The Pivot

You might know Janice Gaines as an award-winning Gospel singer, which she is. But there are so many other incredible things about Janice you have to know: She is brilliant. She got her Masters of Divinity because learning Greek and Hebrew sounded FUN. She’s a mother of two young boys, a wife, a nationally recognized speaker, and she’s on staff at her local predominately white church, as directory...

Pete Marra is a serial entrepreneur with a deep love of Scripture. Already he’s been a tech CEO, a church planter, an underground missionary, and a self-made millionaire who lost everything overnight. He’s a devoted husband and father and he has led his family on a life of wild adventures. Our paths crossed about a year ago and we became fast friends. He has challenged me in a great way and encour...

Nancy is an author, a teacher, a mother and a wife. She sadly has a unique story with grief, but one that has allowed her to serve thousands and thousands of people over the last number of years. I’ve heard Nancy‘s name a lot over the years, but getting to know her over this conversation was delightfully surprising. She is full of energy and deep knowledge and wisdom. This was a fun and life-givin...

It was so fun to talk with Jillian Edwards. We got to talk about new motherhood and how it is both shaping her songs, and a metaphor for the songs themselves. She is clearly driven by music, and this drive has led her down some interesting and unique paths. She has a new record out called “Meadow”. It is beautiful, warm and inviting, and you need to listen to it. CLICK HERE for more info about Jil...

Michael Blanton was the manager and A&R guy who discovered and developed Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and Rich Mullins, among many others. He and his circle of friends were at the heart of the birth of Christian music, and his career boasts over 70 million albums sold. He’s also a father and a husband of over 40 years. We became friends almost randomly about a year and a half ago and I found him to...

Alvin Love is a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, a co-founder and pastor of Nashville Life Church, and an all around pretty incredible guy. This was honestly one of the most fun and exciting conversations I’ve had in a long time. I first really heard of Alvin because of a record that he wrote and produced for his mother, legendary gospel artist CeCe Winans. The album is called “Let Them Fal...

Gabe Scott was ten days away from opening Ladybird Taco, his first restaurant, when America shut down for the quarantine. We sat down, socially distant, together in their almost-finished dining room and talked about his journey from musician to restauranteur. I first met Gabe as a musician twenty years ago. Over the years he’s been a huge part of the music of Andrew Peterson, Crowder, Bebo Norman,...

You might know Rachael Lampa as a young CCM pop singer with mad vocal chops. And it seems that for a while, that’s how Rachael knew her self, too. She has had some amazing experiences as a musician, all kinds of cool things on TV and traveling the world with huge artists, and those are fun stories. But what clearly lights her up is the work that she and her family have done with the homeless and i...

Kevin Twit is a pastor, theologian, songwriter and friend. He's a Nashville legend, having shepherded many artists and thinkers through their college years as the leader of RUF at Belmont University. An expert and frequent speaker on the subject of old hymns, he's just a smart dude, and I'm thankful to know him. He married Alison and I and we have been friends for over half my life now. Our intern...

Where do you even start with Ron Block. As a musician, he is an absolute legend. You know how many Grammys Taylor Swift has? Ten. John Legend? Ten. How many Grammys has Ron Block got? FOURTEEN!! You know how many Dove awards for best album packaging I have lost? Two. Ron has won a lot of those awards, of course, from his tenure as banjo and guitar player for Alison Krauss and Union Station. He’s a...

David Johnson is the founder of an organization called Silent Images. They are storytellers who come alongside non-profits and ministries to help them share the work they’re doing through video and photography. But David wasn’t always a business owner or a ministry partner, or even a photographer. This is a great empowering story of what happens when you choose to say yes to the doors that open in...

You probably know Mark Stuart as the lead singer of the massively successful band Audio Adrenaline. But he’s also a husband, a father, a new author, a divorcee, and a man deeply in love with the nation of Haiti. And, he lives in an RV…. Audio Adrenaline and The Normals, my first band, were actually label-mates around the turn of the century. Obviously, they were a huge success and we, we were not....

Ben Shive is a genius record producer, piano player, string arranger, and poet. He's also a husband, a father, a church elder, and a dear friend of mine, and to many in our community. I've known and worked closely with Ben for twenty years now, and while I've always marveled at his skill and musical prowess, in the last few years I've been more and more impressed by who Ben has been becoming as a...

