A Creative in Corporate: How to Find God's Purpose in Both Worlds with Chris Whittington, Recording Artist

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (00:00)
Have you ever felt like you're being pulled in two different directions? Like your calling is split between what fills your bank account and what fills your creative spirit? What if that tension isn't a bad thing? Is it possible that God wants you to embrace two different callings? That you could say yes to a creative life, but also yes to a business or corporate role at the exact same time? In this episode, you're going to hear from Chris Whittington, a steel industry executive.

with over 20 years of experience in the corporate world, but at the same time, being a lifelong musician and worship leader. He spent decades learning how to walk fully in both spaces without treating either one like a backup plan.

You're going to learn what it really means to live with dual purpose, how to stop seeing your creative career as something that competes with your business life and why obedience matters more than business success. My name is Allen C. Paul, and this is the God and Gigs Show, where we help you to become the creator that you are created to be. And by the end of this conversation, I want you to walk away with this one realization. You don't have to choose between the gifts that God has given you. You can embrace and make the most of all of

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:19)
I would like to welcome Chris Whittington to the God and Gigs show. How are you my friend?

Chris (01:24)
I am better now, Allen. ⁓ I have enjoyed getting to know you some recently and I've been excitedly looking forward to this time with you.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:34)
Well, I've been excited too. And as we always have to do in these kinds of interviews, we have to let people in on your world in like 30, 45 minutes and you have so much to share.

So if somebody is meeting you for the first time, and let's just say they didn't read the bio, even though you have an extensive resume and an incredible website that that was just perusing. If they don't get a chance to look into that, what are the first couple of things that you want people to know about you just upon first meeting? Let's say it's at a coffee shop, a grocery store, and they don't get to learn all the other things that you do. What are those things that you want them to know about you upon that first meeting?

Chris (02:08)
Thank you, Allen. Great question right off the top. I love the living God. I consider myself to be a poor example of a lover of the living God, ⁓ but I'm by his grace working on that every day. And I am grateful for the gifts he has loaned to me, whatever talents I have musically for entrepreneurial.

pursuits, business. I'm grateful, of course, for my family and friends and church, including new friends such as yourself, and ⁓ just getting to walk this road after Christ with y'all.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (02:48)
See now if I heard that I would already again know what your heart is about. You've mentioned family. You've mentioned your faith You've not even really gone into deep into what you do as a musician or as a business owner So that didn't even enter your mind. That's why I like to ask that question first Because it shows that this is not what you're leading with You're not like hey, you know go out and buy this or go out and you know, you know promote this your heart is about those things now, of course

Chris (03:03)
Right.

Yeah.

right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:16)
Connected to those things that you just mission faith and family and loving God and following him are the ways that you walk that out So what I'd love to dig into now is how did at least a couple of those passions start

was there a musical or a creative inspiration in your childhood or was there something else? What was the thing that was driving you as a, know, coming up that started to direct you toward a certain path?

Chris (03:39)
AM radio in the 1960s, pop radio, just rife with wonderful things like the Yardbirds and the Young Rascals and later that morphing into my brother and I discovering FM radio and Yes and Jethro Tull and what was called Art Rock back then. ⁓

⁓ grief, just incredible, ⁓ art, that was free to listen to on the radio. ⁓ I imagined myself being a pop star. Of course we all did, you know, since I was at least four or five years old. And, and so I suppose in that sense, I had the passion for that even back then.

So that's kind of what sparked that. ⁓ My love of business and running business and hiring people and doing my poor job of, but trying very hard, I think, to love those people that God puts in my path and my circle. I guess I'm supposed to call them employees. I'm not really fond of that word. I consider them to be...

my coworkers and several of them my really good friends. I'm really blessed to be able to say that. And I know how cliche that sounds and it is very easy to say things like this and throw it around. Anyway, I happen to think it's mostly true.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:10)
I love how you can, you're talking about your business as like a family, as friends. You're not talking about it terms of a transactional way, but more in a family or relational. Absolutely.

Chris (05:17)
Right, even though that's important. Yeah, I don't want to

get the wrong idea that I, Allen, I like money as much as, or more than anyone I know. And I'm telling you the truth, I do. But the Bible tells us it is the root of all evil. Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. You gotta be careful. You gotta be careful with that stuff. know, you can't, man, God says you can't serve both.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:25)
Hahaha

100 %

Chris (05:45)
You can't serve God and money. It's just nobody's ever pulled it off and ask Solomon, no one ever will. So it's something to be considered, but I don't want to give the wrong impression. I do like money. I love business. ⁓ Milton Friedman, I'm going to butcher this quote. The gist of it is that in the moments that you are trading with a person, you know, they have a product you want, you have money they want.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:45)
Right.

