Chris Tomlin – Sight Not Unseen

“We love reading books to them,” says Tomlin, referring also to his wife. “Putting them to bed is just the best. I’ve found the most peaceful thing in the world is when the kids are napping.” With parents around the globe nodding their heads in agreement, he goes on. “Reading to the kids every day is really what started this whole good, good father thing,” he says.

This whole “good, good father thing” is in reference, of course, to Tomlin’s massive radio hit (which took away Song Of The Year at this year’s Dove Awards), but also to the children’s book he recently wrote alongside friend and colleague, Pat Barrett. That’s right, as if he needed another item on his resume, Chris Tomlin is now a children’s book author.

“The opening line of the song really started this idea in my head,” he says. “It says, ‘I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think You’re like.’ This character began to form in my head of a little girl asking different people about what God is like. Eventually, that little girl became Tucker the bear, who sets out on a journey to see the King. Along the way, he hears that he’s a doctor, a builder, all of these things. And when he arrives, of course, he realizes he is all those things, but above all, he is a good, good father.”

While most artists decide to write books on years in which they are not releasing an album, Tomlin goes to prove, once more, he is not most artists. The book came out just a few weeks apart from his latest project, Never Lose Sight (buy), which released just weeks apart from a nation-wide movement Tomlin dreamed of and put together, called Worship Night In America. And wouldn’t you know, after all of his albums and all of his conferences and events, his latest may be his most distinct and greatest ones yet.

Tomlin raises his own musical standard on his latest offering, partnering with a new producer, Jeremy Edwardson.

“So far, I’ve heard from lots of people that this album is so different from the others,” Tomlin says. “At the end of the day, it’s about one thing. The filter—is this accessible to the church? Most every song I write and produce, I want it to be so that anyone at any church could play it.”

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