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A Conversation with Chris Tomlin, Part Two
By Jen Abbas As a new record label emerges from the Passion Movement, a leading voice in progressive worship begins a new chapter in his life. Worship leader Chris Tomlin talks about how his past is merging quickly into the future. Read Part One Tell me about the name, Sixsteps. Chris: It's 1 Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 6. David's bringing the ark back. The long story short is, the Philistines capture the ark and the ark starts giving them plagues so they don't want it anymore. David comes to get it. They put the ark on carts, but God didn't say to put it on carts, He said to put it on poles. The Israelites start going with the cart and when people look inside to make sure the Philistines didn't steal anything, they die. They start going down the road and the ark starts tipping over. The people who try to catch it die. So David was really mad. They leave the ark at this guy Obed's house. David says, "We're done with this thing!" Then David gets word that all of Obed's family is completely blessed in everything they do. So David takes 30,000 men to [bring the ark back to Jerusalem]. They put it on poles like God had said. The Bible says that when they had taken six steps, they stopped and built an altar and worshipped God. They took six steps and [thought] "We're still alive. God did not strike us dead!" I think in our worship today, we come to God like He owes us a favor and we don't really fear God. This is the One. The One I'm singing to gives me breath; He makes the world
How would you describe what it means to fear God? Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, says that he has had all these things...all the money in the world, all the women, everything the world can give me and I find it all meaningless. He ends Ecclesiastes with "There are only two things I know that are worth anything: fear the Lord and keep His commands." So what does that mean, fear the Lord? I think a lot of times that we sin so easily because we don't fear God. Our fear of God is so minimal that we sin easily. I think understanding God is the same as fearing God, because the more you understand God, the more in awe of Him we are. The way we live our life when no one's watching is our degree of fear of God and our degree of reverence and degree of honor. I think fear and reverence and honor all come together. Something unique about your album packaging is that you've included chords with your lyrics. I want the church to play the songs. I didn't write them just to listen to. I want the songs to be used and that's an easy way to get the songs learned. Sounds like you're a good worship leader. How would you define worship? Everybody is created to worship. It's created in us and we can't get away from it. That's why we have so many stars — especially in America — because we have to worship something. True worship is the worship of the Creator, not the created. Paul said that when you are worshipping what's created, you're taking your eyes of your Creator. When we worship God, we're recognizing who God is and what He has done, truly seeing the greatness of what He has done and responding to that. Worship is response. The definition that I learned from Louie, is that worship is a response, both personal and corporate, for who God is and what He's doing, evidenced in and through the way we live. Worship is more than singing songs. Songs have little to do with it. Jesus understood it when he said, "You praise me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me." How many times have I done that? We ought to be pretty serious about what we worship, because it is eternal. Those who worship the created things — which all of us do from time to time — find it so unfulfilling. The way that we're trained, worship is Sunday morning from eleven to twelve. That's not true. That is worship, but that's coming together. Hopefully we're coming together to celebrate what we've been doing all week. What we mostly do is [consider that a worship service is] our one hour a week. [Then we leave] and don't really consider God the rest of the week. It should be the other way around. That one hour should be a celebration of how we're living our lives all week. That's the greatest form of evangelism in the world. People wonder what in the world you're connected to, because then they realize that what they worship doesn't meet their needs. I love the fact that no matter who you are, whether you're wealthy or poor, wherever you were born, wherever you live, that you worship and you can't get away from it. How would you say that someone could cultivate a lifestyle of worship? Personally, it's reading the Word. I look at the Word and it makes me stop unlike any other book you read. You just see yourself, and once again, you see God for His greatness and what He's done. And you see His patience. It causes me to worship. Music is a wonderful way, I do it every day. That's why I think God is stirring all this up and He's using music to do it. God made music and made it for His glory. To me, if you're not truly in the Word, and pursuing God through His word, then your worship is very incomplete. What else do you like to read? I love to read! Believe it or not, I don't read a lot of Christian books, but I love Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. That book and Lonesome Dove. I basically read for enjoyment. I love stories. Lately, it's been the revival of reading in my life. My pastor, John David Walt, he's one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. He's always reading. I read through him mostly. He's always copying things off and saying that I need to read this chapter. It's the crumbs off his table I guess. I read a lot of western books. I try to not get too immersed in the Christian culture. I want to know what's going on in the world. My TV stays on CNN and FoxNews. I don't want to be so much in the subculture to where I'm just getting the latest Christian thing. I want to read things that help me understand what's going on in the world. What is God teaching you now? I feel that I'm being tested in the midst of all this craze and all these great things. God is asking me: "Are you going to take this for yourself, or is it going to cause more gratitude and thankfulness to me?" Continually, I'm thinking of it, everyday, remaining true to Who has always been there when nobody knew who I was. Read Part One
Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, MI and author of Generation Ex: Adult Children of Divorce and the Healing of our Pain (Random House, April 2004), conducted this interview on April 18, 2003 for FamilyChristian.com. You can visit Jen online at JenAbbas.com. 
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