Through his latest project, “Make It Out Alive,” worship leader, singer and songwriter Kristian Stanfill seeks to help audiences grow in their faith while connecting worshippers to unshakeable truths.
The album, which was released last year, is his first solo project since 2011 and represents the hope and healing that have taken place in his own walk with the Lord over the past decade. Stanfill hopes the project encourages listeners to worship God in the midst of the storms in their lives.
“God’s promises are real and unshakable,” Stanfill told TAB Media. “I want to give people a voice to express their hearts and places where they have been. It’s an amazing moment of worship with a room full of people praising our Savior who set us free. My prayer is that these songs will lead people closer to God and help them experience Him in a powerful way.
“God is so faithful and a perfect Father. No matter what our situation is on earth, we know that our situation for eternity has been spoken for and we can rest in His love.”
Process
As he writes worship songs that are being sung in churches around the world such as “God, You’re So Good” and “One Thing Remains,” Stanfill says he realizes the huge responsibility of crafting theologically sound worship songs and spends a great deal of time reading the Bible and consulting with ministry leaders about songwriting material.
“For me, the songwriting process always starts with a specific inspiration or a phrase,” Stanfill noted. “After thinking about the message I want to convey, then I come around that theme with lyrics and music. It’s so important to have other people involved in the songwriting process to offer suggestions. These songs are a collaboration of people and ideas coming together and discussing how God is moving in our lives.”
As a teenager, Stanfill developed an interest in music and taught himself to play the guitar. Not long after, he began leading worship for his church youth group.
From there, Stanfill began receiving invitations to lead in musical worship for youth and college ministries.
“In 2004, I was leading worship at a summer camp where Louie Giglio (founder and director of the Passion Movement) was speaking, and he invited me to be a part of Passion ’05,” Stanfill recalls. “They were planning to break up into small community groups at night and needed worship leaders to assist with those groups. That was a huge honor because when I started leading worship during high school, I collected all the Passion albums that I could get my hands on and listened to them all the time.”
‘Hearts of people’
Today, Stanfill maintains a busy schedule leading worship for events, leading on stage at Passion Conferences and serving as the worship pastor at Passion City Church in Atlanta.
“For songwriters and worship leaders, the goal of what we do is to get songs into the Church and into the hearts of people,” Stanfill said. “One of the coolest things is hearing stories from people about the songs speaking to them and bringing them closer to God.
“I love being able to carry songs to people. I am always encouraged when it doesn’t feel like there is any separation between the stage and the room, when everyone is singing together as one and worshipping God together.
“When everything comes together, it’s a beautiful moment of honest worship to God. I don’t think it gets any better than that. At that point, I could walk off stage and everything would keep going. At that point, no one needs me to keep singing. We are all just focused on God and worshipping Him.”
Share with others: