Made to Make Worship
by Andree Farias
posted 09/22/08

Unless you've been living under a rock, Chris Tomlin needs no introduction. In the past five years, the popular worship leader with the Passion conferences has leapfrogged the likes of Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman to become Christian music's most prominent male artist. In terms of sales, airplay, awards, and impact on churches around the world, few can compete with him—Time magazine infamously referred to him as "the most often sung artist anywhere." But Tomlin does his best to keep the praise from getting to his head by doing what he does best: deferring it right back to the same God he has worshipped since he was just a small-time student leader at Texas A&M University. In this conversation with Christian Music Today, Tomlin talks about his new album Hello Love (sixsteps/Sparrow), leading worship overseas, church-planting, and offering a hand to those in need.

You're coming off the second leg of the first-ever Passion World Tour. How would you compare international worshippers to those here in America?

Chris Tomlin: Man, that's a loaded question. There's nothing like being around the world and seeing new students—new university students around the world. It just seems that there's a bit more passion in those sections of the world than what you see in the U.S., because in the U.S. we have so much. We've been given so much and there are events all the time that you can go to and you can meet together. [We take it a little bit for granted] whereas it's a lot more uncommon in these other places. Their people just have less in general—less wealth, less things than we have that distract us. The Bible teaches that those who are poor are rich in faith. When we go to the poorer nations, it's always incredible.

A recent press release announcing your new album had countless adjectives and accolades preceding your name. Have you found that the extra attention makes it difficult to focus on what matters most?

Tomlin: You know, I don't let that affect me much. I keep trying to do what I do and don't think about it. I don't read a lot of my own press or anything like that. I just try to be myself and remain focused on what I'm doing. That's not an easy thing because there are so many distractions. I don't really let any of that kind of stuff go to my head.

That said, Christian Music Today recently named Arriving one of the 10 most influential modern worship albums in the last decade. How does it feel to be a history maker?

Tomlin: You know, I got forwarded that article and it just blows my mind. I'm humbled and honored by that. It's just amazing, when you're making a CD you don't know, you have no idea that it's going to do something like that. [Arriving] is just a collection of songs. "How Great Is Our God," "Holy Is the Lord," "Indescribable," "Your Grace Is Enough"—those first four tracks have just remained and become so strong in the church, and that's amazing to be. You hope you get just one song that'll do that. So I'm real thankful for that, and it's an honor to be included.

Personally, what worship albums have inspired you most over the years?

Tomlin: Different records have. Delirious' Cutting Edge was the first one that really, really inspired me. It's got 25 songs or something on it, and most all of them are excellent—amazing. Then Matt Redman's stuff has inspired me as well, particularly The Heart of Worship, both the record and the song. In recent years, I've been inspired by some of Hillsong's stuff—I really like those guys. And these people are all my friends, too. I'm really inspired by them and really appreciate what they've done. There are so many records that I love, but those are the ones that readily come to mind.

Other worship leaders like Paul Baloche and Tim Hughes have used their success to spearhead worship ministries of their own: Baloche's Lead Worship and Hughes' Worship Central. How have your used your platform to be a blessing to others?

Tomlin: One of the things we're doing right now is OneMillionCan.com. The site asks what $1 million can do and how it can help support the poor. You'll see eight different causes on there that I'm part of—different places in the world where I've seen a need. It's a challenge for students and for people at our concerts to get involved. Everybody doing a little can change a lot—that's kind of the general idea. It's not asking a few people to give $1 million, but more looking at what [many people] can do to change a people's whole world. We already passed the $1 million mark and we're well on the way to the $2 million mark.

Four years on, congregations are still singing songs like "How Great Is Our God" and "Holy Is the Lord." While your newer songs are certainly still popular on radio, why do you think they haven't had the same impact on a congregational level?

Tomlin: I think because there are so many songs coming out. From See the Morning, I think the song "Uncreated One" is one of the best songs I've ever written for the church. But because there's so much infiltrated into the church, it's difficult for a new song to stand out these days.

Do you feel the competition to score "the next worship hit" has stifled creativity a bit in modern worship?

Tomlin: I don't know. I can't judge what other people are doing. For me, this is what we've done since I was 18 years old; I've never done anything else. With people coming along and mimicking our style, that's actually quite flattering to me, but I just want to continue to write songs the way God has gifted me to write them. I definitely see a lot of the critiques, the likes, the dislikes�?This is the same type of stuff." That's fine. If you want to hear something different, maybe somebody else should [try something different]. This is me. This is the way I write songs. U2 sounds like U2 when they make a record.

It's kind of funny to me that some people would expect my music to be completely different every time I make a record—that's impossible when you're just one person. So I don't spend a lot of time thinking about that. Worship is not a business—writing a worship song is not a business. The songs that come out of your heart as a response to God as you're singing at the piano or reading Scripture—those are the songs [that have the most impact]. That's why I'm most proud of a song on the new record like "Praise the Father, Praise the Son." It came about naturally. When you're just singing out to God and worshipping him, those are the songs that last.

You're saying that good worship songs occur naturally.

Tomlin: Sure. I'd love to say it's just a matter of sitting down and saying, "You know, I think I'm going to write a song today that the whole world will sing." Those are the songs you've never heard because they're not any good. It doesn't work like that. It's the times of just really sitting with God and singing to him and worshipping him and trying to craft it in a way that you're not thinking about yourself—you're thinking about people singing to God. That's where the good songs come from.

Hello Love is a rather unusual title for a worship recording. Why did you choose it?

Tomlin: There are so many things in those two words. First, I just love the way those two words sound together. It's a beautiful thing. But it's way more than that—it also causes people to think. The "love" idea to me is, when you break everything down in life, it all comes down to 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.

So you're trying to explain what the essence of love is.

Tomlin: Hello Love [means] we want to reintroduce ourselves to love again. That's the idea: if we've forgotten what it's about, then let's reintroduce ourselves. It all comes down to love. It's what love to God and for God is all about. Hopefully these songs inspire that. Hopefully these songs cause people to love God even more, to get closer to God, and that it inspires people to love each other and make a difference in the world.

What songs from your new album are you most hopeful to connect with the Body of Christ at large?

Tomlin: We've already seen the song "Sing, Sing, Sing" get a crazy response whenever we play it; people have really grabbed onto that one. "God of This City" has been a theme song for the [world] tour, and I really feel churches will grab onto it as an anthem for their cities. I mentioned that "Praise the Father, Praise the Son" is a song that I feel strongly about. "Jesus Messiah," I'm already getting emails about how people are singing it in their churches. "I Will Rise" is an interesting song too, because I was trying to write a song to help meet the needs of people in hard times, like when they've lost someone close to them. I wanted to write something for them to sing if one of their loved ones passed away; I think that's a song that'll find its way to people.

You recently moved from Austin to Atlanta. Was that a big leap of faith for you?

Tomlin: It was. Leaving Austin and leaving Texas was not easy. I've lived there my whole life, so I had to leave my family and all that. But I'm trying to get situated and I'm looking forward to this new season in my life. Somewhere down the road, [we will be] planting a church in Atlanta with Louie [Giglio]. We don't have a specific date or place yet, but we know it's going to be in Atlanta. Our main objective now is to finish up the world tour—we have to remain focused on that. But somewhere down the road, in the next couple of months, we're going to be [putting together] ideas for our vision, and we're really looking forward to it.

For more about Chris Tomlin, visit our site's artist page, and click here to read our review of Hello Love. To listen to song clips and purchase Tomlin's music, check out Christianbook.com.

© Andree Farias, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved.