It's entirely possible, likely even, that you were introduced to Anthem Lights through one of their medleys or mashups on social media. With close to 8 million followers across all platforms, their passion for creating family friendly entertainment is resonating with so many. The group stops in to share with us about why they have poured so much in…

The Ward brothers have been doing ministry through music for longer than they haven't at this point, which means they have lived a lot of life cooped up in enclosed spaces together. Funny enough, Caleb, Jordan, and Josh share that they were probably better behaved on the road when they were younger and their parents were their means of travel. The …

Sometimes life hits us hard and in the ways we least expect it... and it can surface wounds we forgot that we had. When this happens, we can either sit in the hurt and the pain, or we can run to our God that can heal us. Blanca shares about her journey of healing coming out of some of the toughest seasons of her life.Blanca also chats with us about…

Tobymac Hits Deep Tour. Newsboys Stand Together Tour. K-Love Live at Red Rocks. Along with quite a few festivals and other shows, Cochren & Co. has had a busy year. Michael Cochren shares his journey from a regional opening artist to taking the stage of some of biggest tours. Podcast host Jake had the chance to attend a few of these shows, Michael …

The CoJo Show has taken the Internet by storm with videos like "K-Love Dads" and "The Steven Curtis Chapman Song", a video that led to a huge surprise while in the K-Love studios. Coby James and Joseph O'Brien sang that they wanted to write a banger like Steven Curtis Chapman... they got the chance to just a short while later! Coby and Joseph talk …

In this installment of the Next Big Thing series, we would like to introduce you to CLINE. The group is comprised of the siblings Darrick, Garrett, and Jacquelyn Cline. Garrett and Darrick are brothers, Jacquelyn is Garrett's wife and I'm sure they would all say she's there to make them sound and look good.While they are relatively new to the CCM a…

Ben Fuller's song "Who I Am" has made an impact on so many of us... as evidenced by how long it dominated the charts at #1 and recently earning an NRT We Love Awards nomination. Behind that song is a man who has fought through addictions in a primarily unchurched part of the country. After moving to Nashville, Ben had an encounter with Jesus that b…

The term Selah traditionally refers to a rest, most often in a musical context. This is ironic as the group Selah has done everything but rest this past year. They've released 3 full albums, spent time on the road, and celebrated their 25th anniversary.Selah member Todd Smith shares Selah history and stories from their 25 years. One of the albums r…

A lot has happened since we chatted with Tasha Layton about this time last year: she released her debut album, there were #1 songs, the tours... and then on top of all that, she released a second album for Christmas. While she's found success and received the accolades, she is more focused on following the call that God has on her life. Plaques fad…

The magic formula for how to reach the next generation seems to be the most elusive item in the modern church. Every youth group and students ministry has had to struggle with how to best reach students. In modern times, it seems even more of a struggle as social media is ingrained in culture and there are so many voices and ideologies tugging at o…

In a recent interview, Bart Millard of MercyMe was asked if he felt like he was preaching to the choir sometimes. His response was that now he absolutely is preaching to the choir because it's divided and splintered. With their time on stage, their hope is that maybe the few thousand people there can agree on something for an hour and a half when i…

In this installment of the Next Big Thing series, we are introduced to Todd Rukes. Todd is a Worship Pastor turned HR Director turned Recruiter turned Recording Artist. From his unique vantage point as a recruiter, Todd shares some wisdom for both churches and potential worship pastors as they search for the match for their ministries. Todd also ta…

Since his debut in 2018, Peabod has become known for his unique, poppy brand of hip hop. While Peabod didn't start out in hip hop, he has found freedom in the genre to explore new ways to create. Just as his career in music was starting to take off, he got thrown a curveball when the pandemic took hold. As a newlywed, there was a silver lining sinc…

Andrew Greer offers the thought that in our efforts to become more diverse, maybe we have become homogenized than we intend. We must speak, act, think the same in order to be heard, and humans are not designed for this. We are created to have relationships and exchange thoughts in a manner that is enriching to one another... but do we have the habi…

What is the NRT Now Podcast? In each episode, we spend some time with your favorite Christian Artists (or introduce you to an artist... maybe your new favorite artist?) and share stories. Whether it's a story from their journey or the music itself... we share a laugh, encouragement, and deepen our faith one conversation at a time.--- Send in a voic…

A couple years after releasing one of the biggest songs of 2020 with his wife Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes is set to release a live album declaring this truth: God Is Good. In a time where everything seems so complicated, there is power in the simplicity of that truth. There are so many depths of that truth to explore, but it is truly that simple. Cody t…

When Hope Darst introduces a new song as part of her church, she can gauge how the song is impacting and how people connect with it. When Hope released her debut solo album in 2020, not only was she stepping out in faith in becoming a solo artist, she released the songs in a period where she couldn't be in the room to see the connection. As she is …

