A “Christian” Artist

The other day someone on Facebook asked why I decided to be a ‘Christian’ artist, rather than going main stream. My answer may not be what you expect. It might sound a little odd coming from a worship artist. However, it’s all I have…



There was a time when I had hopes to be a huge mega rock star, touring big city stadiums, getting tons of press and having my music videos play on MTV. I’m grateful God moved me to turn from that desire.

There was also a time when the entirety of my faith depended solely on a ‘good’ worship experience. That included good music selection (new songs), electric guitars, solid drums fills, stage lighting, high energy singers, PowerPoint’s, and maybe even fog. Thankfully, he moved me from that desire also.

When I stepped down from leading worship for Life Teen at our home church, to be more of a husband and father role for our family, that’s when God started to work inside of me again. It was really hard going from a high energy, full band, ‘musical’ worship experience, to a humble country church, though had good music, still lacked what I considered at the time to be all the necessary ‘requirements’ for a good worship experience.

As the weeks went on, I began to realize the unbalanced dependency (by the grace of God) that I had to a ‘musical’ form of worship. I more fully realized that worship is not about music, a song, or even the lyrics. I started to look at the New Testament to see how the early church expressed their worship. What is interesting is that there are very few recorded instances where the church used music as a sole medium for worship. In fact, in almost every circumstance, music played a secondary or supportive role.

This is the part that might sound strange coming from a worship artist. I believe modern Christianity, though has accomplished many wonderful things, creates an unnecessary dependency on a musical form of worship. People start choosing to attend a specific church not because they teach the fullness of truth, but because they appreciate the Pastor’s preaching style. They attend not because they teach the fullness of truth, but because they have theatre style seating. They attend not because they teach the fullness of truth, but because they have a full rock band with lasers and light shows... Or any other minor detail contained therein.

For me, it’s not about the music, the song or even the lyrics. If I weren’t a ‘Christian’ artist, I probably wouldn’t be an artist at all. For me, it’s about worship and a relationship. The early church didn’t have electric guitars, PowerPoint’s, or lasers. They didn’t have an inappropriate dependency on modern technology. They did, however, practice the ultimate form of worship Jesus instructed: 1 Corinthians 11:26.