From all outward appearances, Kristian Stanfill was like a lot of teenage kids growing up in the suburbs in the 90’s in a fairly typical American home. He went to church, loved music, and even taught himself to play guitar.

As soon as the church youth group heard he could play a few chords, he immediately became the so-called “Worship Leader.” He learned songs by DC Talk and Audio Adrenaline, and eventually Passion and Chris Tomlin.

While the upbringing might have been typical, the kid was not. He didn’t just pick up the guitar because it was cool. He picked it up because, even without knowing how to play a single instrument, he had been writing songs in his head for years. He recognized a profound need to praise this God he was discovering, and he learned guitar to give voice to that praise.

Those kids who needed a worship leader could not have known they had chosen someone called and gifted by God to lead a generation. Someone who would grow not just to teach Passion songs to his youth group, but also to tour with multi-platinum selling artist Chris Tomlin and take the stage at Passion conferences and the Passion World Tour, reaching audiences numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Someone who would become the first artist added to the venerable roster of Sixstepsrecords since its inception, joining the likes of Tomlin, Matt Redman and David Crowder Band.