Paul Baloche: The Old & The New
12-26-2007
by Kevan Breitinger
My first few minutes of conversation with worship artist Paul Baloche were spent in reminiscing about popular hangouts on the Jersey shore where we both grew up. Paul played the bar scene but it was actually music that first led him to the Lord.
Paul Baloche: I grew up in Mapleshade NJ, but summered at the shore. Even in the last 20 years, my in-laws have a place in Sea Isle, so we always hit the Ocean City boardwalk and the pizza joints.
CMCentral (Kevan Breitinger): My understanding is that you came to the Lord through music?
Yeah, I was playing down the shore, I thought it would be the coolest thing in the world. We stayed in a house there on the Somers Point Bay. The year I got out of high school I was in a band with guys a lot older than me, so there were a lot of drugs. It was a crazy time, and everybody was 6 degrees from Bruce Springsteen (another Jersey shore boy). I was real disillusioned, and started going to Catholic Mass. Then Mother’s burnt down ( a local club), and that was a big deal to me because all of my life savings were invested in their PA system. My world went up in smoke (laughing).
A friend had gotten me in the Amway business, and I went on one of their weekend conferences. Sunday morning there was a nondenominational service, which I’d never heard of. There was a band up there, singing about the Lord, and I thought that is so cool! God used it. There was a classic altar call, and myself, my brother and some friends all went up and gave our hearts to the Lord. It was a radical time for all of us. I saw hundreds of people come to the Lord through Amway.
I read that you’re very particular about the theology of your lyrics. I thought maybe that was why, since God used music so powerfully in your own story.
I think it has more to do with my story. I moved down here to Texas, got involved with a few different ministries, and became a worship leader at my local church. I’m a pastor now, but over the years I’ve used songs at our church not only as an expression of worship but hopefully to also teach an aspect of Biblical truth. So as people are singing the song, it’s more than ‘I love you and you love me.’ It gets them singing good theology, like the old hymns. I love modern worship but there is sort of a weakness in our lexicon, that there’s not enough good sound Biblical theology.
I agree. When I first came to the Lord we sang a lot of choruses that were simply Scripture passages put to music, and I learned a ton of Bible passages without even trying.
That’s so true, isn’t it? We did an Integrity series years ago, 26 Scripture memory CDs, that were simply Scripture set verbatim to music.
That’s coming around full circle again; people are coming back to it. Like Glory Revealed. It’s beautiful to see it. I know you have another passion as well, for mentoring worship leaders.
Yeah, that’s another natural progression. I never got into this in the typical way, moving to Nashville and all that, looking for the record deal. From the beginning I was just a worship pastor and a missionary with YWAM. I basically took my music stuff I learned in high school, and from playing the clubs, and then got born again and sort of pegged as the guy that taught how people how to put a worship band together. It began as a missions thing.
You just bloom where you’re planted. I realized God could take my years in bands as a way to encourage other worship teams who might be struggling with the practical issues as well as heart issues. We developed www.leadworship.com and created some video resources to help worship teams be more effective in leading worship in their congregations.
And again, very Biblical.
You’re right, it’s 1 Timothy. Paul says ‘that which I’ve entrusted to you, turn around and entrust to other faithful men.’ It should be happening in all of our lives, in an intentional way. If you’ve been a believer for any length of time, whether you’re involved in music or not, I think it’s important that we have Pauls in our life, that we can glean from, and that we have Timothys, that we can pour into. The next generation kind of thing.
I agree. Well, I guess we should talk about the album. I loved it, (Our God Saves, read review here ) I thought it was your best yet. I liked hearing you rock out. You have some great collaborators with you. Was that intentional?
Very intentional. It came time to do another album and I had been so busy doing ministry, on the road, doing conferences… and I thought wow, time to do another record already?! I’m just spiritually depleted. So I thought before I even thought about doing another project, I needed to get my own soul inspired. So I got together with some of the same people I saw at conferences. I went over to England and spent time with Matt Redman, Graham Kendrick, Brenton Brown, and Kathryn Scott.
I didn’t want to just sit down and write a bunch of Christian jingles; we don’t need anymore of those. I want my songs to
come out of a place of inspiration, you know? On my last project, A Greater Song, pretty much everything was co-written, and I enjoyed the process so much. Whether a song came out of it or not, I felt like it was healthy for my soul to get with other writers and spend time sharing meals and praying together and singing, gleaning from one another. Most of the time we’d walk away with at least the beginnings of a couple of songs. And over the next months we’d email back and forth or talk on the phone and tweak ‘em. We spent a lot of time refining the lyrics. Some of these songs involved a hundred emails back and forth(laughing), obsessing over prepositions.
But it worked.
Hopefully. My goal has always been to write songs the churches can sing. Mu goal was never really to write a song for radio. My goal from day one was to serve my church, and if it works in my church, hopefully it will spill over into the church at large.
Well, once again, that’s very Biblical. There seems to be a theme.
Yeah. I think I’m just rambling now, but hopefully some of it makes sense.
Hey, it’s a blessing to hear someone speak from their heart and everything traces back to the word of God. Kind of what I expected.
Well, you just assume that, right?
Well, actually you can’t, sadly enough.
You’re right.
It’s not always the case, so it’s a delight when it happens. I really enjoyed talking with you, Paul.
Yeah, me too. Thanks a lot.
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