Chris (06:14)
In those moments, there is no opportunity for hatred. You had to suspend all hatred, all dislikes, all differences, pigmentation of skin, is a total manmade construct. does not matter. We all came from the same two people. Get over it, my brother and sister. ⁓ You know, none of that matters in those moments when the trades are taking place.

I think we need to think about that more and consider how we can stretch those moments out and actually treating one another like treating you like I want to be treated. It's really pretty simple.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (06:55)
Wow. Well, I love that particular perspective, which I'd never even thought about before in terms of transactional or business being where we do have to come to a level playing field like a, you know, where we do drop a lot of these differences. And you're right. Now here's a great way to kind of transition into.

Chris (07:08)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:14)
where you've had to balance both of these worlds, because you mentioned your passion for guitar, for learning music, enjoying it as a child. I did read in your bio as well that this was something that came into your faith, that you were able to, obviously in terms of, I would love you to talk about the beginnings of your faith and then your love of worship, because this apparently kind of ushered you into the musical side of actually working this out throughout your life.

Chris (07:20)
Yes.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:41)
whether

or not it was like your full-time or part-time, this was always a part of you, right? The worship and music and combining that with your faith.

Chris (07:48)
From very early on, yeah, the Jesus Movement was happening, And I was fortunate enough to be in Houston, Texas, my hometown.

one of the epicenters in this country where it was happening, the biggest. ⁓ so I was going to Bible studies many times a week in the weekend. People were playing guitars and writing folk songs basically around the Bible. We called them scripture songs. And I very much was excited for my passion for music. That was kind of a natural segue into that, right?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:18)
Hmm.

Chris (08:26)
and a ⁓ guy at a Bible study ⁓ knew that I had some musical passion. I had taken trumpet lessons as a young child. That's a whole other story, but he knew that I had some musical leanings and said, here, let me show you a couple of chords on the guitar. He showed me, think, A and E major. And from there I took off. Then I could play. So, because the songs were very simple, don't be too impressed by this. They were very, very simple.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:54)
Hahaha

Chris (08:56)
And that was good, because I was simple and still am. And so that worked out really well. And I went on to lead worship in a lot of house churches, eventually in some much larger churches and mostly in the Houston area. I'm part of a PBS medieval worship concert that happened a number of years ago that garnered over 200 million.

viewings and that's not us making up the numbers, that's the Nielsen's, which I'm very proud of. Kemper Crabb, my ⁓ great producer, friend, and teacher, and mentor, ⁓ and I did that together with several of our friends. Anyway, things started small and have progressed, but even when they ebb and flow with bigger projects and then those seem to disappear.

You know what, Allen? You know what I always have? I always have getting to go to church on Sunday and leading worship, helping or being a part of a worship band. That has been the central rock of my life in terms of social settings and hands-on execution of some of the things we're talking about, living out my faith and being able to express that ⁓ in that way.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (09:58)
Hmm.

Chris (10:20)
So that's just, I can't overestimate. It's not possible what that's been meant to me and my family over the decades.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (10:29)
Well, you're speaking to someone who's always considered himself an every Sunday musician, no matter what other projects, no matter what other opportunities. Yes, I exactly.

Chris (10:35)
You know what I mean, then. You're gonna be there. You're gonna be there, right? Nothing, nothing,

unless you're dead or somebody needs your attention, you're gonna be there.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (10:43)
Hahahaha

I have, yes, I have famously, ⁓ forgotten that, you know, there is a search and it's such a thing as a, you know, second musician or backup or somebody that you can actually let actually learn behind you. And you should probably sit down and worship every once in a while and not be exactly and not always be on, the platform. And that's something I'm learning, but there's something really important that you just talked about. And I want to make sure I pivot right there is that your core was in this every Sunday, serving your local church, playing the music, which again,

Chris (10:55)
bright.

And encourage them. Yeah.

Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (11:14)
Gravitates or it speaks to many of us. However, you also obviously had other desires or creative desires that I want to know whether any obstacles in terms of seeing yourself as a Artist because there's two different things right? There's a person that serves in a church or even maybe does this as a hobby is a whole nother thing To see yourself as an artist. So I'm wondering

was there any push back and forth with business, with can I make a living doing this?

Chris (11:42)
I like to say I have two vocations in my life. A lot of people have more than one vocation. Mine are business and music. Let me set the record straight. I'm not currently doing music for money. I mean, you know, to make a lot of money. That ain't happening. God can do that if he wishes, but...

It hadn't happened in a while, and it's not happening currently. So that's, I'm no better or worse than anybody for it. I'm just stating the truth. Yeah, there have been lots of challenges back and forth. I got married, raised four children with my wife, you know, being able to cram both vocations and the family life into one's world.

There's only so many hours in a day and days in a week, right? And yeah, there have been challenges. ⁓ My wife has been very understanding and supportive of my art and worship leading at church. I'm very, very grateful for that. Look, another big challenge was that, and try to put it succinctly, I really didn't believe in my own ⁓ talents much

God had to drag me kicking and screaming into both starting my business and in turning and seeing myself as a serious artist and someone who was worthy. I don't think that's really the way to say it. Capable, capable. Should be writing and recording his own music.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:05)
Hmm. Yeah.

Chris (13:10)
both of those vocations, I had to be drugged by the living God through those doors. I'm not proud of that, I'm ashamed of that. And I try to encourage other people, be stupid like me, and tell God either implicitly or expressly no, but step through the doors. You gotta walk through the doors, you don't know. See, we think we know better. We think we know what's on the other side. You don't know, you gotta step through it.

and let the living God show you what's on the other side and what He requires of you. ⁓ don't misunderstand me, I don't believe that one of us can thwart the will of the living God. That's not possible. He's God and we're not. But we can do some things to sabotage our own progress and sanctifications in Christ. And I did a fair amount of that before the Holy Spirit slapped me around enough and said, you need to get after this.

You're, you know, the same good. So, you know, eventually I saw those things. I should have started my business easily 10 years earlier than I did. Again, not proud of that, but God has blessed us and we have, we're not a huge business, but we're doing okay. We've made it through a lot of, you know, COVID and the 08, 09 financial meltdowns. And you, know, all those things had to, had your own dealings with it. And here we are on the other side of it still going.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:27)
Yeah.

Chris (14:36)
Look, the whole overarching thing to this is Genesis, is what many of us call the dominion principle. Look, Adam and Eve's mission is still ours. It hasn't changed, right? There's the big mystery. It hasn't changed. We're still called to spread the gospel, to spread the kingdom of God throughout his earth.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:51)
Yes.

Chris (15:02)
in his world, in universe, in cosmos, in this life and the next. And so, you know, when that's your perspective, you really eventually, hopefully, as I have, start pivot and start to look at everything as fitting into that. What has God called me to do? What can I do right now, next week, next year, 10 years from now?

20 years from now, if he's still got me here on this earth, what can I be doing to develop his kingdom and push it forward out so that more people can know him and enjoy the freedom in Christ that you and I enjoy every day?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:46)
That's a powerful question to ask yourself for each one of us that are listening to actually walk through the answer. Cause sometimes, and this is where I love that you say that phrase and I saw it many times, dual vocational cause vocation means calling. So there's so much struggle for most of us. I'll say us because all of us as creators, Christian creators, whatever kind of label you want to put on us, even people who don't consider themselves creators who are doing a nine to five business, who are doing a corporate job, who are in business and

Chris (16:00)
Yes.

Yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (16:15)
had to wrestle like you had to wrestle with the identity. It doesn't sound like, and I was gonna ask this question, but I think you've already answered it. It doesn't sound like you see one or the other as a backup plan. Music as a backup plan to business or business as a backup plan to music. So it sounds like these two things exist equally in terms of your priorities. And I'm just wondering how you navigate that, because there's several many people like me who wanna know how do you actually navigate?

Chris (16:27)
No. No. No.

Thank you.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (16:43)
a dual vocational life when it comes to staying creative, releasing music, and then going back and having to make sure that your employees and your business is running. What are some practical things that you could help people that you had to navigate over the years to make sure that you're able to pursue both callings?

