NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Practically a month after main tens of millions in worship at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, Chris Tomlin mentioned he’s much more satisfied that an awakening is going on, and it’s in contrast to something he’s seen in his a long time of ministry.
“There’s a starvation I haven’t felt shortly,” the Grammy Award–profitable worship chief advised The Christian Put up on the pink carpet on the GMA Dove Awards in Nashville. “Individuals are coming hungry, wanting to attach with God. There’s no enjoying video games anymore. It appears like we’re in an actual second, an awakening.”
The 53-year-old Texas native, whose worship songs are sung in church buildings the world over, has spent a lot of this fall on tour. However he mentioned the emotion from that memorial, a day he known as some of the spiritually charged of his life, nonetheless lingers.
On Sept. 21, Tomlin stood earlier than tens of 1000’s inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, to open the service honoring the slain Turning Level USA founder. Standing earlier than an viewers of dignitaries, politicians and mourners, he started with considered one of Kirk’s favourite hymns, “How Nice Is Our God,” and later, “Holy Without end.”
“I used to be so moved,” Tomlin told CP the day after he led worship. “For Jesus to be proclaimed so boldly all through that entire day … what an awakening second in our nation. It felt like a shift, one thing folks have been praying for.”
Initially deliberate for a church, the service was moved to a stadium to accommodate overwhelming crowds and media curiosity. In response to Tomlin, probably the most highly effective second got here when Kirk’s spouse, Erika, stood earlier than the group and publicly forgave her husband’s killer.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” she said through tears. “I forgive him as a result of it’s what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”
“I feel Erika’s phrases of forgiveness have been the phrases heard all over the world,” he mentioned. “You may preach all you need, however while you see somebody really stay it, that’s the Spirit of God. That form of forgiveness can solely come from somebody who actually walks with Him.”
The “Superb Day” singer mentioned he believes numerous folks got here to religion that day. “I feel so many individuals watched that second and have been modified,” he mentioned. “It reminded all of us that God’s Spirit continues to be shifting.”
Forward of the memorial, Tomlin mentioned he’d met an Uber driver who confirmed simply how far the ripple had unfold. “He advised me, ‘Man, that factor that occurred to Charlie, it woke me up. I’m getting baptized this Sunday,’” the artist mentioned. “And I simply thought, what number of others throughout the nation are feeling the identical factor? It’s plain. God’s doing one thing.”
Since that September service, Tomlin has been again on the highway for his “Night of Worship” tour, the place the environment, he says, feels totally different than ever earlier than.
“I’ve been out on tour because the memorial, and I actually haven’t stopped,” he mentioned. “However each evening, it appears like folks aren’t coming for a present; they’re coming determined to come across God.
Tomlin, who introduced the award for Track of the 12 months at this yr’s Dove Awards, mentioned his band feels it too. “Each day we take a look at one another like, ‘OK, what’s God going to do tonight?’ as a result of you possibly can’t plan what’s occurring. Individuals are responding to God in stunning, surprising methods.”
Days after the memorial, Tomlin launched his newest album, The King Is Nonetheless the King, a group of worship anthems and hymns. The artist advised CP that to him, the album appears like a declaration for a technology looking for stability.
One of many album’s standout songs, a collaboration with Ben Fielding known as “The First Hymn,” relies on the oldest identified Christian lyric, written round A.D. 200 and preserved in an Oxford vault.
“These lyrics are actually 1,800 years previous,” Tomlin mentioned. “They have been written by a small band of believers who in all probability misplaced their lives for his or her religion. And now, we get to sing them once more.”
Tomlin and his crew found the traditional textual content and composed a contemporary melody, bringing to life phrases that may have as soon as echoed in secret gatherings of early Christians.
“It’s not my track, it belongs to the Church,” he mentioned. “Simply take into consideration that: 1,800 years in the past, folks have been singing these similar phrases. There’s no different music with this sort of historical past. Nation can’t contact it. Hip-hop can’t contact it. The music of the Church has been echoing because the starting.”
“We’re simply the subsequent in line,” he added, “carrying the torch ahead.”
Tomlin’s newest album, The King Is Still the King, is offered now. His fall tour, “An Night of Worship,” continues throughout the U.S. by means of November.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Put up. She could be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
