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Steve Camp
Christian music artist, Steve Camp, has been a dynamic voice to the Church for more than two decades. Over 50 top ten songs and 21 number ones spanning AC, CHR and INSP charts.
The Christian faith his parents taught him as a child led him to make a confession of faith at the age of five and which came to fruition in the form of a commitment to serve the Lord Jesus Christ when he was seventeen. As a product of the Jesus movement, he developed a special friendship with Larry Norman, Contemporary Christian Music's founding father, who helped give Steve direction in the craft of songwriting and purpose in his music. Meeting and fellowshipping with the late Keith Green also challenged him to deepen his commitment to the Lord and in turn to ministry.
In addition to his on-going music ministry, in the fall of 1998 Steve joined the pastoral staff at Grace Community Church where he served a one-year position as Associate Pastor of Adult Single Ministries and Evangelism, alongside his long-term friend and mentor, John MacArthur, spearheading a mid-week, nondenominational outreach called The GraceBridge.
After completing that year in ministry at Grace, Steve and his family moved back to Tennessee where they currently reside. He has been blessed with five wonderful children: Maxfield (17); Johnston (16); Jordan Ruth (15); Marshall (13); and Mary Morris (11) all who have made a profession of faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives.
Although Steve has studied Music Composition and Theory at Roosevelt University under Professor Dodds, protégé to George Gershwin and studied Business Law/Music at the College of DuPage, his first passion is to communicate the gospel. In the tradition of Charles H. Spurgeon, A.W. Tozer, D.L. Moody, and others, Steve has not gone through the conventional academic circles for his theological or musical training. He has, however, obtained an immense working knowledge of Scripture and theology; reading an average of 3-4 books a week, has an effective working knowledge of the Greek language, and has accumulated a diversified-thorough library of historical and theological works. Steve holds solidly to an orthodox, historical, reformed, Biblical theology, in the tradition of John Owen, Jeremiah Burroughs, Thomas Watson, and contemporary authors (all of whom are mentors and friends) such as Dr. John F. MacArthur, Dr. D.A. Carson, Dr. R.C. Sproul and the late Dr. Stephen Olford.
As a gifted expositor of God's Word, Steve has conducted numerous lectures around the country on such subjects as Biblical Foundations for Music Ministry; the Purpose/Role of Music; the Character of Christian Leadership; and Reformation: the Need in Christian Music Today. In addition, for over twenty years he had been a featured artist and speaker at the Christian Artists Seminar in Estes Park, Colorado. He has been a guest lecturer for Trinity Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary in their chapel services. He was a featured presenter in March of 1997 for the Summit on Church Music Ministry held at Cedarville College, Ohio, contending for sound Biblical theology in Christian Music. He was one of one hundred invitees for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals (ACE) Conference 1996 where The Cambridge Document was drafted. He has also written several articles for leading Christian publications as well as granted numerous interviews for tomes such as the Christian Booksellers Association Journal, Christianity Today, World Magazine, CCM, CCM Update, Release, etc. Mr. Camp is also a frequent guest on radio and television stations around the world. From July of 1995 to January of 1997, he had his own weekly radio talk show heard on the Salem Radio Network entitled, "No Compromise with Steve Camp". Other notable radio programs Mr. Camp has had the privilege to be on are the BBC; Hank Henegraff's "The Bible Answer Man"; the Dick Staub Show; the Janet Parchel Show; PrimeTime America with Jim Warren; Iron Sharpens Iron with Chris Arnzen; and Issues, Etc. with Don Matzat. Steve is also a prolific writer on his blog CampOnThis and the AudienceONE Ministries website. He is a guest contributor at Slice of Laodicea, Christian Research Net and most recently, Christian Worldview Network.
Steve's first musical release was a single recording in 1975 on Mums/CBS Records, but Steve soon decided to dedicate his talents to the Lord and use them for His glory. He signed with Myrrh records in 1977 on the strength of a self-produced collection of songs. He went on to make five albums for that label. He then signed with Sparrow records in 1983, releasing nine powerful albums. In 1993, Steve signed with Warner Alliance and has recorded two projects - Taking Heaven By Storm and Mercy in the Wilderness. In late 1999 he released “Abandoned to God” and in the fall of 2002 released his latest album based on the writings of Dr. John Piper entitled, “Desiring God.” He has released eighteen albums to date.
Along with a string of number-one songs and top selling projects, in October of 1997 released an unprecedented document entitled, The 107 THESES: A Call to Reformation for the Contemporary Christian Music Industry. This document serves today as a clarion call for all in the contemporary Christian music industry (CCMI) to reformation in returning to the authority of Scripture; the accountability of the local church; the ascendancy of the glory of God; and not being unequally yoked with an unbelieving world. What sparked such a manifesto is virtually all of Christian music today is owned by three secular multinational corporations. “Think of it, all of God's music owned by the world; who would have thought money would have such hold over ministry.” Today, Steve addresses this issue today in a five part teaching/seminar series called, “The Worship Centered Life.”
The past three years Steve has begun a new ministry called, “AudienceONE Ministries.” This is a new web-based ministry founded for three key reasons: 1.) To reclaim, recapture, and reform Christian music and ministry for the church; 2.) To equip other believers with the truth of God's Word to be faithful Bereans in this post-modern culture we live in; 3.) and to call all men to repentance with the gospel of grace given any opportunity. One key distinctive with this new ministry is to make all of our ministry resources available for whatever people can afford. It is Steve's firm conviction that money should never be a prerequisite for ministry. As our Lord has instructed, “Freely we have received; freely we should give.” And as the Apostle John has so wonderfully said, “Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they bear witness to your love before the church; and you will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the [unbelievers]. Therefore we ought to support such men, that we may be fellow workers with the truth” (3 John 5-8).
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