After several years of meeting in nightclubs around LA, Fearless Church finally found a building and was getting ready to move in at the beginning of 2020. Though the pandemic delayed their move into the new building for services, Pastor Jeremy Johnson shares how they used their building and the area around it to serve their community faithfully so…

It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since Kutless released their debut album. To celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, Kutless re-recorded 3 songs from the album and added a 'Kutless in 2022' flavor to them. As we continue the 20th anniversary celebration, Jon Micah Sumrall and James Mead join us to share some stories.Whether it's near d…

In this installment of the Next Big Thing series, we are introduced to Sean BE. Sean invites us to step into his story as he talks about his journey from Next Gen pastor to recording artist. Sean shares with us about the leaps of faith it took to get to this season, as well as some of the challenges he faced growing up as a pastor's grandkid.--- Se…

The hit series The Chosen is filming season 3 in North Texas. One of the episodes in Season 3 is the miracle of the Feeding of the 5,000. Back in August of 2021, The Chosen announced that they would be opening up the opportunity to be an extra in the episode. Over the course of 2 days, over 12,000 people descended on Midlothian, TX to be a part of …

When we last caught up with Ryan Williams from River Valley Worship in the summer of 2020, River Valley Church was on the front end of a season full of challenges. Between a pandemic, their city being at the center of our news cycles, and division surrounding them, RVC had a lot to navigate. As we chat with Ryan at the release of their album 'Faith…

Kevin Olusola was a pre-med student and training in classical music on the cello. Donovan Donnell was a male exotic dancer. Both Kevin and Donovan stepped out onto the path God had for them and found that it led toward reaching their dreams. Donovan is an author, life coach, and speaker, among many other things.Kevin is now a member of the wildly s…

Mark Lowry's career has spanned a few decades and he has cemented his legacy in not only the Southern Gospel community, but also the Christian Comedian community. Or is that the other way around? Maybe it was his song "Mary, Did You Know?" Either way, he has impacted many lives and shared the Gospel all over the world as part of the Gaither Vocal B…

As Josh Holiday from Elevation Rhythm reminds us, so many periods of time are marked by the art and music that emerge from them. You can see and feel what's happening as you listen to music or gaze at a painting from that period. Josh and fellow Elevation Rhythm member Davide Mutendji share about this period in Elevation Church's Youth ministry tha…

The idea for Honor & Glory was started by conversations in the back of Disciple's tour bus. As they were chatting about their weekends, the realization hit them that worship was important enough that they were all playing in church on their days off. Since they were all worshipping separately at their respective churches, why not do it together... …

Over the last few years, for KING & COUNTRY has become one of the biggest names in Christian music. Despite having their faces featured on billboards and touring semi-trucks, features in major publications and TV programming, and all the accolades... their mission remains the same as it was when they started: connecting to people and connecting peo…

River Valley Worship released Altars in the late spring of 2020 while the world was still trying to figure out what was happening and right before their hometown of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN was thrust into the center of national conversations. Even though all this was swirling around, something was bubbling in the Youth ministry at River Valley Chu…

We Love Awards nominated artist Abby Robertson joined the ranks of artists like Sarah Reeves, for KING & COUNTRY, Sidewalk Prophets... Not only have all these artists been nominated for We Love Awards, but they have all been Pre-Jam artists on past WinterJam tours. On the last stop of WinterJam 2022, Abby talks about her time on tour and how she ha…

It's crazy how conversations we have or songs we write wind up ministering to us just as much as anyone else. When Jordan St. Cyr wrote the hit song Fires a few years ago, he wrote it about a man who was on the verge of losing everything. When Jordan was faced with his own fires when his youngest daughter was diagnosed with health concerns, God use…

Life comes at us hard and at times it feels like we're alone in what we're going through. 10th Annual We Love Awards Host Branan Murphy shares about his heartbeat for connecting with people and walking alongside them. He tells us that even though the last couple years have been tough for him, he wouldn't trade the lessons he's learned or how it's d…

The Bible tells us that there will be trials in this life, but it also tells us that a joyful heart is good medicine. If Comedian Jeff Allen has made you laugh till your sides hurt and made you forget about everything else for a while, he's accomplished his mission. Though Jeff has been in the comedy game for many years, his brand of humor changed …

Just like so many artists, Elevation Worship was set to take Elevation Nights on the road before the whole world shut down. During the season that followed, Elevation Worship released 'Graves Into Gardens' and 'Old Church Basement.' Worship Leader Chris Brown shares about the move that happened in their church and their worship team that came from …