Chris (16:45)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ch-

and be with any sort of consistency that glorifies the living God. That's a wow, what a question, Allen. You know how to ask the great ones, my brother. Look, I just want to say quickly, ⁓ hobbies are great. I've had hobbies. I made model airplanes when I was a kid. That was a hobby. My music is a vocation, and there's a difference between vocations and hobbies. I just think that's worth pointing out.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (17:03)
Yes.

Yes.

Chris (17:26)
And

I think everyone has to ask themselves what their passions, pursuits, which one, which camp that falls into. I think that's real important to determine. Is this ⁓ a mere hobby? And I'm going to use the word mere. Or is this a vocation? you write, I'm so glad you reminded me. Have I been called by the living God to pursue this thing? Take the talents he's loaned to me and work to develop them.

to turn them into a skillset, to make things, to make art, to start businesses. I mean, there's a billion ways that one can execute on that, but it's important to understand if a thing's a hobby or a vocation. Having said that, you know, fortunately, God has made His creature time, which He is not subject to because it's His creature, so therefore it's inside of Him.

And, but for us, it gives us space to develop those talents, to think about things, to make decisions, to ask ourselves questions like, is this a hobby or a vocation? And then start tailoring our lives around the answer to those questions. ⁓ It's given me time to do that. ⁓ you know, I started out as a worship leader. You know that part of the story already.

I spent many years supporting other artists, Kemper Krab, Frank Hart, ⁓ and some others. I'm very proud of that and enjoyed those years, but eventually, eventually the Holy Spirit just started to lean on me. You're ready to step out here and write your own music and record it and see where God takes it for the gospel. And ⁓ again, my great friend Kemper ⁓ realized that was going on.

And ⁓ just out of the blue one day, because I didn't believe in myself and there wasn't a lot of confidence. He was my brother in Christ and said, we're going to make a record of your solo stuff you've been writing. Well, that was, you can imagine my jubilation and he's followed through on it. And now we've made two different projects. One is called Bright Portal. The other one is Realatorium. Realatorium, by the way, means the cosmos, every, all of God's creation.

if anybody out there wants to know what realatorium is. But we've made those records. I have a incredible team. And we're having some success there, glory to God. And ⁓ I believe people are being encouraged to love and good works as we're told to do. ⁓

through these efforts. Again, I'm not making any serious money, but God has blessed us. That's the other part of it. God has blessed me in business so that I can make this art and promote it and get it out to people. That's not been a real popular business model, you know, for a lot of people, I think, or at least that I've ever been aware of. I'm not saying I'm inventing any wheel here. I don't think that.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (20:21)
Mmm.

Chris (20:38)
But, because at the end of the day, it's all business and it's all what are you called to? And it's all how obedient am I to the callings in doing the work and developing the talents and pushing it out. So I think, I think eventually it all is. So, you know, we can carve things up and call them this and that. And I'm not criticizing anyone doing that. But the question's really very, very simple.

Do you love the living God? Has he called you to a particular thing? Are you obeying him and stepping through the door and saying, okay, God, help me develop this and get good at it so that you'll be glorified. That's what I'm trying to do. That's what you're trying to do. I know you well enough. yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:19)
This is, yes.

And that's why it's so comfortable for me to talk about these issues because obviously the very name of the platform, God and gigs implies a duality. I'm a musician and a podcaster and a worship leader and all the ands. I've many times talked about all of the people, all of the people in our community usually are the multi hyphenate, whatever you want to call it, but they have multiple passions. And I love the fact that you just talked about

Chris (21:34)
Right.

Yeah, you wear a lot of hats.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:49)
Not just that your business is your business as a calling, but it actually helps support the other parts of your ministry. And you don't see it as a liability. Like it's taking time away from your creative from yes, your ministry. Don't worry. We're no, but.

Chris (21:54)
It does.

Thank you, you picked up. You said that much better. No, that's it. That's

the deal. It's not a liability. That's huge what you just said, because in our culture, we tend to automatically decide it is, right? It's a ball and chain that we have to pull around. And so we can kind of, kind of half, halfway do this thing we, we hope God has called us to do. No, no, no, he's called us to do it and he's given us the means.

to pay for it, because everything costs money. And the higher quality you know, the more it costs. So, you know, that's fine. That's how God made reality. And the quicker we get on with realizing how He made reality to work and meeting ourselves to those things, the sooner we'll be successful and therefore, you know, fulfilled, really rejoicing.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:32)
Yes.

