Charles Billingsley

Charles Billingsley has built a reputation as a leading voice in contemporary Christian music through his work as a singer, songwriter, and worship leader whose sound blends pop and rock sensibilities. His career began to take shape in the first half of the 1990s when he performed with the group NewSong, an association that led to wider notice once he launched a solo trajectory marked by Top 20 Christian albums such as the 1999 release Between the Now and Then and Right Here in 2016. Beyond his recordings, he has sustained a regular role as worship pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Born in Clovis, New Mexico, in 1970, Billingsley spent his childhood in Alabama, where his interest in performance first developed during his teenage years through singing with a local youth group. Gospel music formed one early influence, yet he also absorbed country, pop, and R&B textures during that period. While enrolled at Samford University in Birmingham, he issued his debut album, Choice of a Lifetime, in 1992; the song “The Sparrow” from that project received regional radio exposure and helped establish his presence. After completing the hymn collection Until Then: A Collection of Hymns, he joined the longstanding Christian ensemble NewSong in 1993 as vocalist and trumpeter.

During his tenure the band reached new levels of visibility, securing repeated CHR chart-topping singles and contributing to the breakthrough 1994 album People Get Ready. He exited NewSong in early 1996 to resume solo work, releasing Change and Live! on Crest Music in 1997. A shift to Pamplin Music produced Between Now and Then, which reached the Top 20 of the contemporary Christian chart in 1999, followed by Marks of the Mission the next year.

In 2002 Billingsley assumed his ongoing post as worship pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Around the same time he aligned with Perpetual Entertainment Group, resulting in Secret Conversation in 2003 and We Bless Your Name in 2004. Signing with Red Tie Music yielded the holiday album Christmas and the hymn collection Enduring Treasures, both issued in 2007. The subsequent year brought the paired releases Hope, Love and Music and Classics. Extraordinary Women 09 Live Worship appeared in 2009 and documented his set at the Christian women’s EW conference in Greenville, South Carolina; also that year God of the Ages: Live at Thomas Road entered the Billboard Christian Albums chart.

He later founded the Charles Billingsley Concert Ministry label, under which he released Never Forsaken in 2011, the anniversary collection 20 in 2012, and the companion live album In Concert the same year. Only Jesus followed in 2014 and contained the track “Jesus, Only Jesus,” which featured guest vocals from Michael O’Brien, Travis Cottrell, and Guy Penrod. Two years later Right Here, issued on StowTown Records and produced by Grammy winners Keith Everette Smith and Seth Mosley, again placed in the Top 20 of the Billboard Christian Albums chart and included the duet “See You Again” with Meredith Andrews. The holiday project It’s Christmas Time Again arrived in 2017. In April 2020 he returned with the Everette Smith-produced I Was Made for This, an album that paired original material with carefully chosen covers including a reinterpretation of the Newsboys’ “We Believe,” Mr. Mister’s “Kyrie,” and Sting’s “Fragile.”