When life changes on a dime, it's easy to long for what life was like before and where we were comfortable. In these moments, however, things are revealed that we weren't able to see before. Planetboom, the youth expression of Planetshakers church, is located in Melbourne, Australia where Pastor Noah and Pastor Aimee describe as one of the most loc…

When life gets tough, it's easy to say all the Christian things out loud while being in pain quietly. Joseph Rojas of Seventh Day Slumber shares with us how Christian Rock tends to live in the space of expressing the emotion that is under the surface. As we chat about how music impacts us, Joseph shares a story of a CCM Artist friend who helped him…

Passion Conference's website says this about their mission: "We are calling this generation, with different voices, but one song, different backgrounds, but one Father, different nationalities, but one eternal home. When we come together for the name of Jesus, we are changed, personally and collectively." Worship Leader Kristian Stanfill shares abo…

After about a decade and 5 albums, life caught up with the members of the Dove Award-winning band Stellar Kart and they decided it was time for a change of seasons. Frontman Adam Agee has continued his career in music as a member of Audio Adrenaline and with his solo projects. As he's releasing his first solo album, he shares his journey from the S…

Music has always been a part of Coby James's life. While he may not have been releasing chart-topping hits at 15, he was laying the groundwork for a ministry he knew God was calling him to. Coby's story includes health issues as a kid and moving to a new place as the world was shutting down, but he has remained faithful to his ministry and has weav…

As we close out this amazing year in Christian music, we brought in a panel to discuss our 10th annual We Love Christian Music Awards. NRT President, Founder, and all-around good guy Kevin McNeese joins host Jake Frederick and Visible Music College/Madison Line Records' own Crystal Bergman. The panel chats about the music that came out in 2021, the…

You may know Mac Powell's distinctive voice from the iconic band Third Day. Although the season of Third Day has come to a close, Mac has not slowed down at all. He has pursued his solo Country work with Mac Powell and the Family Reunion and has recently released his debut solo CCM project. In this Christmas episode, Mac shares about his family Chr…

Author and Artist Maddie Rey has been a part of her family's youth-focused ministry since she was about 12 years old. Maddie has continued that passion for youth ministry into books and music. In this episode, Maddie shares about speaking biblical truth into this next generation.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/n…

There is power when you're open and raw with your story. When Mōriah Smallbone and her husband Joel Smallbone (for KING & COUNTRY) started their cinematic podcast BECOMING:us, being open with their story was a priority. In this episode, Mōriah shares about their podcast and about her new EP. Part of the story of her EP is the diverse group of frien…

We're starting our 2021 Christmas episodes with a hint of an #NRTwenty theme. We catch up with Shelley from Point of Grace to chat about their music from the albums in the '90s to their brand new Christmas album. We talk about books from Girls of Grace to their recent book How You Live: Lessons Learned. Shelley shares some of their journey over the…

We first caught up with Tasha in 2019 for Episode 17 as she shared her testimony. She shared about her faith journey and the miracles that she and her husband Keith Everett Smith have witnessed. We catch back up with Tasha for another Thanksgiving episode and to hear what God has done in their lives over the past couple of years. From their second …

Christmas is the season for joy, generosity, and good cheer. By the time Christmas rolls around, there has been a lot of life lived since the beginning of the year. After the last couple of years that we've walked through, we could definitely use some Christmas. Matthew West has released an album aptly named 'We Need Christmas' and we discuss some …

It's not common for an artist to follow up several #1 hits with a hiatus. Shortly after Chasen released their 'That Was Then, This Is Now' album that had 2 of their #1's, Chasen Callahan hit pause and joined the staff at his church in South Carolina. Chasen shares about the season in between where he has found the balance between ministry and being…

A prerequisite for revival is desperation... a desperation for God that is new and fresh. Have you heard the phrase God won't give you anything that you can't handle? Rebecca St. James discusses that one piece to this Biblical concept that can get overlooked is that we find ourselves in situations that we cannot handle by ourselves, but we can with…

Gospel artist Jason Clayborn and CCM worship leader Stephen McWhirter first connected while Jason's group performed on a Louisville, KY TV show called "The Sound." The instant friendship has led to a series of collaborations celebrating both artists' musical cultures. If Heaven is going to be filled with people of every tongue and every nation, we …

Love is a powerful force, it can do things without even saying things. Danny Gokey shares with he wishes that was something he learned when he was younger, and how something as simple as loving your kids can make an impact on someone without you ever noticing. Danny also talks about his new album Jesus People and the heart of compassion that went i…

The Newsboys have been given the gift of time, both in the longevity of the band and in this recent season. In this episode, we chat about the Newsboys' legacy and the seasons that have gone into this legacy. We also discuss the time that went into crafting the new album, Stand. The Newsboys share their heart behind the album and the songs.--- Send…