by David Dodd

He began proclaiming Our Mighty Maker in song back in the 80’s, and through the years, Steven Curtis Chapman’s blessings of million selling records and sold out tours are nothing compared to the true blessing he and his family have received by diving into the Gospel of Matthew and the book of James.

We sat down with Steven on the eve of his current Live In This Moment Tour with Sanctus Real and Bethany Dillon, and as Steven looks back at his career and forges ahead in his future, one thing is very apparent:   His blessings, peace and comfort throughout the years can only be credited to Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  

 In listening to the new record, it’s evident to me that something is moving in you far deeper than before.  So when you’re planning a tour of this magnitude, I have to think what you want to reflect is what happened to you during the writing and recording process.  You want us all to take our hearts and give them all to God. 

Absolutely.  When you’ve done this for a few years like I have, and this will actually be my 20^th year since my first album came out, you do find yourself just really praying and saying, ‘God, if this not really for your purposes . . . I mean, I’m not taking anything away from the fact that I have the best job in the world.  You can’t get much better than playing music and sharing your heart and your faith and watching God show up and change people’s lives, and talk about orphans and watch people get captured for that.   All the things I get to do on this platform is just kind of ridiculous that I get to do this and call it my job. 

When it all comes down to it, it’s all a means to an end for me, it was from the very beginning, it still is.  I lose sight of that sometimes, I worry about this, that and the other but at the end of the day, God keeps bringing me back to this whole thing and all it is – the gifts, music – the end ultimately is to lift up Jesus.  I mean, He said, ‘If I’m lifted up, I’ll draw people to Myself.’

So yes, to get back to what you mentioned, yes, it’s crucial that our hearts glorify Him, honor Him, to make much of Him, as I said in a song once, and ultimately, when that happens, you really get this sense that, man, I’m getting to be a part of something that’s eternal, it’s so much bigger than me, it’s so much bigger than music.

One of the interesting elements of the tour is the record wont be out until October so if you go to your website, we can see videos you made to teach everyone the new songs. 

Thanks for bringing that up.  I’ll let you in on the downside of the business because I asked, How do these things happen? I’ve got a tour launching before the record is even out and the record company pushes the release dates back and before you know it, I’m thinking, how did this happen, I never would have planned this.

I want people to know the new music but it’s just what’s happening and you can’t undo.  We already planned this tour, so let’s stay the course at least for now and keep moving forward.  How can I take these lemons as they were and make lemonade? 

I want people to know this new music, so I sat down with my guitar and the video camera and I wanted to teach the people these songs.  This new record has a lot of real corporate moments and I want the audience singing and sort of answering back.  There’s a song called Children of God that says Who are the treasured and the prized? 

Well everybody responds by singing:  We are, we are, we are!       That’s the whole point of that song -  to get the listener to respond.  So I thought how can I do that?   So I made these rehearsal videos available on my website.  They’re kinda goofy and I kinda have fun with it, but it’s saying, hey, here’s a new song, you don’t know it yet but let me teach it to ya, that way when you come to the concert you’re ready to join us and if we have enough people who know it then the rest of the crowd will join in.

Another great element of the tour are my sons are on tour with me, I didn’t know if you knew that or not. 

Sure do.  Is Willy playing the drums? 

Yeah, Will is playing drums, my 16 year old, and he’s actually filling in for Sanctus Real on one of the dates.  He filled in for Jeremy Camp on a date a few months ago and now he’s been asked by Sanctus Real and it looks like he’s going to be playing for Bethany on the tour and then he’s playing with me.  I’m thinking, my 16 year old son is turning into this professional musician, it’s just crazy!  And they’re playing with me and I’m thinking I know they’re great but I’m their dad, I’m supposed to think they’re great.

Caleb is 17 and he’s playing guitar and singing with me. It’s really something for me to watch them turn into these great musicians.

 I really believe that when we go out there and boldly proclaim the name of Jesus and really try to bless other people because of Him that He just blesses us back and I can only imagine that there will be some moments when you’re on stage and you’re kind of standing back and you see your two sons up there that those are going to be moments you’re going to have that go right to your heart, moments that are an absolute gift from Christ. 

We’ve already begun to do that!  In the beginning of September, we played an event called Night of Joy at DisneyWorld, and event that happens every year.  My sons have grown up at that event watching me from a distance, walking by, usually on their way to go to ride Splash Mountain or something, but you know, now they stand on stage with me and we’ve even taken some of the older songs and made them new.  I have a song that’s been one of my favorites forever called My Redeemer is Faithful and True, people have often asked me what is that one song you kinda go back to that really says so much from your heart?  And it’s been that song.  My sons and I have actually turned it into a modern worship song now on this new tour. 

That would have never happened without my sons being in my band now and it’s just so cool to watch that come together and be on stage with them to literally watch these guys become worship leaders.  They really want to bring honor to God with the gifts He’s given them and I get to watch this happen on stage.  It’s just the coolest thing you could ever imagine.

There’s another part of this whole aspect of family and hearts which has really blessed your entire family and that is the ministry you have with Shaohannah’s Hope and the incredible impact this has been for your family to realize how big our God is. 

Absolutely.  Absolutely.  It’s been amazing for us.  For the last 20 years since my first record came out, the underlying goal and desire and everything I have done has been to know God and to make Him known with the gifts He has given me.  That’s where all the songs have come from, whether they’ve been songs about my marriage, my relationship with my wife, as a husband, as a dad, as a friend, as a follower of Jesus, it’s always been where God show up in my life, where I see Him, and to help me to know Him and help me to make Him known. Nothing has done that as profoundly as us adopting three little girls from China and then spending time with orphans of the world in Africa and Ecuador, in El Salvador and all over Asia, here in America, it’s been so amazing for us.

Every time I’m around the least of the least I realize this is what Jesus said when He spoke, Whatever you do for them you do for Me.  It’s an invitation where God is saying I want you to know Me and I want to reveal Myself to you.

We started an organization called Shaohannah’s Hope, right after we adopted our first of our three adopted daughters, and immediately we saw so many families saying we want to adopt, we want to bring a child into our home and not only give them a family on earth but an eternal family with God’s children as we share our love for Christ in our home.  We just thought how can we help these families that can’t afford to do this, so we began to help them, we started an organization so other people could help us help them and we’ve been able to give over 1400 grants to Christian families and allow them to be able to bring a child into their home. 

When we got to dreaming about this tour, we thought what if we gave everybody a chance to do something, even something that seems small but it could change the world for an orphan and even the ripples that might start from that in our world, and so we thought, let’s get everybody to bring their change, their loose change, that jar in their closet, and so we called it the Change For Orphans  project and we’re just saying go collect your change because we’re changing the world for orphans. When we have the concerts in every city, we’re going to collect that money and give it to a family in that community each night of the tour and doing that, literally in that night in that moment, with the This Moment  theme, we’re  gonna basically say we’re changing an orphan’s world, they don’t even know it yet, but they’ll know it soon enough, and in heaven, we’ll probably get to know it and celebrate it with them when they come to us and say you know, what you did that on that night was the beginning of my journey to find out that I not only have an Earthly family, I have a Heavenly Father.  I really believe that God is going to bless that in an incredible way.