Episode 395 - Solving America's Foster Care Crisis | Chris Tomlin

Chris Tomlin (0:00)

I hear that you're doing the music, and the reason I'm calling you is because I've never heard of you.

Wondering who you are, and you had this great speaking voice, right? Well, James, the reason you never heard of me is, I've never done this before. I know three songs. So he sends me these tapes and CDs in the mail. I learn these songs, come to this week. Every night, I had no idea what I was doing. I would just put the note cards on the stage, play the songs, never look at anybody, never say hello to the audience. They're all my age. I'm a high schooler, they're high schoolers. I was scared to death. I just had my guitar, and I would just sit there and play the songs. At the end of the week, James comes to me, I want you to know two things. Okay, what is that? He goes, one is, you have no idea what you're doing. I was like, thank you, James. He said, number two, you have no idea how God is going to use your songs all over the world. It stopped me in my tracks because I didn't have any songs.

There's note cards, I'm playing these little songs I just learned. And I'll never forget, man, he puts his hand on my head and said, God, would you make Chris a psalm writer for his generation?

I was 18 years old. It was like lightning went through me, man.

SPEAKER_2 (1:15)

Bold visionaries, faithful disruptors, some call them crazy, but they are called to create. Under his power, for his glory, the Faith Driven Entrepreneur will be part of the podcast.

Justin Forman (1:27)

Chris Tomlin, the Faith Driven Entrepreneur. That's probably not a phrase that you would expect to hear when you think about all the incredible ways that Chris has been a part of, partnering with, serving, coming alongside the church and finding ways that we might express worship to the God who created us. And yet Chris's journey has some very much similar moments to us as Faith Driven Entrepreneurs. See, worship songs, typically in the years in the past, were relegated to more Sunday mornings, not Monday mornings. And Chris and so many others were part of a generation of worship leaders that said, hey, actually that needs to change and people are wanting that to change. And it stepped in to define music of maybe how we see it today. So today we get to hear the journey of what Chris has been through both as worship leader, songwriter and entrepreneur. And we also get to connect ways that God has called him as an entrepreneur, a worship leader to say, what might I be called to store this platform for? How do I not only lead people in to worship, but lead people in to action and solving some of the great problems that we find all around us. So we're thrilled to be here in Nashville with Chris to hear his story. Let's get started with today's episode.

So when we talk about, we have this phrase that we talk about a lot with our team. Talk about this idea that God really is the one that makes the waves. But man, he just gives us, sometimes it's this unique opportunity to be a part of riding them with him.

When I think about what you've been able to be a part of, Chris, just over the years, from Passion and One Day and so many different events, what has that been like to just be on, just kind of in the room and where God is just at work?

Chris Tomlin (3:13)

Yeah, I mean, definitely. What a privilege, you know? Of all the things, when I look back at my life, my music and all the things that God's let me do, it's quite a privilege. It's definitely nothing that I would have ever orchestrated or I could have ever thought of.

I like the way you say that. It's definitely riding that wave. When I think of worship, especially the worship music, and being at a moment in time when that wave started to rise, of this new music that was kind of hitting the church around the world, and getting to be one of the people in that world that got to help shape a lot of that, of what was happening through the songs, and would have never dreamed it. In the early days, I was just writing songs for my Bible study and for...

I loved people singing. I loved people singing to God. That's what I... I didn't really love performing, but I loved to get up there and hopefully lead people to sing to God. That was just always a passion that got put in my heart from an early age, from a young kid, and to think that that would have grown and exploded into what it exploded into over those years. I would have never dreamed it. It was just always these early songs that we're trying to write to help people sing, to help people worship God. And then it was just in a moment where this wave was just growing around the world of this music. And so what a privilege, you know? And here we are all these years later, and continuing to do that, and trying to do that the very best I can, trying to say that same simple thing of helping people, give people a voice to worship God, that's kind of been my mission. And trying to stay on that same priority, same heart after all these years, and it's taking lots of lefts and right turns, but it's been incredible.