Chris (22:58)
⁓ in obedience. Isn't that really what it is? Am I being obedient? That's where the only joy comes from.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:07)
Absolutely, and I want to quickly mention the names that you have mentioned several times you mentioned Kemper crab you've mentioned these people that saw a Gifting in you that you may not have walked into fully until they came along so clearly Collaboration and partnership has been a part of your artistic your ministry journey I want you to quickly So I want you to quickly talk to those people who have not yet found their Kemper crab What would you say to someone that is?

Chris (23:28)
couldn't do it without him.

There we go.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:37)
struggling right now, they have a calling, they feel like God gave them something creatively or musically to kind of pursue, but they're feeling like I don't have the people, I don't have the community, or God hasn't yet revealed someone that's gonna believe in me like that. So can you give them some help or some things that you've noticed in the partnerships that you've formed that maybe can help them realize that there are people that are out there to help them?

Chris (23:52)
Right.

Yeah, great question. I wish I knew some shortcuts, Allen, but I think, I mean, all I know is how what I did. And I went to church. I went to churches, I went to concerts. went, a friend would invite me to go hear somebody new or old that was performing, especially a Christian artist. I would go. And enough of those gigs were

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:09)
Okay.

Chris (24:27)
small enough where I could connect with people. You can't be afraid. you're a timid person, which I was, you've got to push yourself and it's not comfortable or easy or fun a lot of times. But I pushed myself because I knew that God was telling me to push myself. Don't ask me how I knew. just, you know, you know, when He's telling you, get off your butt and

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:52)
Yeah.

you

Chris (24:57)
Again, you don't know, go walk through the doors, go to the shows, go to the churches where people are playing and singing. you ⁓ know, there are groups, obviously the bigger the city you're in, the more opportunity. But like in Houston, there are several ⁓ Christian singer songwriter groups that one can attach oneself to and learn from those people. And they have open night, open mic nights.

Even non-Christian ones, take your songs to open mic nights. You're going to meet people and you're going to learn from them and them from you. And over time, God will bless it and you'll get better at it unless you give up. There's always a choice, right? We can always give up or put it off like I did for too long, ⁓ thinking I knew more than God. How silly was that?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (25:41)
Hmm.

Chris (25:54)
⁓ But you know, God has a way of keeping after us. Man, aren't we grateful. know, because if I were left to my own devices, none of this would have happened. Quite honestly, that's not a romantic notion, that's the truth. If God had left me to my own devices, so I would encourage you also, in addition to those other things, I'd encourage you to pray. Pray constantly. Pray like a madman or madwoman.

God, please show me what to do, where to go, who to meet, how to connect with people. And now, of course, when I was seeking to do it, we didn't have the internet. Yes, I'm that old. We didn't have the internet and all the instant connections. So, I mean, you've got a lot more tools available to you now than anybody's ever had in the history of the world. So take advantage of them. You know, it also is rife with opportunity for...

people to abuse you, that's a risk there too. But you know what, Allen? I have found, and you have, I'm gonna speak for you, my brother, God is capable of handling those liabilities as well, those vulnerabilities. He can handle that. But don't let it be said at the end of your life that you didn't obey him. That's something that has bothered me. I don't wanna get to the end.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (27:05)
Yes.

this.

Chris (27:22)
and say I didn't obey him.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (27:25)
Man, this is such a clear indication of your priority when it comes to following God and why it's so important to consult Him before you take another step, before that partnership appears, before you write that song. And I wanted to touch on the creative side of your songwriting for a second, because you have, I was just listening to some of your music, there's a clear connection with scripture. There's even one of your songs, Psalm 139, where you specifically simply, you know, use the Psalm.

Chris (27:54)
It's

directly, yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (27:56)
So I wonder in terms of your creative inspiration, where do you find that balance? Where do you find that inspiration? Is it purely from scripture? Is it from stories you want to tell about your life that relate to faith? Like, cause some people struggle with that. Am I supposed to write only songs about this or have you found another way of presenting your music to connect with it? In other words, the message behind your music, where do you stay inspired and where does it come from?

Chris (28:23)
Yeah. Well, let me say this. Truth is truth. Even as the old adage goes, truth in the mouth of Baal is still a truth. In the mouth of pagans, if you want to paraphrase. ⁓ Wherever truth is spoken, out of any mouth or any place or any wall that's written, it's truth. you know, look, the Bible has to be central in your life. Backing up just a little bit, you said, can people do?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (28:32)
Hmm.

