When Matt Morginsky became a Christian in 1991, he immediately wanted to start a band. The Gulf War had begun and a wave of music reflecting Gen X’s angst and uncertainty began to crest. The grunge rock era was in full swing: two of the best-selling albums that year were from Metallica and Nirvana. Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins released their debut albums as well.
Christian rock was also exploding onto the scene. Between 1991 and 1996, dcTalk, Audio Adrenaline, Third Day, and Jars of Clay released their debut albums. Morginsky’s hope of a band wasn’t just a teenage dream. As soon as he lined up a bassist and a drummer, the group began playing the Southern California music scene, performing with other Christian rock bands like Plankeye and MXPX. Tooth & Nail Records was founded two years later, and all three bands soon signed with the legendary label.
“Everything we did was always earnest,” Morginsky told byFaith, “and some time around 1994 people started liking our music, and then we signed.”
The O.C. Supertones released their first record in 1996, and the band had a phenomenal run until they concluded regular recording and touring in 2005. Led by Matt “Mojo” Morginsky, the Christian ska band unleashed high-octane performances that blended punk, reggae, and ska’s signature brass ensemble.
Morginsky now pastors a PCA church in an ethnically diverse Denver community. While ska music might have had a moment, planting PCA churches in communities that reflect America’s changing demographics is essential to the church’s future.
“God undeniably used the music.”
“The highlight was always the writing and recording for me. We got to play lots of shows and travel all over the world, but we also made a lot of great friends. We were very intentional about the message,” says Morginsky.
Over the years, Morginsky has received thousands of letters and emails from grateful Supertones fans. Listeners tell him how his music helped them through the death of a family member, addiction, suicidal thoughts, and other struggles.
“We were a bunch of teenagers pouring our hearts and souls into those microphones, and we felt that what we were doing was vital and important. God undeniably used the music,” he said.
We want this whole band to be a big love letter
So we play the ska and it makes you feel better
God’s got love for us, so we got love for you
It’s your life, so what you wanna do?
Carson, Jason; Morginsky, Matt; Terusa, Tony. “Supertones Strike Back.” The Supertones Strike Back, 1997
Ska began as a uniquely Jamaica style of music in the 1950s, blending traditional mento and calypso music with American jazz and R&B. Early ska is known for its danceable rhythms, walking bass lines, and short, syncopated chords. Ska was the precursor to rocksteady and eventually reggae. It had a revival in the 1970s as British bands began blending it with punk rock and new wave.
In the 1990s ska evolved again into what historians call “third wave.” As the first Christian ska band to break onto the national scene, the Supertones were significant for bringing ska to Christian audiences. By the time the Supertones stopped touring in 2005, the band had released seven albums, with three breaking into the Billboard 200 and hitting the top 10 on the Top Contemporary Christian charts. The band toured over 20 times and sold more than a million records.
It may seem an unnatural transition from fronting a band to pastoring a relatively small, urban church. But a careful reading of the band’s lyrics reveals a hunger for truth and humility that makes the pastorate a logical second career. Ultimately, four band members entered vocational ministry.
Mammon is an unforgiving God, I cast him away
I live my life to God, not to get paid
Money can’t save my soul, don’t think I can
I look to God and I feel like a little man
Oh, let my pride fall down, I’m a little man
Morginsky, Matt; Terusa, Tony; Carson, Jason. “Little Man.” The Supertones Strike Back, 1997
Life after the Supertones
Spend a few minutes on the Grace and Peace Church website and you can’t help but notice the church’s deep commitment to serving its neighborhood. Two of its three core values are “welcoming the community” and “serving the community.” It’s a place where the first choose to be last and the strong choose to serve the weak. The “Who We Are” page features volunteers before church officers and community group leaders before staff. You must scroll all the way to the bottom of that page to find Morginsky’s bio as the church’s lead pastor.
Morginsky did not grow up in a Christian home, but became a believer at age 15 through the ministry of a non-denominational church in Southern California. As his faith grew, so did his questions. Friends directed him to thinkers like C.S. Lewis and Michael Horton. While on the road, he got to know his road manager’s father, an Orthodox Presbyterian Church pastor.
“He was very smart, very kind, and a godly man,” says Morginsky. “When I told him I was going to move to Nashville, he recommended Christ Community Church where Scotty Smith and Scott Roley were serving.”
After seven studio albums and extensive touring, the members of the Supertones began getting married, and the band played a “final show” in 2005. As band life slowed down, Morginsky settled in East Nashville with his wife Sharon. He had no fallback plan, so he began painting houses for $10 an hour. Later, he graduated to landscaping for $12 per hour and then moved up to driving a truck for a thrift store. During this period Morginsky attended City Church of East Nashville and served this community wherever he could.
