After the Abundant Life School Shooting, a Madison Dad Turns Grief into Song

Travis Agnew was doing what he always does on the day that would forever shatter any sense of normalcy. He was working with his hands while thinking about his family.

And then the phone rang.

His wife’s voice was shaking. There was an active shooter at Abundant Life Christian School. Their children were there.

Agnew dropped his tools, called his boss, and drove – his heart racing, prayers tumbling out. He ended up in front of a police barricade and shouted through his car window that his kids were inside. Officers waved him through. Agnew eventually found them safe, sheltered in a nearby building.

They were safe. But they were changed. Just like the rest of the community.

Agnew is a Madison native and lifelong storyteller. But he didn’t want to rush his writing about what happened. In fact, he resisted it. The pain felt too raw. Too close. Too sacred to even claim as his own.

Yet music has a way of insisting.

A year ago, around the holidays and surrounded by friends and family, Agnew began riffing on his guitar. Out of that space came a chorus inspired by words the school community had been clinging to since the tragedy. 

Still, he set it aside, unsure if it should exist at all.

It wouldn’t let him go.

Many weeks later, he finished the song and played it for his wife. She cried. There was his answer. This wasn’t meant to be his song. It was meant to belong to everyone.

What happened next turned into something far bigger than a recording. Students, teachers, and parents gathered – not just to sing, but to heal. And while the song “Light Shines in the Darkness” was being recorded, art students painted a memorial mural. A camera captured the process as grief was shared, pain transformed, and creativity became a bridge. 

“It felt like more than music,” Agnew explains. “It felt like we were truly leaning on each other.”

The resulting short film and song don’t rush past the sorrow or even try to tidy it up. Instead, the fear, loss, and unanswered questions were being acknowledged, along with the feeling that darkness wouldn’t get the final word.

A belief in the power of music has guided Agnew his entire life. He first learned from his father, playing bass alongside him and soaking in the storytelling of Dylan, Petty, and later, his own influences. Over the years, his travels reinforced what he already suspected. Music breaks barriers where words fail.

It can also bind generations. During the pandemic, Agnew’s basement became a family rehearsal space with kids on drums and piano, his wife on vocals.

“Somebody always ended up mad,” he says. “Like a real rock band.”

But when tragedy struck his community, that same instinct – to gather, to create, to refuse isolation – became essential.

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Listen to an interview and performance by Travis Agnew on Max Ink Radio here:

[podcast src="https://civicmedia.us/shows/max-ink-radio/2025/06/21/a-light-from-the-darkness-of-abundant-life-school-travis-agnew-is-live-from-the-madcity-on-max-ink-radio"]

Now, “Light Shines in the Darkness” is reaching beyond the walls of the school. The song continues to travel, carrying with it the voices of students and teachers who helped shape it.

Agnew doesn’t claim to have answers. What he offers instead is presence—an invitation to sit together in the hard moments and wait, patiently, for the light.

“Music reminds us we’re connected,” he says. “And sometimes, that’s enough to help us take the next step.”

In a world that can often feel overwhelmed by grief, Agnew’s response is simple, brave, and human. 

“Don’t turn away,” he shares. “Create. And let the light find you—together.