Mark Schultz has been blessed with an ability to write songs, sing, and  play the pianos. With hits like “I Am,” “Letters From War,” and “Remember Me” it’s no wonder why he’s a nominee for male vocalist of the year (2008 Dove Award). Currently, he is performing at different venues around the country and is part of the Extraordinary Women Conference.

What inspires you to write your songs?
I was the youth director at a church in Nashville for like 8 – 10 years. There’s a chapel I always go to and sit down.  Write songs about what’s going on in life of the youth group, what’s going on with the parents, what’s going on in my life. God was showing me all that, so I just started writing songs. Just like putting on comfortable pair of shoes, you know. There’s something about writing songs in a room that’s been prayed in. People come together to worship God as to oppose to writing them in my living room where my TV is. That’s a special place (Chapel) for me to write songs.

Have you had any desires to go into any other category of music or has Christian music been your only desire to be a part of?
I have a lot of story songs, so I love writing songs about real life things that people can go:
Man, if that can happen in that person life, maybe it can happen in my life too. I Love that its hope filled and there’s a lot that people can get out of.

Mark, you travel so much. You’re in Orlando tonight then in Arizona tomorrow, then back to Florida, how do you spend time with your loved ones?
(Jokingly) On the phone…it’s a good time for me to be busy right now because my wife delivers babies (OBGYN). She’s in her second year of residency, so she works about 100 hours a week. She told me “These next 4 years are going to be tuff so why don’t you go ahead and do your own thing and come back and see me about 4 years.” So we’re 2 years into that one. If she wasn’t busy and I was traveling a lot, I will feel horrible. I think it’s really one of those things where it’s a good tendency in our life to be busy.

You’re one of the top Christian artist, and the media always have there eye on you. How do you handle that pressure on a daily basis?
Well, nobody has shown up to my house with a camera or anything. (Looking at the camera) Don’t get any ideas. The best thing is what I learned from being a youth director, if they (kids) would ever see me at any time and say that’s not the Mark Schultz I know, that would be hugely disappointing to me. So that was great training for living and being yourself. Hopefully people would say he’s the same onstage as he is offstage as he is at home. Stay true to yourself and you’re always in good shape.

What are some of the ways you give back to the community?
Good question. I was adopted when I was two weeks old, (Jokingly) the hardest two weeks of my life – paperwork. I got the best parents in the whole world. So I really wanted to help kids that haven’t been adopted yet or orphans waiting to be adopted.  I rode my bike (Summer 2007) from California to New Hampshire, about 3700 miles. Did about 13 concerts along the way and gave the money back to James Fund. Which is a family Christian store foundation that wanted to give back to the orphans who didn’t have a home yet. So we raised about a quarter million dollars for the orphans. Great experience for me, I felt really connected to it.

Did you have the training for that or was it hop on the bike and go?
I think you should train, (Jokingly) you know, I tried too. Took my bike on a tour and ride for a couple of hours everyday but there’s really nothing you can do to prepare for riding your bike a 100 miles everyday across the country. You just kind of got to do it, get better as you go. So I was doing 100 miles and by the end I could do 200 miles in one day, which I’ll never do again.

What can we as Christians do to touch the lives of the lost?
Find out what your passions are and it will lead you to people. Open opportunity to talk about GOD. So I would say breaking out of the comfort zone and just go do that and live it fully.

Do you have a favorite sport?
I like football. My wife loves college football and pro football too. After she watches that all day, she wants to go and throw the football around. I know, I can’t get any better than that. I grew up in a small town, played basketball, ran track, played baseball, played football. We didn’t have that many people in our school, so you had to do all that.  I like sports a lot.

Who’s your favorite football team?
Pro’s I’ll say Tennessee Titans. College, I went to Kansas State University. We were the worst football program for years and the last 13 years we’re not that bad anymore

Your last question, what advice do you have for the next generation of musical artist?
A lot of people try to be whatever the cool or hip thing going on at the time and…it never works. Works like for a second. I think for longevity in a career you have to do what you do and be who you are. To me, is all natural. GOD has gifted you to be in a certain thing, don’t chase after the big and exciting thing because it comes and goes

Mark Schultz’s music reminds those who are hopeless, depressed and heavy burden to put their trust in GOD and HE will always carry them.