[Editor's note: In our Jan/Feb 2008 issue, Today's Christian brought you "Created to Shine," the first of two articles highlighting a few of contemporary Christian music's most influential veterans and where they are now. Here is the conclusion to the series.]

Left to right: Randy Stonehill, Billy and Sarah Gaines, and Susan Ashton

Randy Stonehill: The Perennial Journeyman
Words like "pioneer" or "trailblazer" are overused to describe veteran musicians who have had longer careers than most. But when you're talking about Randy Stonehill, nothing short of those monikers could aptly describe the impact he's made on an entire musical genre.

From the moment his Christian music journey began in 1970, under the tutelage of fellow rocker Larry Norman, Stonehill quickly became part of a handful of musicians (including Norman, Phil Keaggy, Love Song, and others) who unintentionally launched a musical movement over the next decade that forged the path for Christian artists today.

"It makes me laugh to think about God's generosity and unfathomable cleverness," he recalls. "I started writing songs about my new picture of reality, the hope in my heart, and I found myself on the ground floor of this new musical-spiritual hybrid. We longed to share the gospel in a language that our generation understood. I don't think we had any idea how long this fledgling movement would survive or where God would take it."

Traveling new terrain can be tricky and treacherous, as Stonehill and his fellow artists discovered. He released a string of influential albums in the '70s, including the groundbreaking 1976 recording Welcome to Paradise. But the idea of "Christian rock" music was too large a pill for some in the church to swallow.

"The very people I thought would embrace us and what we were doing sort of raised an eyebrow and, in many ways, threw out the baby with the bathwater. I realize now that they were looking at the history of rock and roll—the rebellion element—and were saying, 'How dare you cheapen the holy gospel with this devil music?'"

Stonehill took a lot of deep breaths in those days, and learned to offer answers in love and logic. "I will say that God in his goodness actually used that friction to help me cultivate a servant's heart," he admits, "and to think through who I was and what my calling was, more than I would have if everyone had been patting me on the back."

Along with the growth of "contemporary Christian music" in the 1980s, Stonehill had a long-term relationship with Myrrh Records and continued to record and tour throughout the next two decades. He and his wife, Sandi, put down roots in the small seaside community of Seal Beach, California, where they still make their home. ("It's like Tiny Town, where everyone on Main Street knows you.") When he's not touring or in the studio, he and Sandi are surrogate parents to a collection of neighborhood strays (seven dogs, three cats, and a California desert tortoise named Joe).

In 2007, at age 55, Stonehill performed select concerts with a full band for the first time in 20 years. "I'm the perennial journeyman music minister," he laughs, "but now I'm dividing my time between solo concerts and shows with this rocking little band, and it reminds me of how it feels to be young. It's really fun and makes the concert more of an event for my audience."

And perhaps more surprising, he's also been traveling back and forth to Nashville every few weeks to write country music with a number of veteran songwriters in Music City. "They understand the power of a story worth telling, told well. It's been a great way to sharpen my skills, but also to see the economy of God at work. When they respect you as an artist, then you have license to speak into their lives. It's been a rich experience."

Stonehill hopes to produce for other artists in the coming months, and will release a new collaborative album with Keaggy in early 2008. He's also pursuing various avenues to bring his children's project, Uncle Stonehill's Hat (2001), to television or DVD.

"As the years go by, the amazing privilege of participating in God's kingdom work with my musical gift gets more and more clear to me. Through this journey of three-and-a-half decades, I believe I'm more passionate about my sense of calling now than I ever have been. And I believe I have more to offer as a Christian and as an artist than I ever have before."

Billy & Sarah Gaines: Obedient to the call
Talk to Billy Gaines, and you'll meet someone who still couldn't be more thrilled—or surprised—to be ministering through music for a living … even after more than 20 years.

Back in fourth grade, Billy felt he was the least likely to succeed in the musical arena. He preferred sports, and he even told his teacher that he was tone-deaf. Eventually getting that idea out of his head, he made his way south to Nashville in the early 1980s, hoping like everyone else to beat the odds and land that elusive record deal. Instead, he started out working as a janitor, and was later promoted to security guard.

But he and his wife, Sarah, whom he met in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, didn't give up. They kept singing in a number of different groups, and their prayers and perseverance eventually paid off when they signed a five-album deal with Benson Records.

