About Christopher Lewis
He grew up in a loving, Christian home
in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in a musical family deeply involved
in both Gospel music and in serving the Lord. Being the son
of a deacon of their local church gave Christopher and the other
Lewis children the inspiration to also become involved in their
church, mostly through the church's music program.
"Making music was the thing to do at
our house. It was like cutting grass," Lewis explains. It is
safe to say that the members of the Lewis household were exposed
often to Gospel music. Besides being a deacon in church, Christopher's
father also sang in a Gospel Quartet
called The Twilight Gospel Singers, which exposed young Christopher
and his siblings to traditional Gospel music.
Though Christopher Lewis loved Gospel
music from an early age, he also liked to take his radio to
bed with him and listened to all the popular secular music;
R& B, soul, The Beatles, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, as
well as Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, John P. Kee, Fred Hammond,
Kurt Carr, Tonex, Commissioned and The Winans, to just name
a few. These early influences became part of Christopher's musical
background, melding with his Gospel music exposure, which partially
explains why his music reaches across generations and denominations,
bringing the message of Jesus to a wide listening audience.
Christopher Lewis makes it clear that
he depends on inspiration from the Lord in composing and writing
lyrics, which is why these songs are so moving and effective.
Christopher feels that the songs he creates are from the Lord
and need to be shared for His glory.
This inspiration to create songs for
the Lord started early in his life. At the tender age of 7,
Christopher Lewis was composing songs and lyrics of such quality
that they made their way into the choir repertoire of his home
church. When only 11 years old, Christopher and his brother,
Jay, formed their own Gospel group, The Spiritual Seven, which
served the Lord by performing for various events through Christopher's
preteen and teen years, all the way up to his high school graduation.
Christopher continued on to earn his
degree in music entertainment management at the Art Institute
of Atlanta. From 1990 - 1996, Christopher formed a nine voice
ensemble, New Anointing, a group which found itself in demand
for concerts and events around and in Atlanta.
In 1996, Christopher Lewis performed
solo, continued to write songs, which other artists performed
also. Judith Christie-McAllister had huge success with Lewis'
song, SING PRAISES TO THEE, making it a modern day praise standard.
Christopher focussed his energies toward family life and a ministry
in his church in Georgia.
During the '90's, he married the love
of his life, Leslie, and they started a family, which eventually
grew to 4 children. Christopher and Leslie jumped into ministry
with their church at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Christopher
and his wife, Leslie, led the Arts and Worship Department at
Voices of Faith Ministries in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Christopher
became the worship leader and his wife, Leslie led the liturgical
dance ministry at Voices of Faith Ministries, which they still
do today. They reached out every Sunday with the message that
people should praise and worship God in any circumstance, which
includes their trials and tribulations, because the Lord is
faithful, merciful, and looks out for our best interests.(Romans
8:28). We need to trust and depend on the Lord. (Romans 5:1-5).
They became living examples of what
they preached and believed. Both Christopher and Leslie found
that their faith was greatly tested, molded and grown through
the life-threatening heart problems of their daughter, who was
born with a severely deformed heart and a dismal life expectancy. As he has told the Voices of Faith
congregation many times, "God will show His Hand (his will)
and His Mercy. He will then pronounce judgment over a situation."
In their case, "God blessed us with
a miracle." Their little daughter survived open heart surgery.
As to date, she has had three open heart surgeries to help to
correct her problems. Christopher Lewis reflects, "Out of that
experience I learned to say, 'Lord, let me trust you more. It's
an indescribable feeling as a parent to be looking at your child
in such a desperate condition and to be absolutely helpless
to do anything for her. We talk about turning things over to
God, but it's a time like that when you learn whether you really
mean it or not, because turning it over to God is all you can
do. It took us to a whole new level of faith."
This experience also changed their awareness
of their priorities. Christopher Lewis shares, "That experience
totally altered our perspective of what's really important in
life, and what's not nearly as important as we once thought."
Developing a heart for sharing for what
the Lord has blessed them with is a priority, whether it is
a song or a learned revelation or talent
or something more personal. In 2002, Christopher Lewis gave
one of his kidneys to his brother Jay, who had suffered complete,
unexplainable kidney failure. When Christopher found out that
he genetically matched all 6 of the criteria used by doctors
to find a donor, it was a confirmation from the Lord.
Christopher Lewis comments, "He's
doing fine now. To see him go from being tired and bound to
his dialysis machine every day of his life, to getting rid of
it forever was a totally overwhelming feeling of joy."
