Location: Coke Stage
Christopher Dwayne Tomlin (born May 4, 1972)
With ten No. 1 radio singles, three GRAMMY ® nominations, 18 Dove Awards, one platinum and three gold albums to his credit, it might be easy for some to look at Chris Tomlin’s music in the context of earthly accomplishments. However, when Tomlin himself reflects on such acclaimed worship anthems as “Forever,” “Indescribable” and “How Great is Our God,” it’s not in terms of music industry statistics, but lives impacted.
Each song on How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection serves as a reminder of how powerfully music can connect us with our heavenly Father. “As you look over the past 10 years and think about the journey of these songs, it’s just incredible to see how God has used them in the church,” muses Tomlin. “To 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.”
Creating 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. “It goes beyond just a radio hit. We’re looking at the impact of these songs around the world,” he says. “You are looking at songs that for the most part aren’t really attached to me as a person. They’ve just become songs people have sung in their church in whatever country or language and that’s so powerful. It’s been awesome to be able to have success at radio as well, but it goes way deeper than that. There’s 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’s just God’s favor, blessing and His hand upon these songs. It’s 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’s really, really humbling.”
For Tomlin, it’s an unexpected gift he never dreamed of as a child in Grand Saline, Texas. “I was nine-years-old when I started playing,” Tomlin says of his early love affair with the guitar. “My dad taught me to play when I got sick over the summer. I got mono and had to stay in, which isn’t good for a nine-year-old kid. My dad said, ‘You’re going to tear the house down unless you learn how to do something to take up your time,’ 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.”
Combining his faith and his budding appreciation for playing music, Tomlin began writing songs. “I started to write my own little songs for church and they were just awful,” Tomlin recalls with a laugh. “I’d 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’t any good, but people were very patient along the way.”
