Podcast episode
Episode 395 – Solving America’s Foster Care Crisis | Chris Tomlin
At 18 years old, Chris Tomlin knew three songs. He’d never led worship, never looked at an audience, and played a week of youth camp off note cards taped to the stage. At the end of that week, the speaker told him two things: you have no idea what you’re doing, and you have no idea how God is going to use your songs all over the world. Then he prayed that God would make Chris a psalm writer for his generation.
EPISODE NOTES
At 18 years old, Chris Tomlin knew three songs. He’d never led worship, never looked at an audience, and played a week of youth camp off note cards taped to the stage. At the end of that week, the speaker told him two things: you have no idea what you’re doing, and you have no idea how God is going to use your songs all over the world. Then he prayed that God would make Chris a psalm writer for his generation.
Three decades later, Chris sits down with Justin Forman in Nashville to trace what that prayer set in motion. He talks about helping pioneer a category of music that radio stations flatly refused to play, the six years and three albums it took before one song got airtime, and why a songwriter with no template to follow felt a lot like an entrepreneur hacking a trail through a forest. Then the conversation turns to the dream he had years ago — a filled stadium on one side of an intersection, an abandoned baby on the other — and the decade of unrelated moments that finally made sense of it.
Today Chris leads For Others, an organization built to end the foster care crisis in America by connecting the best child welfare organizations, state governments, and donors who want their giving to change population outcomes. He didn’t start another agency. He started with a microphone and a number that wouldn’t leave him alone.
Watch the full episode on YouTube or continue to stream audio on your favorite podcast platform.
Chapters:
00:00 “Would you make Chris a psalm writer for his generation”
01:27 Why Chris Tomlin belongs on a faith driven entrepreneur podcast
03:13 God makes the waves, we get to ride them
05:22 What was actually new about this music
05:36 Worship music vs. Christian music in the late 90s
07:47 Songs like arrows out of the bow
09:39 A small East Texas town and a phone call from James
11:54 The prayer that set a 30-year trajectory
13:21 Small steps of faithful obedience
14:31 The machete, the forest, and the entrepreneur
16:41 Three albums before radio would play one song
18:24 Hebrews 13 and the sacrifice of praise
20:55 The dream: a stadium and a baby in the street
23:23 Good Friday Nashville and giving it all away
25:17 “This is in my own backyard”
26:35 400,000 kids. 400,000 churches.
28:45 You don’t have to have it all figured out
30:26 The For Others story
41:03 The beauty and the challenge of bringing everyone to the table
44:46 1.8 million nonprofits and the paralysis problem
47:00 Ending the crisis on our watch
49:32 Getting off the sidelines
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Faith Driven Entrepreneur is an educational platform hosted by Faith Driven Movements, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire, educate, and mobilize people to use their time, talents and other resources in the marketplace. Faith Driven Movements brings together leaders from around the world that seek to make a financial, social, environmental and spiritual impact through their business ventures. The website is intended to be an opportunity to exchange ideas for educational purposes. Faith Driven Movements is not responsible for the opinions, advice, statements, materials, presentations, data, images, videos, documentation and other information (collectively, the “Materials”) expressed or otherwise shared by guest contributors (including without limitation podcast guests, conference speakers, guest writers, participating companies and investment professionals). The Materials are for informational purposes only, and the statements, views and opinions expressed at any presentation or in any Materials are those solely of the presenter and not of Faith Driven Movements. Hosts and Guests may maintain positions in the companies and securities discussed. Further, Faith Driven Movements does not endorse or recommend any presenter, promoter, investment advisor, strategy, company or any views mentioned at any conference or in the Materials. Under no circumstances will Faith Driven Movements (or their respective trustees, directors, officers, employees, or agents) be liable for the accuracy, quality or reliability of any of the presentations or Materials, any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of presenters, or any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages arising from any presentations or Materials. By visiting the site you agree to comply with the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct.
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Faith Driven Entrepreneur is an educational platform hosted by Faith Driven Movements, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire, educate, and mobilize people to use their time, talents and other resources in the marketplace. Faith Driven Movements brings together leaders from around the world that seek to make a financial, social, environmental and spiritual impact through their business ventures. The website is intended to be an opportunity to exchange ideas for educational purposes. Faith Driven Movements is not responsible for the opinions, advice, statements, materials, presentations, data, images, videos, documentation and other information (collectively, the “Materials”) expressed or otherwise shared by guest contributors (including without limitation podcast guests, conference speakers, guest writers, participating companies and investment professionals). The Materials are for informational purposes only, and the statements, views and opinions expressed at any presentation or in any Materials are those solely of the presenter and not of Faith Driven Movements. Hosts and Guests may maintain positions in the companies and securities discussed. Further, Faith Driven Movements does not endorse or recommend any presenter, promoter, investment advisor, strategy, company or any views mentioned at any conference or in the Materials. Under no circumstances will Faith Driven Movements (or their respective trustees, directors, officers, employees, or agents) be liable for the accuracy, quality or reliability of any of the presentations or Materials, any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of presenters, or any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages arising from any presentations or Materials. By visiting the site you agree to comply with the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct.