Worship leader Kristian Stanfill is emerging as one of this generation's most compelling singer/songwriters. A writer of rare insight and vulnerability, he has the unique ability to build bridges over boundary lines that separate the hurting from the Healer. Consequently, the songs on Attention, his sixstepsrecords debut, create an atmosphere of worshipful unity in this too often fragmented world.

Kristian's fearless insight and ear for authenticity infuse his songs with a visceral resonance that connects with listeners on multiple levels. That authenticity compelled Louie Giglio, founder of the Passion Movement, to invite Kristian to lead worship for a community group at Passion '05 in Nashville. It was an opportunity Kristian felt he had been preparing for his entire life.

Kristian continued his relationship with Passion, leading worship at Passion '06, Passion Regionals USA in 2008, and on last year's first-ever Passion World Tour. His worship songs have appeared on numerous Passion CDs including Passion: Everything Glorious CD and DVD (2006), The Best of Passion (So Far) (2007), and Passion: God of This City (2008). When he signed with sixstepsrecords for his debut project, Attention, Kristian became the label's first new artist since it's inception in 2000. (Other artists on the label's roster include Chris Tomlin, David Crowder*Band, Charlie Hall and Matt Redman.)

As fresh as his music is, it's the lyrical depth of Kristian's songs, delivered with heartfelt conviction, that will capture your attention. And it's his ability to connect with his audience, to lead them to worship God with reverence and authenticity that evokes respect from peers and fans alike.

It's in that spirit that Kristian spoke with NRT's Andrew Funderburks. Here is their conversation.

Hey Kristian! Welcome, and thanks for taking your time to do this interview with NewReleaseTuesday.com!

Of course! Thanks so much for having me!

When did you feel God calling you into music ministry?

I became a Christian when I was 13, while I was at a youth camp in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That’s when it all became clear to me--the message of the cross, living a life that honors God, and following Jesus. At this same camp, there was a worship leader that I watched all week long leading people in worship. At one point while I was watching him, I felt God saying to me, “I want you to lead my people to worship Me, and to love Me, through song.” I had no idea what leading worship was about and no idea how to do it, but that was the first moment I felt something happening inside of me. After that, I went home, picked up a guitar, and taught myself a few chords. I started writing songs and went from there.

In what way would you define the word “worship”?

I would define worship as our response to seeing God and experiencing God. When we experience just a piece of the glory of God, our response is always wonder, awe, adoration, and love. It can be done through song, which is what I get to do a lot, but it can also be more than that. It’s a life thing. It’s spending every day—walking through every minute of your day—responding to the glory of God and who He is. It’s whoever you interact with, whether you know them or whether they’re a stranger.

Attention is the name to your first full length project. Explain why you chose this name.

The cool thing about the name is that it was a group effort. My manager Shelly Giglio, her husband Louie Giglio, and a few other people at sixsteprecords, were all kind of brainstorming about what the record was about. We threw that title out there at the very beginning, and it just stuck. We realized that it stuck because the title really embodies what the record is. With every single one of these songs on this record, we wanted to call people to live a life that reflects their love for God and their desire to love Jesus. We wanted to take people’s attention and focus it on the message of Jesus, and the cross. We feel really good about it. We think it’s also kind of mysterious, because, at first, people don’t know what the title is about, which we like. That’s how the title really came about.


If any effect could be placed on the hearts of the people who listen to Attention, what effect would you want that to be?

Great question, man! I think what I really want with the goal of all of the songs is that people’s hearts be turned toward Jesus and away from the stuff of this world. I hope when people hear these songs, and when they hear these lyrics that they’ll wake up, see Jesus, and run toward Him with all of their heart and adore Him. I also hope that when people hear these songs, they’ll be inspired and encouraged to live passionately for Jesus and live a life that honors Him.

“Alive and Running” jump-starts the whole album. Explain to us the theme of this song.

You can actually find a lot of the meaning of this song in its title. For the past few years, I’ve been telling the guys in my band that I wanted us to have, on our record, a blazing rock song where you didn’t breathe until it was over. That’s definitely what this song does. What I love about this song, and why I wanted to start the record with it, is that this song is what the entire record is about. The idea is that we’ve been given salvation by Jesus, and we’ve been changed forever by His love and the cross. So because of that life and salvation we have now, we are called to be alive. But that’s not the end of it. What I’m hoping this song does, is to inspire action. This idea of, we’re alive and running to the world, is our response to this life. We’re running to the world to tell people about this love and this life that we have, and that they can also have freely.

I was actually listening to this song when I was heading to a Lent service to sing, and it really set me off in the right direction.

Yes, we want to move people and that’s what the whole record is about. My band and I have traveled all around the country and the world for the past three years. While traveling, we encountered a lot of apathy and complacency. Not only did we see it on the stage while we were leading, but also we started to notice it in our own lives—just the day in day out life you live doing Christian ministry. So this whole record is about inspiring action and encouraging people to take action to live like they mean it. We just thought “Alive and Running” was a really good start for the record.

It is a very good start for the record!

Cool! Well, thanks!

“Lord of All” is a direct song of love and praise to our Lord. What inspired the writing of this song?

