Paul Joseph Baloche Work ID No. 884337863 ISWC No. T9126089325 ( ; born on June 4, 1962) is an American

Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely around ...

artist,

worship leader Contemporary worship is a form of Christian worship that emerged within Western evangelical Protestantism in the 20th century. It was originally confined to the charismatic movement, but is now found in a wide range of churches, including many w ...

, and singer-songwriter. A native of

Maple Shade Township, New Jersey Maple Shade Township is a township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 19,131. What is now Maple Shade was originally formed as Chester Township on November 6, 1688, and was ...

,Price, Deborah Evans. "Higher Ground: 'Greater' Collaborations for Baloche", ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'', May 13, 2006. Baloche was the worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in

Lindale, Texas Lindale () is a city in Smith County, Texas, United States. Located in East Texas, the population was 6,059 in the 2020 census. It is part of the Tyler, Texas, metropolitan statistical area. History The area of Smith County where Lindale ...

for 26 years. He and his wife, Rita left Texas in January 2015, moving to New York City to be nearer to family. Baloche composes on piano and

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, favoring guitar when leading worship. His wife, Rita Baloche, is also a Christian songwriter. Baloche is one of the writers for Compassionart, a charity founded by

Martin Smith Martin Smith may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Martin Seymour-Smith (1928–1998), British poet, literary critic, biographer and astrologer *Martin Cruz Smith (born 1942), American writer * Martin Smith (drummer) (1946–1997), British drummer ...

from

Delirious? Delirious? (formerly known as The Cutting Edge Band) were an English contemporary Christian band. For the majority of their career, the lineup featured Martin Smith on vocals and guitar, Stu G (full name Stuart Garrard) on guitar and backing v ...

Biography

Paul Baloche was born on June 4, 1962, in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

in a French Canadian Catholic family.Radio-rfe
Biographie Paul Baloche
radio-rfe.com, France. Retrieved January 23, 2019 He studied at the Grove School of Music in Los Angeles.

Career

In 1989, he became a worship pastor at the Community Christian Fellowship Church in Lindale,

Smith County, Texas Smith County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 233,479. Its county seat is Tyler. Smith County is named for James Smith, a general during the Texas Revolution. Smith County is part of the Tyl ...

, until 2015 when he moved to New York City. In 1992, he released his first album ''He is Faithful''. Top-ranked songs include " Open the Eyes of My Heart", "Hosanna", "Your Name", "Today Is the Day", and " Above All". Baloche has received numerous

Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Award ...

over the years. His song "Above All" was nominated for Song of the Year in both the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Dove Awards, and in 2002, Michael W. Smith's version of the same song won Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year. Baloche was also nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2002. In 2009, Baloche won a Dove Award for Inspiration Recorded Song of the Year as co-author of "A New Hallelujah" with

Michael W. Smith Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American musician who has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when " Place in This World" hit No. 6 on the '' ...

and his wife Debbie Smith. Baloche has been a pioneer in providing visual instructional resources for church worship teams. In 1995, he released ''The Worship Guitar Series'', a set of three videos. Between 2002 and 2006, he released ''The Modern Worship Series'', a set of eight instructional DVDs focused on helping church worship teams increase their skill and confidence. In 2005, he released the book ''God Songs'', a practical resource for worship songwriters, currently in its 8th printing. His catalog of twelve albums is focused on providing

worship music Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are f ...

for churches to use in their Sunday morning services. His albums are released by his publisher

Integrity Music Integrity Music is part of the David C Cook nonprofit group. Founded as a direct-to-consumer music club in 1987 as ''Integrity Music'', Integrity was at the forefront of contemporary worship music's widespread popularity of praise and worship mu ...

. In addition to songwriting, Baloche participates in several seminars for worship leaders and musicians throughout North America and Asia. The 2006 release ''

A Greater Song ''A Greater Song'' is a live album by Paul Baloche released in 2006. The album was recorded at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas, where he served as the Worship Pastor at the time. The album features Kathryn Scott on three of t ...

'' is a live recording featuring songs by Baloche, some co-written with worship artists including

Matt Redman Matthew James Redman (born 14 February 1974) is an English Christian worship leader, singer-songwriter and author. Redman has released 16 albums, written 8 books, and helped start three church-plants. He is best known for his two-time Grammy Aw ...

("A Greater Song") and former Integrity Music president

Don Moen Donald James Moen (born June 29, 1950) is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter of Christian worship music. Early and personal life Moen grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he attended high school in 1968. Moen attended Oral Robe ...

("Thank You Lord"). The 2009 release ''Glorious'' featured the single "Just to Be With You", which Baloche explained "is simply about intimacy with God." On April 3, 2012 Baloche released album ''The Same Love'' featuring the single "The Same Love". On October 29, 2013, Baloche also released a live Christmas worship album featured old and new songs suitable for use during the Christmas season. In November 2013, Baloche won a

GMA Canada The Gospel Music Association of Canada or GMA Canada (formerly known as the CGMA) is a not for profit association, founded in 1974, whose purpose is to promote Christian music in Canada. History GMA Canada is created in 1974 in Ontario with ...

