Paul Baloche has written some of this generation’s most compelling worship songs, songs that have become the soundtrack for believers all over the world in times of worship both corporate and private. His approach to his calling is simple, yet profound: “The best worship songs come as a byproduct of worship.”
Paul Baloche is a worshipper. Whether leading worship in his home church in Texas, standing on a stage in a foreign country singing with other believers or praising God in the privacy of his own home, worshipping God is simply what Baloche does. And it’s that heart for God that fuels his creativity as a songwriter and manifests itself on his new Integrity Music CD, A Greater Song.
“I’ve realized the value of creating personal worship times. Even though I teach worship, read about it, and sing about it,” says Baloche. “It’s like prayer. We can talk about prayer, go to prayer seminars, but there comes a time where we need to just ‘DO IT’. We were created for His pleasure. We were created for relationship with the living God. That’s the reality.”
For Baloche, living in that reality has inspired him to write some of the most powerful worship songs of this generation. As a bridge builder between traditional and contemporary worship, Baloche has literally put words in mouths of believers all over the world. The Dove award-winning artist has had his songs recorded by Michael W. Smith, Randy Travis, SonicFlood, John Tesh, and others. He currently has more than 10 songs on CCLI’s top 500 songs performed in churches. His “Open the Eyes of My Heart” is at No. 2 on the CCLI list and “Aove All,”written with Lenny LeBlanc, is at No. 22 on the CCLI chart.
A Greater Song was recorded at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas, where Baloche has served as worship pastor for more than 15 years. “I wanted to capture the sound of my church,” he says. “They just sing loud and I’ve always wanted to capture what happens at our church on Sunday mornings. I’ve always recorded at other places around here, but I’ve never actually captured our people on Sunday morning. So often these songs are birthed in the midst of those Sunday mornings, a sermon or somebody’s prayer. The songs are test-driven. It’s a spiritual laboratory where I can try out new songs and I get a sense immediately if it’s something that is really congregational.”
Though many of Baloche’s songs have been written solo, A Greater Song finds the gifted writer collaborating with other noted songwriter/worship leaders, among them Matt Redman, Graham Kendrick, Brenton Brown and Sara Groves.
“Graham Kendrick invited me to a songwriters retreat for a couple of days,” recalls Baloche of the spark that led to many of the songs on the new album. “It was really inspiring to hang with some of these guys and spend time co-writing with Graham and Matt Redman for a couple of days. It inspired my own soul and my own heart and that’s what I needed as we were approaching the new album. A lot of these guys are friends I’ve known for a long time. I think if there’s a theme on this record, maybe the theme is friendship and collaboration for the Kingdom of God.”
In keeping with Baloche’s philosophy that the best worship songs come from worship, the music that came from the retreat happened very organically. “Initially the co-writing didn’t start like ‘Hey let’s get together and write a bunch of songs.’ These are friends I’ve known and we’ve always talked about getting together,” says Baloche. “We approached it as ‘Let’s get together, share a meal, fellowship over coffee. Let’s spend some time in prayer and maybe sing some familiar worship songs and just see if something rises up as a byproduct’… it took the pressure off.”
The result is a powerful collection of modern worship songs. Baloche and Kendrick combined talents to write two of the album’s highlights, “What Can I Do” and “Creation’s King.”
Baloche and Redman co-wrote the title track, “A Greater Song” as well as the closing cut, “Rising.” Baloche co-wrote “Hosanna,” “Because of Your Love,” and “Here and Now” with Brown. The latter track features the beautiful voice of worship leader Kathryn Scott as does Baloche’s arrangement of the classic song of surrender, “Just As I Am.”
“Kathryn is from Northern Ireland and she leads worship in a church north of Belfast where her husband is the pastor,” says Baloche. “She was also at the retreat in the UK. When it came time to do ‘As I Am,’ I thought, ‘I can totally hear Kathryn singing this.’ She also did duets with me on ‘Here and Now’ and ‘Your Name’. “
Baloche is joined by another of his favorite female artists, INO Records’ Sara Groves, on “You Have Been So Good.” “What an amazing human being!” Baloche says of Groves. “She and her husband Troy are talented, humble, and gifted people. We got to know each other during a two-week tour last year.”
For Paul Baloche, his spiritual journey began in a most unusual place - - a business convention. “That’s my testimony,” says the New Jersey native, who grew up across the bridge from Philadelphia. “I was playing clubs around Philly and the Jersey Shore and a friend took me to a ‘How to get rich’ type weekend.
“On Sunday morning they had a band playing ‘How Great Thou Art’ with drums and electric guitars,” he recalls. “I was blown away and I thought, ‘That’s amazing, just the power of rock music with lyrics about the Lord.’ I’d never heard that. It really impacted me. My brother and I walked up and made a commitment to follow Jesus… it was a radical change for me.”
Baloche knows first hand how music and the message of Jesus Christ can combine to create a life changing experience. Someone once told him that people may only remember 10 sermons they’ve heard during their lifetime, but they’ll remember hundreds of songs. That fact isn’t lost on him as he strives to create worship music that will draw believers into a closer relationship with God.
“I try to keep it simple, yet interesting - - simple and inspiring,” he says of the music he creates. “You don’t want to teach the whole Bible in one song, you can’t do that. I try to take one aspect of God’s character perhaps, and really focus on that and try to bring it to light. The bottom line of praise and worship music is getting people to sing their prayers. They are really singing their prayers back to God. When we pray from our heart it’s usually pretty simple. When we pray from our head we get complicated. The best worship songs emulate the most honest prayers, just simple cries of the heart.”
Baloche is a man who takes his calling very seriously. “I think one of our responsibilities in writing worship songs is to be conscious that we are trying to create a sense of community when we write these songs,” he says. “We are trying to use songs as a vehicle and a tool to bring people together and sing our prayers collectively to God. Participation is the key word. A good worship song invites the person to participate in it, not to listen passively. It kind of compels the listener to participate in this prayer and sing it to God.”
Baloche is enthusiastic about getting everyone to participate in worship. In addition to leading worship at home and at conferences, concerts and events all over the world, Baloche has a new book, “God Songs - How to Write and Select Songs for Worship,” which he wrote with Jimmy and Carol Owens. Distributed by Integrity, it’s a “how-to” book about turning prayers into songs.
Worship is the prayer in Paul Baloche’s heart, and he’s used his gifts to invite others to participate. Millions of people sing his songs every Sunday morning. During a recent ceremony at Georgetown University, he received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the Methodist Episcopal
Church USA for his impact on the way churches worship around the world.
“We need each other. We need to worship. The essence of life is a relationship with God and a relationship with others,” says Baloche. “We have to find ways to intentionally pursue Him. I think writing songs, getting together and trying to be creative with God’s word, to sing out your
prayers spontaneously is a great spiritual exercise. As a byproduct of that experience, sometimes a good song comes out and that’s always a bonus.”