he sang the song by that name. See the little-known backstory here.

Note: on U2's next tour kickoff (Vertigo, 2005), Heaslip began the blessing with
"Bono just sang 'The Saints are Coming.' I say the saints are already here..."

More on Jack Heaslip at this link; he officiated Bono and Ali's wedding, etc. He is currently on staff (thank Beth for the scoop) at this church (several audios of his sermons are available) His son, Eoghan Heaslip is a local church worship leader who appears on this classic worship CD with St. David Ruis; and who actually has toured with Michael W. Smith, and whose CDs can actually be found at Christian bookstores and on CCM (until they discover the U2 connection..shhhh!).

Jack Heaslip's role as U2's chaiplain/spiritual mentor is also mentioned in Tony Campolo's story in this video (3:05) below (though Campolo needs your forgiveness for calling Heaslip "elderly"!! Who of the two is older?).

By the way, if Campolo's endorsement of Bono's (and Heaslip's!) faith helps any heresy-hunting fundagelicals (yeah, right!,) check out what Campolo told my friend and me about all this at this link (Naked & Humiliated Messianic Crossing Guards ) ,which also includes a delightful story by Campolo about Bono's amazing traffic duty volunteer job at a Christian festival.



(start video at 3:05)

Bono/Heaslip audio