Covenant Award The Covenant Awards are awarded to the Canadian gospel music industry by GMA Canada, the Gospel Music Association of Canada. The association is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the growth and ministry of Christian music in Ca ...

for International Album of the Year for ''Glorieux'', a French language worship album. Some of Baloche's songs rank among the most-performed songs in

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

according to CCLI. Numerous artists have performed Baloche's songs, including

Casting Crowns Casting Crowns is a contemporary Christian and Christian rock band started in 1999 by youth pastor Mark Hall, who serves as the band's lead vocalist, as part of a youth group at First Baptist Church in Downtown Daytona Beach, Florida. They lat ...

, Rebecca St. James,

Phillips, Craig and Dean Phillips, Craig and Dean (rendered as Phillips, Craig & Dean on albums) is a contemporary Christian music trio composed of pastors Randy Phillips, Shawn Craig, and Dan Dean. Since forming in 1991, the group has sold over two million units. They ...

, Anthony Evans, and

Sonicflood Sonicflood (sometimes stylized as SONICFLOOd) is an American contemporary worship music band from Nashville, Tennessee, that has been touted as "The Fathers of the Modern Worship Movement." The group took the name "Sonicflood", a reference to a ...

. Baloche has co-written songs with

Aaron Shust Aaron Michael Shust (born October 31, 1975) is an American contemporary Christian music artist formerly on the Brash Music and Centricity Music labels, and now on his own label. Shust was named the Songwriter of the Year at the GMA Dove Awards ...

Kari Jobe Kari Brooke Jobe (born April 6, 1981) is an American contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter. Since her first album in 2009, she has received two Grammy Award nominations and ten Dove Award nominations, six of which she won. Biograp ...

Meredith Andrews Meredith Frances Sooter (born January 19, 1983), known professionally as Meredith Andrews, is a contemporary Christian music artist, songwriter, and worship leader. She has won two Dove Awards. Biography Andrews grew up in Wilson, North Ca ...

, and

Lincoln Brewster Lincoln Brewster (born July 30, 1971) is an American contemporary Christian musician and worship pastor. As a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Brewster became a sought-after session guitarist in the early 90s. Brewster is the former senior wo ...

for use on their respective albums.

Personal life

Baloche has a son, David, with whom he has collaborated on the 2017 album ''Labyrinth''.

Discography

Studio & Live * ''He is Faithful'' (1992) * ''First Love'' (1998) * ''Open the Eyes of My Heart'' (2000) * '' God of Wonders'' (2001) * ''Offering of Worship'' (2003) * ''

'' (2006) * '' Our God Saves'' (2007) * ''Live in Asia'' (2009) (Recorded live in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, South Korea) * ''Glorious'' (2009) * '' The Same Love'' (2012) * '' Christmas Worship'' (live) (2013) * ''

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

'' (2014) * '' Christmas Worship, Vol. 2'' (2015) * ''Your Mercy'' (2016) * ''For Unto Us: Christmas Worship Live From London'' (2017) * ''Behold Him'' (2020) Non-English * ''Ouvre les yeux de mon coeur'' (2008) – French version of ''Open the Eyes of My Heart'' * ''Glorieux'' (2013) – French version of ''Glorious'' Collections * ''The Writer's Collection'' (2008) * ''Ultimate Collection'' (2018)

Videography

* ''Worship Guitar Series – Volume 1'' (VHS – 1995) * ''Worship Guitar Series – Volume 2'' (VHS – 1998) * ''Worship Guitar Series – Electric Guitar'' (VHS – 2000) * ''Visual Songbook – God of Wonders'' (CD-ROM – 2000) * ''Modern Worship Series – Music Styles'' (DVD – 2003) * ''Modern Worship Series – Worship Band Workshop'' (DVD – 2003) * ''Modern Worship Series – Leading Worship: Creating Flow'' (DVD – 2003) * ''Paul Baloche DVD Songbook Volume 1'' (Songbook + DVD – 2003) * ''Modern Worship Series – Music Theory Made Easy'' (DVD – 2005) * ''Modern Worship Series – Acoustic Guitar'' (DVD – 2006) * ''Paul Baloche DVD Songbook Volume 2'' (Songbook + DVD – 2006) * ''Modern Worship Series – Electric Guitar'' (DVD – 2007) * ''Modern Worship Series – Worship Vocal Workshop'' (DVD – 2007) * ''Modern Worship Series – Beginning Guitar'' (DVD – 2008) * ''Glorious – CD Companion Video'' (DVD – 2010) * ''The Worship Series – Leading Worship: Pastoring people and developing skill'' (DVD – 2011) * ''The Worship Series – Worship Band Workshop'' (DVD – 2011) * ''The Worship Series – The Journey of a Song'' (DVD – 2011) * ''The Same Love – CD Companion Video'' (DVD – 2012)

Books

* ''God Songs'' ()

References

External links

* *
CCLI Author Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baloche, Paul 1962 births Living people American performers of Christian music Christian music songwriters Musicians from Camden, New Jersey People from Lindale, Texas People from Maple Shade Township, New Jersey Performers of contemporary worship music Songwriters from New Jersey