Forrest Frank. The Figs. Lemonade.
If none of that rings a bell, enjoy this current day adventure where faith, social media, music, pain and joy collided over the past month.
In a time where resistance to social media is valid (we’ve had good exhortation on this blog in previous posts), these past couple of weeks, it has been a wild and fun ride to see that God is working in every corner of culture – including Instagram.
Don’t worry, if you aren’t on social media, I’ll try to make this make sense.
Forrest Frank has become one of the most well-known pop Christian music artists over the past few years, having broken into the mainstream Billboard Top 100, a rare feat for a Christian artist. He has 4.5 million Instagram followers and a dance to his song “Your Way’s Better” took over TikTok last year. All that to say – he is making quite a splash and if you ask some of our WDS students and student leaders, they’ll definitely know who he is.
The Figs, by contrast, are a folk music Christian duo who have released one album and had under 50,000 followers as of July 31 on the music streaming service Spotify. In other words, they’re not as well-known as Forrest Frank is…yet.*
On July 21, The Figs posted a video on their Instagram page as part of a fun and lighthearted series where they break down well-known musicians’ musical styles and then attempt to write a song in that style. That day it was one in the style of Forrest Frank. And that’s when we started to see God have some fun. Somehow the algorithm popped their video up in my feed (which means I saw the video even though I wasn’t looking for it) and I couldn’t get the smile off my face every time an update was posted over the next few days.
What started as just a fun musical exercise quickly gained momentum as people started to realize that the song was really good and Forrest Frank himself took notice of it and started adding his own parts to it. You can watch the back and forth as the public online collaboration begins to turn their Instagram video into an incredibly fun full-fledged produced single that was released on August 1, 2025, a mere 11 days after the July 21 video was posted. Oh, and Forrest Frank did all this while being bedridden with a broken back.
The result, “Lemonade”, is undoubtedly the song of the summer, at least in American Christian youth culture. Ok maybe just for this 42-year-old. You may have seen me driving around Unionville recently, windows rolled down, singing along. But in the first few days since it was released, it shot to number one on Apple’s iTunes, so I’d say we’ve still got enough summertime left to show that it is indeed the song of the summer.
But, so what? Fun story and? Here’s the “and” for me. Whether or not this style of music or even being on social media is your cup of – dare I say lemonade? -- let’s celebrate what God is doing to bring joy and light but also pause and pray for these Christian musicians.
Forrest’s broken back hasn’t limited his kingdom impact; it has, arguably, increased it. 14 days after breaking his L3 and L4 vertebrae, he posted a video reporting he woke up with no pain and x-rays that day showed zero fractures in his back. And this after thousands around the world were praying for his healing. God doesn’t always heal in this way, but as Forrest says, God did it. Interestingly, the same day Forrest posted that his back is healed, Beth Moore, well-known Christian teacher and author, posted the one-year mark of her own burden of back pain and how she is feeling better today than she has in a while, though it has been a slow and difficult journey. God chooses how to use us – whether in pain or in healing.
But we know the enemy’s playbook. He will attempt to deceive and ensnare however he can, and we should want to join in the fight for spiritual protection for those doing kingdom work, both in our spheres of influence and those doing it in very public ways. As John Piper says, “You will not know what prayer is for until you know that life is war.”
As we’ve been learning during our summer sermon series, different occasions in our daily lives move us toward prayer. This past Sunday we were encouraged to pray for power. So, here’s my suggestion of one more occasion worth praying for: Christians in the public eye. Start by praying for our own pastors and staff, but I’d say, every time you hear Lemonade or whatever Christian song is on your radio or streaming service or you learn on a Sunday morning, pray for those current Christian musicians, artists, speakers and authors who are on your radar as public figures.
Our pastor, Greg Lafferty, taught us this Sunday to pray Ephesians 3:14-21 and challenged us to pray it every day for a week or a month. What if some of those days we pray it for folks like Forrest Frank and The Figs who, though we don’t know them, we know they face trials and temptations like we do. Don’t we want them to walk in the power of the Spirit?
Here’s the prayer for us, for them, for all who believe:
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.”
*That number of Spotify followers as of Sunday, August 3 is now over 400,000.
ABOUT THE BLOGGER:
Originally from Georgia, Mary Beth Gombita is a lover of sweet tea, a proud Georgia Bulldog and an avid music fan. She works in public relations, running her own communications consulting business from home. Mary Beth and her husband, Stephen, have two young sons. She is currently the editor of our Willowdale Women blog.