Before long, they were the hottest husband/wife duo in Christian music—not only with their own music, but as go-to back-up singers for the likes of Amy Grant, CeCe Winans, dc Talk, and more. They won awards and crisscrossed the country, playing shows wherever they could.

While they enjoyed the success, Sarah knew her true passion was to work with children. So years after traveling and home-schooling the couple's children, Sarah pursued studies in early childhood education and opened a daycare center.

Meanwhile, Billy started a solo career, albeit reluctantly. "That's the hardest thing, just missing Sarah," he says. "I couldn't even wrap my mind around the idea of doing this by myself. I almost gave up, but God reminded me that he put a call on my life when I was 17 years old. That was before Billy & Sarah Gaines, and that was before I could really even play or sing. Yet, he called me. He didn't change his mind about that call, so what else could I do but be obedient to the call?"

Billy continues to perform in churches across America, mostly during Sunday morning services. Meanwhile, Sarah continues to work with children and has home-schooled five at-risk teens, taken classes in foster parenting, and now works as a substitute teacher in Franklin, Tennessee.

Susan Ashton: Losing her life to find it
Susan Ashton's rise to success in Christian music was nothing short of meteoric. She didn't go looking for a record deal back in 1990. She hadn't so much as even performed in front of an audience when opportunity came knocking.

She signed with Sparrow, recorded seven albums, sold over a million records, and quickly took her place among the cream of the Christian music crop.

"When I look back on it," Ashton says, "I know my motives were pure, but I was emotionally immature, didn't have a clue. All I knew was that I was a great singer, that I loved to sing, and I prayed that God would use it in the lives of people to bring healing. Even then I knew why I was doing it."

Ashton soon became the go-to girl for collaborative vocal work. Country music superstar Garth Brooks was so impressed that he asked her to open his 1994 European tour. In time Capitol Records picked up Ashton for a country album, and the Houston native jumped at the opportunity to create the music that was in her heart. Closer released in 1999, boosted by the Diane Warren single "Faith of the Heart." Ashton's career couldn't have been any better if she'd planned it out herself.

But the reality didn't meet the expectation. By that time, her marriage had ended. And the success that seemed ripe for the picking didn't materialize. "Ultimately, nothing ever came of it, but God is God, and that's all that really matters," she says.

When Capitol didn't release the second album Ashton recorded, she decided to take some time to be still, to recuperate, and rediscover who she is and what she was to do with her gifts. So in 2003, she took one of the most challenging jobs imaginable: She became a full-time nanny to two small children.

In this unlikely place, God began to teach Ashton new things. "When you're taking care of kids, it's so not about you," she says. "Playing with these kids, loving them, has been such a place of healing and restoration for me."

Although she's not performed a concert in more than five years, Ashton has continued to sing with artists such as Fernando Ortega, Billy Dean, and others. Offers to record continue to come in, and she's accepted a few, including 2005's trio release Lost in Wonder: Voices of Worship with Christine Dente and Michelle Tumes. But just recently, Ashton senses that a new season is breaking, a season in which she'll get back to doing what God created her for.

During the recording of Ortega's "Shadow of Your Wings," Ashton recalls being so moved by the Holy Spirit, she wept uncontrollably at the control board during playback: "I felt God saying. 'This feeling that you're feeling right now, this is what I want to do with you, this is why I made you. Your music has always been used to heal people. That has not changed. I want to use your voice to do that, if you will let me.' That is the thing that rings truest inside me. I've never lost sight of that. I've always been very clear on who I am and what my message is."

She just wasn't always sure enough of herself to weather the storms. Back in the day, "I wrestled with the most unbelievable insecurity," she says. "I was so fearful then. Now I'm more comfortable in my skin than I've ever been. I still have struggles, but the bigger portion is that I can look in the mirror and say, 'You're pretty great, Susan.' That's huge. So I wouldn't trade who I am today for anything, and I wouldn't trade the blessings or the struggles of that time for anything.

"Music is cyclical. Life is cyclical. But God is constant. The heart of God doesn't change. For me, all I know is that God wants me to use my voice to tell people who are hurting that he can heal them, that they can be okay and have joy. I'm a living testament to that."

Melissa Riddle is a writer, editor, and media consultant who lives in Franklin, Tennessee. Christa A. Banister, a writer who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently released her first book, Around the World in 80 Dates (NavPress).

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