If a celebrity makes an appearance in, say, New York City, it’s no big deal. If a celebrity makes an appearance in Washington, D.C., it’s special. If a celebrity makes an appearance in Damascus, Maryland, it’s a wonderful treat.

Steve Camp, a nationally recognized contemporary Christian musician, was on hand last Saturday at the Glad Tidings Christian Supply to sign autographs and chat with those people from all different age groups who find his brand of music to be the bridge between their lives as Christians and their lives in the “real world.” Why Damascus? As one bookstore employee put it, “I guess God wanted him here.”

Camp is not a traditional singer. He’s not even a young version of Pat Boone. If one didn’t pay attention to the words of songs that he writes and takes from Scripture, they might be positive they were hearing the likes of Lionel Richie or, during his more “break out” moments, maybe Bruce Springsteen.

But it’s the words that are the meat of his music. A sampling from his album, “After God’s Own Heart”: “I’m not good enough, I’m just not strong enough, I can’t live long enough to please everybody // But now here on my knees, I find that I can please, the only One who sees, everything in me … I’ve got nothing to prove, to you.”

He did prove, however, that he’s getting to the heart of the changing Christian marketplace. His autograph party was a precursor to his scheduled concert at Seneca Valley High School and before, during and after his appearance, concert tickets were sold faster than they could be pulled from under the counter.

Also on hand, in addition to AM radio’s Christian station WCT, were winners and runners-up of the 1988 Glad Tidings Talent Search. Dean Knight of Mt. Airy and Becky Meade of Wheaton, out of 64 competitors, were the number-one soloists, winning them the golden opportunity to be featured as the opening acts for the evening’s show.

After introductions, Camp spoke to the winners, saying to Knight, “If you’re really good, I’ll bring you up for a second set.” He made a point of speaking to as many people as possible, shaking hands, asking names, commenting on a pretty girl or an adorable baby. He thanked them for coming out, for waiting for him—he arrived an hour late due to traffic, and questioned some on what they had left to come to see him.

Camp sees “a Christian subculture in America” that needs addressing. Those in Damascus are the same people that are, as he says, “supporting Springsteen, Mellencamp, Billy Joel,” yet consider themselves, in the words of Jesus, “in the world, not of the world,” and they need a Christian counterpart to identify with while not leaving the world at large.

He, like other similar performers—Sandy Patti, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith—says he is trying to meet these needs. His music is contemporary, upbeat, often danceable, and at the same time sends a message that says the Lord of Christianity is the only reason to continue to plod on through the stressful highs and lows of daily life.

And he’s upbeat, a pleasant non-threatening man who loves his work and enjoys the contact it gives him with people he’d otherwise not get a chance to meet. Negativism is kept at a minimal, almost non-existent level, as he refuses to condemn his secular counterparts for what they believe to be right for them.

He talks spirituality, his conversation is liberally spiced with the name of Jesus, and he carries his own monogrammed Bible with him. Yet, at the same time, he applauds Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” an overtly physical song, and says how much he enjoys listening to it with his wife. He dresses as updated as any contemporary artist “in the know,” and works a crowd with all the charisma of a man wooing a woman.

Camp is “in the world, not of the world,” confident in his walk with his Lord. He’s identified his market and liberally caters to it, believing this is his calling, his ticket to paradise eternal.