Interview with Gospel artist Jonathan Nelson
by Alicia Carson
I first met singer/songwriter Jonathan Nelson at the annual Gospel Heritage Conference in 2006. That year, the symposium was hosted at Reid Temple A.M.E Church in Glenn Dale, Maryland, and for one reason in particular, this church site was the perfect location for my first meeting with Jonathan.
In case you’ve never visited Reid Temple, everything about the design of the campus is immaculate and impressive, and if you aren’t careful, you will assume you are looking at a church with no significant history of struggle. You will see its current state and have a hard time imagining the congregation ever faced hardships which threatened its existence. But read the church history at reidtemple.org, and you will discover an account speckled with crushing disappointments and multiple opportunities to give up. As successful as the church is today, its story of survival in spite of struggle is the gem. Jonathan Nelson’s life is something like that church’s history.
Jonathan is meticulous: his presentation style is seamless; he consistently achieves success as if it is all he has ever known. He penned the 2006 Stellar Award-winning Song of the Year, Healed, and co-wrote The Struggle is Over, which kept its #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs Chart for the entire 2007 summer quarter. He has also written songs for Bishop T.D. Jakes, Maurette Brown-Clark, Stephen Hurd and others.
Yes, his recent success is undeniable. But the interview you are about to read reveals Jonathan’s all-too-familiar acquaintance with setbacks, and his subsequent confidence in God’s ability to work everything together for the good of those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). In this week’s High Notes, Jonathan Nelson discusses the inspiration behind one of his newest singles, Right Now Praise.
A. Carson: You’ve penned quite a number of encouraging songs over the years. How did you develop such acute sensitivity to broken people's needs?
Jonathan Nelson: I was once broken. My father is a pastor, and being pastor’s kids, my brothers and sisters and I kind of put on religious masks and we didn’t expose our real feelings around church folk because we were part of the front line of our ministry. We wanted to appear strong, and we tried to never display our internal dysfunctions.
A. Carson: Why did you believe you had to be this way? Did your parents pressure you?
Jonathan Nelson: The pressure didn’t come from my parents; it was mostly from people who thought there was a certain way PK's were supposed to conduct themselves. You’ve got to sit on the front row; you have to do this; you’ve got to do that. It felt like we had to get in character for the people of God, and I had to do all of these things...without getting a chance to hurt.
A. Carson: Without getting a chance to hurt? What do you mean?
Jonathan Nelson: I was one of the hurting ones, Alicia. I needed refuge and I needed rescuing, but I wasn’t able to talk about it. There was almost like a spiritual taboo to talk about certain things in church back in the day. And because of what I went through then, I know there are a lot of other people in churches around the world today who are quietly isolated in their personal “go throughs”. They are wearing masks the same way I did, and they are afraid to be transparent.
But I’ve asked God to give me melodies from heaven to pierce through the veils of whatever people are dealing with. I pray that prayer so often, and God sends me songs. He sends me melodies and lyrics that speak to people’s real situations.
One of the songs God gave Jonathan is Right Now Praise. It was birthed out of a major setback in 2002 when Jonathan lost his job as a dotcom executive.
Jonathan Nelson: The day the lyrics for Right Now Praise came, I was crying and driving down the highway, and I was asking God for direction. “What’s going on, God? I’ve got a family to take care of. What do I do? Where do I go from here?”
And all of a sudden, the lyrics came and I started singing these words to myself: “I am just a praise away from my breakthrough, just a praise away from my blessing, so I must reach down inside to the depths of my soul and bring forth a right now praise that's already in me.”
A. Carson: And what did those words do for you?
Jonathan Nelson: They took me to a different place of thinking. I started believing again.
As Jonathan began to worship God in spite of the things he did not understand, what began as major disappointment blossomed into renewed faith, an escalating music ministry, and most recently, the title song for Jonathan’s latest CD, Right Now Praise. This is his second live recording, and the first project he has released as an Integrity Music artist.
As our conversation ended, Jonathan reiterated this truth he has discovered: “Difficult seasons are not death sentences. Just tell yourself, 'Things are already looking better.' Believe it and watch what happens!”
Jonathan and his wife, Chris, live in York, Pennsylvania with their 2 children, J. Andrew and Julianna. Jonathan is the Director of Fine Arts at Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland.
For more information about Jonathan Nelson and his new CD Right Now Praise, visit www.integritymusic.com.
