How Losing His Voice Changed Singer Phil Wickham’s ‘Inner Life’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian artists Phil Wickham and Kristian Stanfill recently shared moments in their musical lives that drew them closer to God and helped them find their voice.
“I did not have a good voice,” Stanfill said during an episode of Sadie Robertson Huff’s “WHOA That’s Good” podcast. “I just loved music. I had this guitar, I had this growing faith and relationship with Jesus, and I would just sit in my bedroom for hours and just learn songs.”
He continued, “I didn’t know it then, but that was the fuel for the fire, you know? Just being with Him, walking with Him, talking with Him, finding those quiet spaces with Him; that’s the fuel.”
Stanfill was eventually asked to be a worship leader at his church, and his career as an artist took off from there.
In an interview with CBN, he shared his songwriting process, saying, “Where I’ve been operating from in the past two or three years especially, is just being honest and authentic with what God is doing in my life and being honest and authentic with what God’s doing in our church in the world.”
Stanfill added, “So I think it’s for me right now, it’s just being real and honest with what’s happening right now and writing the song that God gives, making it the best it can be, and then giving it to the church and giving it to the people. If God wants to breathe on it and send it to the far reaches of the world, that’s amazing.”
Wickham also shared the story of how he rediscovered his voice. The singer was diagnosed with a vocal polyp in 2013 after years of working as a musician. Doctors told him he had to undergo surgery and be silent for a month. Wickham explained that, after centering his whole life around his music and voice, he now wondered who he was without that.
READ MORE: PHIL WICKHAM OPENS UP ABOUT WORSHIP, COLLABS ON NEW ALBUM
“I remember [asking God]…’Who am I?’” he recalled during a low moment. “And the answer came to me. [God is] my father.’ And it’s like ‘What does that make me?’ I’m your son…it was such a heaven moment.”
Wickham remembered God saying, “I love you, and I want you because I’ve made you and you’re Mine.”
“What that means is that the father, the creator of the universe, wants me to call Him father, and so I can trust in His love,” he continued. “It changed the course of my inner life.”
Wickham recently spoke about his desire to keep worship simple at his concerts.
“There’s something special — especially when people are used to the free-for-all fireworks going off thing, which I love — there’s something kind of shocking to the system when you’re like shoulder to shoulder, standing room only, in this room and all that’s happening is some guy strumming an acoustic guitar and we’re singing out ‘Jesus, the anthem of my heart, Jesus, the anchor of my soul,’ and the only thing to grab your attention is that lyric and that melody,” he told Relevant Magazine.
He added, There’s probably a number of reasons behind that, but something about just simplifying and kind of shocking the system into like, ‘Oh yeah, all it’s about is what we’re singing about.’ And everything else, and all that we can add, should kind of work toward getting people around this common thread of ‘Jesus, the anthem of my heart.’”
READ MORE: PHIL WICKHAM KEEPS WORSHIP SIMPLE DURING UPCOMING TOUR
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