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Unless you've been living under a rock, Chris Tomlin needs no introduction. In the past five years, the popular worship leader with the Passion conferences has leapfrogged the likes of Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman to become Christian music's most prominent male artist. In terms of sales, airplay, awards, and impact on churches around the world, few can compete with him—Time magazine infamously referred to him as "the most often sung artist anywhere." But Tomlin does his best to keep the praise from getting to his head by doing what he does best: deferring it right back to the same God he has worshipped since he was just a small-time student leader at Texas A&M University. In this conversation with Christian Music Today, Tomlin talks about his new album Hello Love (sixsteps/Sparrow), leading worship overseas, church-planting, and offering a hand to those in need.

You're coming off the second leg of the first-ever Passion World Tour. How would you compare international worshippers to those here in America?

Chris Tomlin Man, that's a loaded question. There's nothing like being around the world and seeing new students—new university students around the world. It just seems that there's a bit more passion in those sections of the world than what you see in the U.S., because in the U.S. we have so much. We've been given so much and there are events all the time that you can go to and you can meet together. [We take it a little bit for granted] whereas it's a lot more uncommon in these other places. Their people just have less in general—less wealth, less things than we have that distract us. The Bible teaches that those who are poor are rich in faith. When we go to the poorer nations, it's always incredible.

A recent press release announcing your new album had countless adjectives and accolades preceding your name. Have you found that the extra attention makes it difficult to focus on what matters most?

Tomlin You know, I don't let that affect me much. I keep trying to do what I do and don't think about it. I don't read a lot of my own press or anything like that. I just try to be myself and remain focused on what I'm doing. That's not an easy thing because there are so many distractions. I don't really let any of that kind of stuff go to my head.

That said, Christian Music Today recently named Arriving one of the 10 most influential modern worship albums in the last decade. How does it feel to be a history maker?

Tomlin You know, I got forwarded that article and it just blows my mind. I'm humbled and honored by that. It's just amazing, when you're making a CD you don't know, you have no idea that it's going to do something like that. [Arriving] is just a collection of songs. "How Great Is Our God," "Holy Is the Lord," "Indescribable," "Your Grace Is Enough"—those first four tracks have just remained and become so strong in the church, and that's amazing to be. You hope you get just one song that'll do that. So I'm real thankful for that, and it's an honor to be included.

Personally, what worship albums have inspired you most over the years?

Tomlin Different records have. Delirious' Cutting Edge was the first one that really, really inspired me. It's got 25 songs or something on it, and most all of them are excellent—amazing. Then Matt Redman's stuff has inspired me as well, particularly The Heart of Worship, both the record and the song. In recent years, I've been inspired by some of Hillsong's stuff—I really like those guys. And these people are all my friends, too. I'm really inspired by them and really appreciate what they've done. There are so many records that I love, but those are the ones that readily come to mind.

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