A couple of years ago I was doing a five-day youth camp. One day, the speaker at the camp started talking about Psalm 97. As the speaker was talking about this psalm, I felt like God was saying, “I want you to stay in this psalm, until I tell you to move on. There’s a song here in Psalm 97.” Basically, this whole song came out of Psalm 97, which paints this amazing picture of God. The very middle of it says, “Clouds and thick darkness surround You. Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world, the whole earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord.” It was all of these pictures of God that were so huge, so mysterious, and so majestic. This song took me about a year and half to write. It was a really long process, but it was never frustrating, because I had this sense knowing that God was going to deliver this song. I never got nervous that I wasn’t going to finish it because I felt like God was saying, “There’s a song here. I’m going to give you a song.” So I just sat and waited. The song came in bits and pieces and when it was finally completed, I was so excited. Like you said, it’s a song that we sing to adore God. It’s not about us. There’s no mistaking who we’re singing to. It’s all about how big and how holy our God is and how He is the Lord of all. There’s no one like Him. I love leading this song because, just like when I’m singing a lot of other worship songs, people aren’t looking at me. They’re not singing to me. I can look out and see people singing to God and adoring God’s words. I love it!

What song off Attention was your favorite to record?

I love them all! We worked so hard on all of them, that it’s difficult to pick a favorite. If I had to pick a favorite, I would have to say it’s “Wake Up.” It’s a really special song to the guys in the band and me. We all wrote it together, so it’s really cool for us to be able to share that. It’s similar to “Alive and Running,” in that it can also be considered the crux of this record. If I had one song to share with somebody off the entire record, I would share “Wake Up” because I really feel like it is the heart of this record. The guys in the band and I are praying for my generation, and the younger generation coming up, to wake up—to see the glory of God and live for it.

One of the most popular songs you have recorded is “Jesus Paid it All.” This is an amazing hymn from the 1800s that has continued to impact people’s lives for years on end. Have hymns been an influence, in any way, to your music?

Well, I was raised in more of a contemporary church, so I didn’t really grow up around hymns. Understand when I say that, though, that I think hymns are absolutely gorgeous. No one writes lyrics like the lyrics those people used to write. They had beautiful song writing. I feel really sad that I missed the boat on the hymns thing. I would say if any part of the old hymns inspired me, it would have to be their lyrics. There is so much theology and so much truth about God in those hymns. Their melodies are just beautiful. They soar, and people love singing them. It’s something that I want to strive for when I write music. Not only do I want my songs to be filled with truth about God, but also I want them to have melodies that people love to hear.

Your songs have already been on several Passion projects, and you’ve been on the Passion tour just recently. Do you plan on doing any more Passion events in the future?

Yes, as long as I’m alive I want to be doing them! I’m part of the sixsteprecord’s/Passion family now. Since January 2005, I’ve been doing Passion events. It’s such a special thing. It’s an amazing time with God seeing over 20,000 college students come together and basically say “Living for Jesus is the best thing. We’re not going to give our lives to anything else.” Going to a Passion event will change your life! I hope that I’m a part of these events for a long, long time. To take it a step further, the people behind all of these events—the sixsteprecords team and the Passion team—are all my great friends and family. To be able to do ministry with those people and watch God do what He does at these events is a really cool thing to share!

Influences play vital roles, a lot of the time, in each and every one of our lives. For your music, or just for your life, who has been an inspiration and an influence for you?

A non-musical influence would be my former youth pastor, David Peacock. He is probably the reason I’m talking to you today and the reason that I became a worship leader. He hung out and spent so much time with me when I was in high school and trying to figure out which way was up. It was amazing how he spent time with me and the way he taught me Scripture. He taught me what the Scripture said about worship and what it meant to be a worship leader. My parents are also a main influence because they love God. I grew up in an amazing house where Jesus was the center of it all. For musical influences, I would count the artists I grew up listening to: Billy Joel, James Taylor, The Eagles, U2, and Fleetwood Mac. Back then, I basically listened to whatever my dad was listening to. Nowadays, I love everything, from any kind of pop music, all the way to some Kanye West stuff. I love pretty much anything that’s good—just a good song.

I’m sort of the same way. A lot of people are stuck on one genre of music, but I have a wide range of music that I listen to. So when I tell people that they say, “Wow!” I guess it’s uncommon to hear of people who have a wide range of musical tastes like that.

I’ve been listening to a lot of country recently. If it’s a good song, I’m on board. I just love good music, whether it be rap, pop, country, or folk.

What personal or Scriptural advice would you like to share with someone who feels that God is calling them into the ministry of music?

Scripturally, something that I always share with young worship leaders or young musicians, is John 15. Specifically, verses 1-8 say, “I am the vine. You are the branches.” And basically what He is saying in this chapter is, “all your life comes through Me. Your life is found in the Vine, and I am that vine. Plug into Me, and you’ll find life here.” I love that because it gives you something to firmly grab hold of. Jesus says, “For you can do nothing without Me. Everything you have, all that you have is found in me.” That’s a firm footing. I love the simplicity of that because it’s something that you can put your trust in completely. It’s also a good reminder to me, because I’m human, that none of this has to do with me. None of this has to do with my name, or how great I am. It has nothing to do with me building up my kingdom. One hundred percent of everything comes down from God.


What chapter or verse from the Bible is your favorite or has been a source of encouragement that you’ve drawn from?

I’ve been reading Philippians recently, and Paul talks about this idea that he considers everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8). If you grew up in church, this is something that you’ve probably heard about. When I read it, it struck me because I have a family. I have a wife that I love, I have a 2-year-old son that I love, I have a little girl that’s due in August, and I have an amazing community of friends and believers that I’m close to. If I read what Paul says, and take it as truth, I can consider all of that loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. On one hand I think, as great as these things are in my life, Paul is telling me that knowing Christ Jesus and following Him surpasses all those things greatly. That has recently been bringing me to my knees and really making me evaluate what I cherish and what I value in my life. So I would say, if you asked me today, that I draw my source of encouragement from that verse in Philippians.

Kristian, it’s been awesome talking with you! May God continue to bless you, as you sing of His enduring love to the nations.

Cool! Thanks, Andrew!