Chris (28:53)
First of all, find a church that preaches all of the Bible, not just the happy parts or even worse, taking scripture out of context and twisting it into meaning something it doesn't mean. Don't find that, don't go to that church. Find one that tells the truth and has a community that's vibrant of people there who are caring for one another. That's step one. Number two, make sure they have a Bible study and immediately embed yourself in it.

We cannot, look, the Bible is the only, I can't emphasize this too much, Allen, the Bible is the only record of truth that we have, that mankind has, period, beginning and end. It's all there. Is everything there explicitly? What should I do about which toothpaste to buy today? No, you're not gonna find that. But if you study it, week in and week out,

with people like-minded people who also love God and want to know Him and want to obey Him, something wonderful and marvelous happens over time. And you are...

You are changed. You are changed into the image of the living God, which is what he made us to be. And there is no higher calling. So it doesn't happen overnight, at least not for me, not for most people. It's a process. But the sooner you get started in doing those things and engaging with truth, with the word of God, and hanging with people who love it just as much as you do, you're gonna see those things.

in your songwriting, in your speech, in how you treat your family and your own and think of your own self. So, know, my songwriting, as you said, is very heavily lean on scripture. That is on purpose. For the reasons I've already given you, I won't bore you with the second time because it is truth.

But there are so many ways to express that. Does every song have to give straight up scripture? No. Does everything that you write to be read have to reference this passage from Luke or this one from Leviticus? No, it can. Does it have to? I don't think so, because truth is truth. And no truth comes back to God. His word doesn't return to him void, ever.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:24)
All right.

Chris (31:33)
However, I or anyone uses it, it always comes back to glorify Him. You can't stop that, I can't stop that. We never have, we never will. Everything, the cosmos, glorifies the living God alone. And so, in that sense, I think you open yourself to, you read good stories, you read poetry, you read the Bible, obviously, and study it, get to know it, not just have your little favorite scripture.

that makes you feel good, that's okay, but it's not gonna push you to the point of greatness. I'm willing to say that. That may seem harsh to some people, but I believe that to be true. So, you know, it all depends on where you start and what your goal is. And if it's to glorify God first and foremost, those stories, whether they're fictional or based on things in your own life or someone you're close to, it's all good.

You know, as long as the aim and the end is truth telling, you're doing it right. Right?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:39)
I like that. Yes. No, I

love that truth telling as long as your aim is truth telling such a great way to put that because you know, we talk about amazing authors. Let's put it in their realm. C.S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien, both of them told these fanciful, incredible stories that some people get nervous about because he mentions magic, but it's truth telling. It was something that gravitated and talked that talked about faith. Yes.

Chris (32:52)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, it is. It's fantasy, which Bible is rife

with, yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (33:07)
Yes. And it's so true in our songwriting and everything else that we present.

Clearly you've done both situations and both creativity and business. You operated in community. wasn't absent of relationship that you stepped into this creative world of creating your own work, of working with other artists for so many years, right? Backing them up, not necessarily needing the limelight or the spotlight, but you were willing to be a part of the community, a part of the family, the part of the tribe that was building.

their particular message and sharing the gospel in their way. And then when it was your turn, somebody came alongside you and then you mentioned your employees that you don't necessarily like calling employees. That same thing is a community that's working to go together for a common goal that's providing a living for all of you. And I saw, believe it's 22 years your business has been around. So decades of time and generations probably that have passed through your business that have been blessed. So.

Chris (33:55)
Yes, yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (34:02)
All this again, comes back to the core of who you are. And I love the fact that we come back to the dual vocation. Your identity has not been torn apart. It's rather been more formed and pushed together and clearly a single identity of yes, strengthened. Thank you. By these things that you're able to do in your callings. So I know we have to start wrapping up, but there's a couple of things I want to make sure I touch on. One is.

Chris (34:17)
Yes, strengthened.

Yes. Yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (34:30)
in terms of your music and in terms of your desires for your work, for your artistic side, for your ministry in the music. ⁓ What are some goals that you still have in front of you? You've released a couple of albums. You've been seen millions of times as part of this documentary. Is there anything that's in your head or maybe a vision or just a goal that kind of sits out there still? Because some people are looking at this and they're like, I haven't even started yet. Is it too late?

