We got the scoop from Glenn Packiam, one of Desperation Band’s three worship leaders/songwriters, and David Perkins, a leading voice in the Desperation movement. Here’s what they had to say about writing music, discipleship and the family dinner table.

Brio: How did Desperation begin?
David: In 2001, a group of us here at New Life Church [in Colorado Springs, Colo.] began to feel that God wanted to move in our generation in a powerful way, specifically launching out of the local church. College kids began to pray. In 2002, we decided it was time to call people together for a few days of prayer and fasting. We named it Desperation.

Glenn: When David talked to [the other members of Desperation Band] Jon Egan, Jared Anderson and me about doing this Desperation conference, we thought it was a great idea: take all of us worship leaders from New Life’s student ministries and get together. We had a few songs that had turned up over that last year, and we asked, “What if we recorded at the event?” We saw how that first album, Desperation, captured what God was doing here.

Could you describe the Desperation “movement”?
David: More than a conference or a band, Desperation is a youth movement for local churches. Desperation takes what we’ve learned here in our high school and college programs, and translates it to spiritual intensity, ideas and worship that can empower local churches.

Together with others throughout the nation, we found one key is starting some form of intentional prayer at the local level—whether that’s daily, weekly or whatever. One of the things I love about the Desperation Band is that they’re not showmen, they’re not rock stars. At their core, each of them is committed to the local church and to prayer; when we first started, they each led 7 a.m. prayer meetings once a week.

Glenn, does your local commitment affect the band’s touring?
Glenn: Absolutely. Jon, Jared and I are all still involved in the different youth and college meetings, which we believe is our primary calling. The opportunities to travel are great. We need to be faithful to those but manage them in such a way that it’s not coming at the expense of what’s happening here at our church.

New Life’s primary worship pastor, Ross Parsley, talks about the philosophy of the family worship table. During the day, kids have their soccer practice; Mom and Dad have their work; Grandma has her book club. But at dinner, they all come together to eat. We believe Sunday morning is like the family dinner table: When you come, you see worship from all the generations reflected there.

In writing songs, do you think of a certain audience and how they’ll respond to it?
Glenn: We never write songs for a recording or for radio or anything like that. The songs always come out of ministry with people. A lot of songs came from prayer meetings, such as “Hear Us From Heaven,” “Beauty of the Lord” and loads of others. Each of us at our services, seeing what God is doing in the students we’re with every week, writes songs that help them express what they’re feeling.

David, is there a story behind your song credit on “Perfect One”?
David: Glenn was worship leader at this Tuesday morning prayer meeting, which was focused on saying the attributes of God. In that gathering, I began to take Revelation 19’s declaration, “Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” and took off from there, praising God’s majesty.

As I prayed, Glenn began to repeat the Scripture-based ideas I said as a song: “Perfect One, Matchless King . . . Who is like You, God?” He spontaneously had a melody for those words. We sang the first verse and the chorus for an hour; kids were weeping. It was powerful. Then afterward, Glenn went straight to Starbucks and wrote out the phrases.

How is the music a reflection of the movement?
David: You can hear the heart of a generation in the music they listen to. These CDs work as a mouthpiece for what the Desperation movement is about, without it being sermons. All 7,000-plus youth who attended the July 2006 Desperation event remember the songs. Music is one of the most effective tools to get young people to make declarations about what God has placed in them.

A lot of people recognize Desperation now from the Newsboys’ recording of “I Am Free.” Your thoughts?
Glenn: We love it. It’s great! It’s an example of the Lord blessing us beyond what our own efforts could have done. Because we’ve been faithful in our calling, God has used the bands that travel to be ambassadors of the Desperation message through the songs.

There’s a need for people who travel—I’m not saying one’s better than the other. For us, we don’t travel like the Newsboys do, and we don’t have the influence they do! Also, Newsong recorded “Rescue.” We’re just plugging away here, and somehow the songs are being blessed in a way we could’ve never achieved.

What’s on the horizon for Desperation?
Glenn: Jon, Jared and I will be staying busy with events and joint worship nights with guys like Paul Baloche and Reuben Morgan. We’re doing a couple of big conferences in the spring, including one in Hawaii, which will be tough, you know. [laughs]

David: Over the next five to 10 years, we want to see radical Christianity injected into the lives of young people within local churches. What if, instead of religious fluff, youth groups were built on a core of strong discipleship, prayer, missions and evangelism? The call is to unquestionably stand for the Scriptures and give the next generation a vision of something bigger than themselves.

That means time and money spent on missions trips, thinking sacrificially—all these things meshed together will create strong disciples within the local church, which creates strong youth ministries all across America. Then America in the next 20 years will be radically changed.

For more information, log on to DesperationBand.com.