{"id":2561,"date":"2011-12-03T15:22:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T15:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspireafire.com\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2011-12-05T15:16:21","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T15:16:21","slug":"artist-of-the-month-chris-tomlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspireafire.com\/artist-of-the-month-chris-tomlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist of the Month– Chris Tomlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

With ten No. 1 radio singles, three GRAMMY \u00ae nominations, 18 Dove Awards, one platinum and three gold albums to his credit, it might be easy for some to look at Chris Tomlin\u2019s music in the context of earthly ac- complishments. However, when Tomlin himself reflects on such acclaimed worship anthems as \u201cForever,\u201d \u201cInde- scribable\u201d and \u201cHow Great is Our God,\u201d it\u2019s not in terms of music industry statistics, but lives impacted.
\nEach song on How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection serves as a reminder of how powerfully mu- sic can connect us with our heavenly Father. \u201cAs you look over the past 10 years and think about the journey of these songs, it\u2019s just incredible to see how God has used them in the church,\u201d muses Tomlin. \u201cTo get to be a part of a couple of them would be enough, but to sing all of them year after year is pretty special.\u201d
\nCreating a project like How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection would, in typical music industry parlance, be considered a greatest hits package, but for Tomlin it was a labor of love that represents something much more important. \u201cIt goes beyond just a radio hit. We\u2019re looking at the impact of these songs around the world,\u201d he says. \u201cYou are looking at songs that for the most part aren\u2019t really attached to me as a person. They\u2019ve just become songs people have sung in their church in whatever country or language and that\u2019s so powerful. It\u2019s been awesome to be able to have success at radio as well, but it goes way deeper than that. There\u2019s another level of measuring when you are thinking of the kind of impact these songs have had in the church. I really just stand in awe of it and I know that it\u2019s just God\u2019s favor, blessing and His hand upon these songs. It\u2019s His touch. I always say that He is the greatest publisher, the greatest agent, the greatest manager of the Holy Spirit because He puts the songs in the church. He is the wind in the sails. It\u2019s really, really humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For Tomlin, it\u2019s an unexpected gift he never dreamed of as a child in Grand Saline, Texas. \u201cI was nine- years-old when I started playing,\u201d Tomlin says of his early love affair with the guitar. \u201cMy dad taught me to play when I got sick over the summer. I got mono and had to stay in, which isn\u2019t good for a nine-year-old kid. My dad said, \u2018You\u2019re going to tear the house down unless you learn how to do something to take up your time,\u2019 so I picked up the guitar. I started playing little country songs by Willie Nelson, Alabama or Merle Haggard. Along the way, my dad would teach me and it just grew and grew and grew.\u201d
\nCombining his faith and his budding appreciation for playing music, Tomlin began writing songs. \u201cI started to write my own little songs for church and they were just awful,\u201d Tomlin recalls with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019d get to play them at my church and people were so great, so gracious because they let me play all the time in the service for the youth group. I knew I wasn\u2019t any good, but people were very patient along the way.\u201d
\nFueled by the encouragement of his church family, Tomlin\u2019s skills improved. By the time he was attend- ing college at Texas A&M University and planning to become a physical therapist, it soon became apparent God has something else in mind. \u201cI started leading worship at a thing called Breakaway. It\u2019s just massive, probably the largest Bible study in America,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been so cool to look back at that and see how God was preparing me, taking me step by step by step and placing me the right places at the right times.\u201d
\nDuring his senior year, Tomlin began leading worship at Dawson McAllister youth conferences that were drawing 10,000 students or more. \u201cIt was a whole new world and I was trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing,\u201d he smiles. \u201cI just had a real heart to continue to lead worship and lead people to worship God. I\u2019ve never felt it was about people coming to see me perform or anything like that, it\u2019s always been about helping\u00a0people connect with God.\u201d The next step in Tomlin\u2019s journey was meeting Louie Giglio at Waco\u2019s Baylor University where he and hiswife Shelley launched a Bible study called Choice. \u201cI would just drive from college over to hear Louie speak,\u201d he recalls. \u201cKids were coming from everywhere to be a part of this thing that was happening. It was really an out- pouring of God\u2019s spirit and I just wanted to be a part of it. I would go and just soak it in and then drive back to school. Little did I know that a few years later we\u2019d be connected and we\u2019d start doing ministry together, doing a lot of traveling and I\u2019d basically spend the rest of my life doing ministry with Louie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since connecting with Giglio, Tomlin has become one of the key leaders in the Passion movement and the flagship artist on sixstepsrecords. He leads worship at Atlanta\u2019s Passion City Church as well as touring and leading worship all over the world.
\nAccording to TIME magazine, over 40 million people sing the songs of Chris Tomlin each week. It\u2019s a statistic that baffles the humble artist. \u201cI definitely don\u2019t have the greatest talent in any part of the music world,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I somehow really sense this special anointing on these songs and the giftings I get for this moment for the church. I\u2019m taking great responsibility. I\u2019m not just writing these songs to write a hit song. I really want to write a song to help people worship God and to give people a voice to express their hearts to God. That\u2019s what these songs are about and at the very core of where I am in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at a young age, Chris Tomlin felt a stirring as God called him to serve through music. \u201cI just kept sensing that God had given me a gift for this,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember I got on my knees under a tree at a summer camp as an 8th grader and I said \u2018God whatever you want for the rest of my life, I want to serve you and follow you and I want to live for you.\u2019 I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d be a songwriter. I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d be a musician, but when I started playing the music and seeing people respond the way they did I just really felt that this was really what God wanted me to do. It was just so encouraging to see people respond to the music. It was as if they forgot that there was even someone on stage. People were really connecting. That was my heart. I kept seeing that over and over and that continues even to this day. This is really happening. We\u2019re really connecting people to God with music and that\u2019s what is so exciting to me. That\u2019s so beautiful to me. It\u2019s so encouraging every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The winners of last month’s Artist of the Month giveaway for Sara Groves’ latest CD are:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruce Brady<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nora St. Laurent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rachel A.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please use our contact form to send your mailing address by December 15th to receive your copy. Congratulations!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To enter to win a copy of Chris Tomlin’s How Great Is Our God, enter a comment below. Winners to be announced in January. Good luck!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With ten No. 1 radio singles, three GRAMMY \u00ae nominations, 18 Dove Awards, one platinum and three gold albums to his credit, it might be easy for some to look at Chris Tomlin\u2019s music in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1551],"tags":[207,70,208,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nArtist of the Month- Chris Tomlin - Inspire A Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/inspireafire.com\/artist-of-the-month-chris-tomlin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Artist of the Month- Chris Tomlin - 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