“This was the first time I really knew my pastor and my elders,” he said. He played music for the church, helped with set up and tear down, taught children’s classes, led a small group, and was even asked to preach once. Whatever needed doing at the church, Morginsky was willing to serve.
Craig Brown, a pastor at City Church of East Nashville during this era, watched Morginsky develop a sense of identity and purpose in this new chapter of life.
“Part of the beauty of Matt‘s story was a guy who’s coming off the road from doing the only thing he’s really ever known and doing it really well, and he’s beginning to wrestle through, ‘What is my life really going to look like?’ Even though he experienced adulation for his work in music, he had also suffered enough to know that there is a lot more to life than just doing what you want,” Brown said. “As he served behind the scenes and connected with others in the community, he seemed to have a growing sense that his calling might be a life shaped around ministry, which is service.”
Well the Supertones are up,
We gonna kick it to the burbs
And our purpose is to serve,
In case you hadn’t heard
Carson, Jason; Morginsky, Matt; Terusa, Tony. “O.C. Supertones.” Adventures of the O.C. Supertones, 1995
After years of volunteering, church leadership began to take notice and told Morginsky that he might have the giftings to be a pastor. But having spent his twenties touring the world in a ska band, Morginsky wasn’t academically qualified for seminary. “Now remember, I didn’t have a college degree at this point, and I had no idea how to type on a computer,” he said. “The elders had to write some deep recommendations for me to be accepted to Covenant Seminary.”
In 2008, Covenant Theological Seminary accepted the 32-year-old Morginsky’s application, but he was placed on academic probation. If he failed a class, his seminary days were over. Morginsky threw himself into his studies and considered international church planting.
Upon graduation Morginsky was indeed called to church planting in an international community, but he didn’t have to leave the United States. He served as a church planting resident at Denver Presbyterian Church before planting Grace and Peace just north of downtown Denver in 2016.
“Denver is sort of its own thing,” Morginsky said of his new hometown, which has experienced tremendous growth in the years since the Morginskys first arrived. Churches in the Denver suburbs have grown significantly, but the city’s urban core is deeply secular, drawing comparisons to Pacific Northwest cities like Seattle and Portland.
“Our particular church is fairly diverse ethnically, politically, and economically, but the gospel is stronger than the culture wars that seek to tear us apart,” he said.
As U.S. demographics shift and white Americans make up a decreasing portion of the population, churches like Grace and Peace are an essential part of ensuring the PCA continues to grow and spread the gospel. Speaking of the wider denomination, Morginsky says, “The demographics of our country are changing, and if we are not able to fit people that don’t fit the traditional PCA profile, then the denomination will eventually cease to exist. One of the most strategic needs right now is in Latino communities. For the PCA to experience vitality and to be on mission in the future, we have to focus outside of our traditional areas of strength.”
Pay no mind to the generation line
Forsake your sect and be color blind
The problem’s not Hollywood, the problem’s not Washington
The problem’s a weak divided church of schizmed Christians
Carson, Jason; Morginsky, Matt; Terusa, Tony. “Unite.” Adventures of the O.C. Supertones, 1995
The Pastorate and ‘The Lives of Others’
The Supertones played their “final show” in 2005, but had a reunion in 2010, and for a number of years they played several shows a year and even released a new record in 2012. These days, Morginsky’s songwriting is more personal. “I’ve been working for years on a weird arty side project called The Lives of Others, and it’s a project that will never come out but I enjoy the writing,” he says.
The project was inspired by a class taught by Jerram Barrs at Covenant Seminary. “The point of the class was to get inspired by Shakespeare and do something,” he said, “so I started writing from the point of view of various Shakespeare characters. I still sit down now and then with Shakespeare and get ideas for new songs. The fun part is that my son and daughter join me on the demos now. It’s really fun to play music with my kids.”
Morginsky recently reflected on what he loves about being a pastor, “I love being surrounded by great books and getting deeply into the message of a Scripture text. I love sitting down to begin sermon prep and opening my Greek New Testament. I also love that being a pastor means that people trust you with the most fragile parts of themselves. It doesn’t get much better than being invited into that.”
The wise man or the fool, which one will you choose?
As for me, I will hear
As for my house, we draw near
Lift your ears, turn and hear, who and what your life is for
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
Carson, Jason; Morginsky, Matt; Terusa, Tony. “The Wise and the Fool.” For the Glory, 2012
Tim Nicholson is a musician and writer based in Nashville, Tennessee.