Zach Williams' Story

So I'm from a little town, northeast Arkansas about 1,200 people. I grew up in a Christian home with a good family they really taught me you know what it was to be a Christian and just faith in an early age Music was a big part of my life. Even though I didn't play an instrument my dad, led music in church He was in bands growing up. I didn't really get into music though until my freshman year in college I had gone off to play it in junior college play basketball, and I I tore my ankle up which ended up Kind of confining me to my apartment, but my roommate had brought down an old guitar his freshman year. I taught myself how to play his guitar and from that point on immediately fell in love with music So eventually I ended up in a Southern rock band started going into studio and working on an album after that album, we kind of took off. We got a booking agent in Europe right after the album came out and booked ourselves a month-long tour all across France and Belgium and Spain And I just remember thinking that I was exactly where I wanted to be. I had made it I was a rock star and with that attitude and that lifestyle came a lot of bad things Was living hard. I was miserable and everybody around me could see it, but I was so lost things started changing in my life But I still wasn't ready to quit doing the band thing. In 2012, we had a tour booked to Europe. I just remember thinking to myself, it's time to make a change But I didn't know if I was strong enough to do it on my own Started going to this church and the pastor and the worship leaders started pouring into my life and just I started feeling like There was a way out of what I was doing I called my wife and I told her I was gonna quit my band when I come home And we were gonna start going to the church that we've been visiting and I felt like God was really speaking to me and telling Me that I was using the gifts that he had given me for the wrong reason. Within a year of going to the church. They had they had this idea of a new campus that they wanted to start and took me to lunch one day and just kind of shared their story with what God had kind of put on their heart and and Where they were wanting to go, direction wise with a new campus And they were really looking for somebody with my story We were trying to reach people who had never never had an encounter with Jesus or maybe had had one at a church or They were offended or never found their place. In 2015 they offered me a full-time position as the director over the campus So when I first started writing songs it was really simple But as I grew older and started experiencing more things in my life, and really started feeling like I had something to write about my songs started to transform and It's a really cool thing being a songwriter just being able to really document, the seasons of your life. Just knowing where I've come from to where I am now. What God's continually doing in my life. I mean every day I can look back over the last couple of months and just see the thing that God's done in my life and just being able to to write that in song and share that with people be able to give people hope and to see that lives can truly change if you surrender to Jesus and that if you if you do what he's truly asking you to do I think being able to write that and share that with people that's really the reason why I like writing songs. All the things that I've done in my life, and the things God's allowed me to live for, He's given me a story He's given me something to use for his glory and Just knowing that I could possibly one day have a song that could speak to somebody who's in the same situation that I was in is really the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Channel: Zach Williams

Views: 496,328

Rating: 4.9516468 out of 5

Keywords: christian music, zach williams, chain breaker, old church choir, fear is a liar, klove, christian radio

Id: L76pog3GjKM

Length: 4min 24sec (264 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 29 2016