A couple years ago Jeremy Cowart was named the “Most Influential Photographer on the Internet” by Huffington Post, Forbes and Yahoo. He’s also an artist, an entrepreneur, a public speaker and a husband and father of four kids. Before all that, he was probably the first “web designer” I had ever met, way back in the early 2000s. Not only is this dude an incredible artist and photographer, but he’s...

Don Donahue is back! Together, he and I spend this hour discussing questions sent in by listeners after our interview last month. We get to tell some great stories and talk about community, intentionality, and what it can look like to be open to God's leading in our lives. Thank you for these great questions! What an honor to get to share this hour with Don, one of my heroes. If you enjoy this kin...

Nate Larkin was a pastor, the son of a pastor, a young husband, and also a sex addict. His story is one of incredible sadness and also incredible hope. He has gone on to found an organization called the Samson Society, a fellowship of Christian men who are serious about authenticity, community, humility & recovery. It’s been a place of much healing for thousands of men walking through addictio...

David Hampton finally told a friend that he was an alcoholic. Years later, he’s now an addiction recovery specialist helping people out of the situation he had once been in himself. I first knew David, though, as the worship leader at the church I attended in college. I had heard through the grapevine that his wife was not doing well. I did not realize she was bedridden for years with MS, and sadl...

Garett and Carrie Buell met and married when Garett and I were in the band Caedmon’s Call together, and Carrie was in a band called Alathea. Since leaving music full-time, they have started an incredibly successful real estate and architectural photography business, Studio Buell, with a staff of eleven photographers, also mostly former musicians. This was a delightful trip down memory lane of how...

Don Donahue might not be a familiar name to most of you, and that’s how he likes it. But as a kid reading liner notes in his bedroom in Illinois, there were three or four names that always seemed to pop up on album after album and Don Donahue was one of them. Turns out he was A&R on some of the most important albums of my youth, Michael W Smith’s “Change Your World”, Rich Mullins “The World As...

My guest today is from the nation of Eritrea, in Northeast Africa. He has been granted legal and permanent asylum here in the US. To get here, he was smuggled through 18 countries on a terribly dangerous journey. He is currently pursuing American citizenship and hopes to return to Eritrea someday, as a visitor. The story you’re about to hear may put some of those things in jeopardy were they to be...

Diana Beach Batarseh is, and has been, a number of things. An educator, a school founder, a wife, a mother, a widow, a wife again, a gifted songwriter and a brilliant worship leader. She is one of the most thoughtful, wise, and kind people I know. This was a wide-ranging and beautiful discussion about life and how we live it. We talk about all of these different seasons of her life and so much mor...

Charlie Peacock is a legendary record producer, songwriter, artist, author and thought leader. He’s written hit songs for Amy Grant and dc Talk, discovered and produced Switchfoot and the Civil Wars, and won multiple Grammy awards. He and his wife Andi founded the Art House, where luminaries like Eugene Peterson or Bono would came to speak, and where I now have my studio. He is one of the most int...

Nathan Tasker is a father, a songwriter and, alongside his wife Cassie, a co-director of the Art House Nashville. Nathan and Cassie have had some of the highest highs and lowest lows over the past dozen years or so, and the insight and wisdom that Nathan has to share is remarkable. This is an episode you'll wish you could underline and highlight, it's got so many wonderful moments. And a pretty gr...

Dennis Parker was a seven-year-old banjo champion, and now he plays guitar with Ricky Skaggs. We talk about that a little, but we talk a lot more about prison, being an alcoholic, and running from responsibility until it catches up with you. Dennis is an amazingly kind and talented man. He speaks with such wisdom, humility and vulnerability. This felt like a sacred moment and I know you will get a...

Kelly Corday is a radio DJ, a mother, a widow, and (for a brief time) was my cubicle neighbor at the record company where I work. This one covers a lot of ground, as we talk about grief, family, and what it looks like when you’re in a job that’s not right, and you know it on day one. Kelly is a lot of fun to talk to, and she also had a home video of her dog go viral, but I forgot to ask about it!...