With millions of people singing his songs in churches each week, Chris Tomlin’s work has been a staple of contemporary worship since the early 2000’s.
As his songs have garnered numerous awards and popularity around the globe, Tomlin was lauded as “most often sung artist anywhere” by Time magazine in 2006 and “most sung songwriter in the world” in 2013. Instead of taking credit for the influence of these songs, Tomlin recognizes the high calling and great responsibility to honor God.
And in spite of his success, Tomlin remains focused on shining the spotlight on the Lord and remembers voicing a prayer when he was growing up at Main Street Baptist Church Grand Saline, Texas (some 60 miles east of Dallas).
Tomlin told The Alabama Baptist he recalls having a strong desire to be used by God and being willing to be used however He saw fit.
‘Whatever’
“As a young kid I had given my heart and said, ‘God, whatever you want me to do.’ I didn’t pray to be a songwriter or worship leader, anything like that — I just wanted to be God’s man and be available to go wherever God would lead me.”
By the time he was a junior at Texas A&M University, Tomlin felt a call to lead others in worship.
“All through college, God was really starting to open doors for leading worship,” he recalled. “Around my junior year I felt like it was a strong opening of the doors. I was kind of at a crossroads as to whether I was going to pursue a career in business or whatever, or whether I was going to walk by faith and follow these doors that God was opening.”
After graduating from college Tomlin began to pursue full-time ministry writing songs and leading worship at events.
“As God started giving me songs to write, people were starting to sing these songs,” he remembered. “It was a really exciting time. It was also scary because I didn’t know how to do ministry as far as a livelihood, but God was faithful.”
Collaborator
After forming an idea for a song, Tomlin said, the melody and lyrics usually come together about the same time, and he often collaborates with co-writing friends.
“Writing with others is a good process because it gives another perspective, another angle, another idea,” Tomlin noted. “I have ideas all the time, and I try to put those ideas on paper.
“Worship is simply a response to God, and in songwriting, you’re responding to who God is. All of life is worship; it’s responding in that way, and it comes out in songs.
“When I think about songwriting, I think about: ‘What can people sing? And what do they need to sing?’ I’m really keeping that in mind and thinking about how I can craft these songs that can grab hold of people and draw them closer to God.
“I try to open up worship to everything it can be, and not just my personal preference, but what can it be for a person sitting in an office, or a mom driving her kids to school or a teenager in high school? I try to write songs with those people in mind.”
While leading worship at events and performing concerts around the world, Tomlin’s goal remains the same as when he first started — to lead others to Christ. Tomlin’s popularity among churches is largely credited to the humility and passion he displays while leading corporate worship.
“You don’t want people following you,” he asserted. “You want people following God. I think you see that in a great example from King David — he had a very humble heart before God and really sought after God. If He never gave us another stage, I know we would still play music, sing to Him and worship Him.
‘It’s love’
“Worship is a big thing in our lives, but when you break it all down, it’s love: ‘To love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.’
“To me, our greatest need in the world is not another song, but it’s the singers of the songs meeting the needs of the world. Hopefully these songs cause people to love God even more, to get closer to God, and inspires people to love each other and make a difference in the world.”
Tomlin said he feels a great responsibility to bring people closer to God through songs and “to use the talent and gift that God’s given me to connect people with Him and give them a voice to worship Him — to let people know there’s one thing more beautiful, more famous and more amazing than anything else — Jesus Christ.”
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