Kristian Stanfill has been a significant contributor to worship music for the church . Significant not merely in the craft of songwriting , but also in the honesty and integrity a real worship song should possess . His newest release , Make It Out Alive , eloquently , and truthfully shares the heart of a worshiper .
[ Alex ] Kristian , it so good to have a visit with you today ! Thanks for allowing me this time . I ’ m really excited to hear the story of Make It Out Alive , and we ’ ll get to that in a bit .
[ Kristian Stanfill ] Great ! I ’ m glad to be here .
[ WM ] Let ’ s start with the fact that you have been leading worship since you were 15 years old . How has your perspective about leading worship changed since those early years ?
[ Kristian ] Wow . Well , when I started leading worship , I started leading out of necessity . I was the only kid in my youth group with an acoustic guitar . I was the only kid in my youth group who had any kind of a singing voice . And my youth pastor more-or-less said , “ Hey , I ’ m going to push you out on stage and you ’ re going to be our worship leader .” I had no idea what a worship leader was .
But I started leading these songs . And man , about eighth grade or ninth grade , we saw God do some incredible things in our youth ministry . And we started to experience the presence of God in a very real way . We started to see revival in our youth ministry . And as a 15 or 16-yearold kid , it was the most powerful thing that I had ever seen or been a part of . And it just got its hooks into my heart . I thought , “ Man , if God will allow me to be a part of helping people experience Him and encounter Him and fall deeper in love with Him through this music , then I ’ m in ”. This is what I would love to do .
So , as I got into college , I continued to lead worship . I met Louie Giglio in 2004 . We were leading together at a student conference in Florida . He was speaking and I was one of the worship leaders , and we met and became friends .
[ WM ] Was Louie still in Waco at that time , or had he made the move to Atlanta ?
[ Kristian ] No , they were in Atlanta at this point . But that ended up being a real pivotal moment for me , meeting Louie and getting involved with Passion in 2005 . And it was that moment when my perspective of the church widened and got so much bigger . My perspective had always been Marietta , Georgia , the suburbs of Atlanta . But then once I got involved with Passion , I started to see that this isn ’ t just like a regional thing , this worship of God is global , and songs have this power and this ability to go beyond