Chris Tomlin ranks among the leading performers and advocates in today's contemporary Christian music scene. A singer, songwriter, and worship leader who has captured both Dove and Grammy honors while moving more than seven million units, he first surfaced during the mid-1990s. His breakthrough arrived in 2004 when Arriving topped the CCM charts and introduced the songs “Holy Is the Lord,” “How Great Is Our God,” and “Our God,” three compositions now sung by millions of worshippers around the globe each week. Follow-up projects such as Hello Love (2008), Burning Lights (2013), and Never Lose Sight (2016) earned gold and platinum status, confirming Tomlin’s dual role as a commercial force and a cultural bridge for faith-centered music and modern worship. Entering the following decade, he launched a series of high-profile collaborations on the star-laden Chris Tomlin & Friends album, then issued the worship project Always a year later.
Born in Grand Saline, Texas, in 1972, Tomlin absorbed country music during childhood and picked up guitar instruction from his father, later naming Willie Nelson’s Stardust as a formative influence. He embraced Jesus Christ at age nine and composed his first worship song at fourteen. Enrolling at Texas A&M in the early 1990s to pursue medicine, Tomlin instead answered a vocational pull toward ministry and became active in the campus fellowship Breakaway. While serving as a worship leader there, he joined Bible-study gatherings led by Louie Giglio, who directed a similar Christian organization called Choice at Baylor University in Waco. The two collaborated at youth camps, where Tomlin regularly performed praise songs for Giglio’s events. Giglio’s ministry later grew into Passion, a national network for college-age believers, and he founded Six Steps Records to document youth-focused Christian talent. Tomlin, whose material had already become staples at Breakaway and Passion gatherings, signed as one of the label’s earliest artists; his debut, The Noise We Make, appeared in 2001. The musicians he assembled while pastoring at Harvest Ministry in Woodland, Texas—Daniel Carson on guitar, Jesse Reeves on bass, and Ryan Sandlin on drums—began touring, frequently appearing at Passion events nationwide and mounting their own headline shows. Ryan Sandlin departed in 2004, after which Travis Nunn assumed the drum chair.
In 2002 Tomlin relocated to Austin and joined the pastoral staff at Stone Community Church, shepherding a congregation of 1,500. As Arriving claimed the 2005 Dove Award for Praise & Worship Album of the Year and See the Morning reached number one on Billboard’s Christian albums chart while peaking at number 15 on the Billboard 200, Tomlin earned two Grammy nominations for the latter release, yet he consistently stressed that his core mission outweighed personal acclaim. His fifth studio set, 2008’s Hello Love, received gold certification and preceded the 2009 holiday collection Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship, 2010’s And If Our God Is for Us…, and Burning Lights, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2013. Love Ran Red, Tomlin’s tenth studio album and home to the hit singles “Waterfall” and “Jesus Loves Me,” surfaced in 2014; he also appeared on the Passion release Even So Come the next year. That same year he inaugurated Worship Night in America, a traveling program of music and prayer staged at landmark venues such as New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre and later shown in hundreds of theaters across the country.
Tomlin sustained mainstream momentum in 2016 with an eighth career Grammy nomination and the studio album Never Lose Sight, which climbed to number six on the Billboard 200. After the 2017 holiday record Adore: Christmas Songs of Worship, he issued the single “Resurrection Power” in January 2018. Continuing his annual Worship Night in America tour, he welcomed Kim Walker-Smith, Matt Maher, and Tauren Wells as guests that year. Later in 2018 he released the five-song EP Nobody Loves Me Like You and followed it in November with his twelfth studio album, Holy Roar, which rose to number three on the Billboard Christian Albums chart. In 2020 Tomlin recruited Thomas Rhett, Florida Georgia Line, and Needtobreathe for the collaborative Chris Tomlin & Friends project, which extended into 2021 with the Chris Tomlin & Friends: Summer EP featuring Tyler Hubbard and Jimmie Allen. The worship album Always arrived in 2022, spotlighting contributions from Elevation Worship, Brandon Lake, and Steffany Gretzinger.