You know, doesn't even make sense to start now because you know, I didn't, I did say no to God so long ago and I never actually took it up and now they think there's no possibility. So are there any things that you're looking forward to that still kind of drive you and say, Hey God, there's still more for me in this thing. And I want to achieve some more things in a, with my music.

Chris (34:56)
Right, right.

Yeah. Yeah.

If you're asking

if it's too laid down, challenge you with the, you're not supposed to, mama said, don't answer a question with the question. I'm going to break that. Okay. Is it ever too late to obey God? There's the real question, I think. I've thought about this recently because I've had a couple of people ask me. I think that's what it's, what you're really should, we should be asking. Is it ever too late to obey him to answer, as you said, the calling of vocations?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (35:19)
No, I love this. Yes.

Hmm.

Chris (35:41)
And of course the answer has to be unequivocally, no, it is never too late to obey God. He doesn't, no, that's not even a thing. So the question is, okay, God, here am I, send me. What do I do? You asked that earlier. What can a person who doesn't have a connection to community? We've talked about that. Hopefully people will take some encouragement from this and pursue those things.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (36:03)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (36:09)
⁓ but no, it's, it's never too late to obey him. It's never too late to get started. Start where you are right now, ⁓ in your little apartment. I wrote songs in my bathroom because my kids were young and that was the furthest place I could get away. And, and there were some cool, reverb, natural reverb that happened because it was all hard surfaces, right? So I'm at my first little four track recordings of my songs. some of them sound pretty good, but,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (36:28)
Yes, yes, yes.

So yes,

people are now trying to invent ⁓ software that will replicate the bathroom, the shower.

Chris (36:43)
replicate that? Yes, yeah,

that makes total sense to me. But as far as what goals, I think you asked that. Yeah, I've still got some more music in me. I don't have specific plans at the moment for recording, but I am hopeful and believe it's reasonable that we will get to write and record some more original music, ⁓ Chris Whittington music.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (36:52)
Yes, yes, I think that you're looking forward to.

Chris (37:13)
as well as with my ⁓ writing partner and producer, Kipper Krab. ⁓ So, you know, that's very much something that I think a lot about. I have some things floating around in my head. You know how it is. Bits and pieces of things that I think eventually will become, you know, a project. So that's going on. We're in the process of... ⁓

working with PBS again to on the Medieval Christmas ⁓ program that we did several years ago, re-releasing that. Hopefully, Lord willing, you can pray about it if you think about it, I appreciate it. Hopefully that's gonna happen perhaps this December or next year at the latest. So those are some things.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (37:57)
Of course.

Chris (38:05)
that we're working on. We're continuing to push my music out and I continue to write some things that people can see if they're interested on my website, chriswittington.com.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (38:16)
Well, I can tell you right now, I'm obviously going to be praying with you and for you and for the rest of your team because what you're doing is such a blessing. I'm going to do a quick, in this case, I don't normally mention other podcasts that I work with or anything else that I do outside of this God in Gigs platform, but I also produce for my church a podcast called The Family Business, which as soon as I heard about your company and how you are connecting again, the dots of

Chris (38:20)
Thank you.

cool.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (38:45)
creativity and business and faith. said, well, you know what? Here's another person that understands that it's all about family, that family is everybody's business. That's what we see in that podcast. And faith and family has been your business while continually pursuing God's calling and obedience and your obedience to his calling in music. So it's a beautiful story. It's something I want to make sure our community continues to follow, continues to connect with you. So you said the website is chriswoodington.com.

Chris (38:54)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (39:15)
We'll

make sure that link is in the show notes so you can follow that right now. Go listen to the music, continue to explore everything that Chris is sharing, but you have been a blessing to me, a blessing to so many other people. And I hope that this is not the last time that you'll be connected with God and Giz, because you're clearly again, a voice that is saying exactly what we're saying about you can be what God has called you to be, whether it's in business, whether it's in creative work, whether it's in music, whatever that is. I couldn't echo it any better than you said, just being obedient.

Chris (39:43)
Well, you've been very, very kind to me, my brother. And anytime you're willing to let me come and talk to you, man, you got it. It's been my great privilege. I feel like you're one of my best friends for decades that I just met. So, know, so.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (40:00)
I love it. Same here,

same here. And we could talk forever, which is why we'll have to do a part two or invite you into the community to share later on. But thank you so much for being on the podcast. This has been an absolute blessing.

Chris (40:06)
There you go.

Thank you, Allen, so very much for having me, my brother. God bless you.