Steve Fee shares music, message and mission

ARLINGTON—While leading worship at this year’s Texas Baptist Youth Ministry Conclave, Steve Fee shared messages of hope and encouragement with youth workers who minister in the context of the struggles and challenges students face.

“At our concerts, we want people to have more than just a fun musical experience,” Fee said. “We want them to be ushered into a time of worship. It’s our desire that this music and our journey will introduce people to an irresistible Savior, and we want people to know about the glory of God and the never-ending hope that he offers.”

Fee and his band maintain a busy schedule performing concerts and leading worship at events around the country, and his songs such as “We Shine” and “All Because of Jesus” are making an impact on student ministries across the country.   

As a songwriter, Fee is known for the authenticity and vulnerability expressed in his lyrics. From his days as a young Christian to his struggle to find a place where his love for music and ministry could meet to the subsequent growth of recent years, Fee uses those experiences as a way to minister to others.

Wherever Fee performs, his goal is to offer more than a concert. He wants to provide students and young adults a life-changing encounter, he said.

In March, just days after the pastor of First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill. was shot and killed by a gunman during a Sunday morning service, Fee found himself on the same stage and leading worship for their congregation.

“We had just written a song called ‘Everything Falls,’ which is about hope in the midst of tragedy and then found ourselves leading worship for a congregation who had experienced such a devastating loss,” Fee said. 

“It was a time to remind the body of believers that they were still being held by the strong arms of God in the midst of tragedy. The certainty of the hope and faithfulness that is found only in Jesus is most evident when the things in this world fail us. It’s in the midst of tragedy and despair where we find the sustaining strength of our God most clearly.”

The theme of hope in the midst of dark times greatly influenced the songs on his newest album, Hope Rising, he noted.

“When you factor Jesus into any equation in life, even in our darkest day, you will always find ‘hope rising.’ The truth about our existence remains: We are created to worship God. It boils down to asking God to let our lives, in the good times and bad, through seasons of peace or storms, reflect the goodness and grandness of who he is and his love.

“We want people to leave our concerts with an expanded view of who God is and an increased awareness of his grandness. I’m humbled to be in front of so many people and entrusted with a message and a mission—to paint a massive picture of God, worthy of a response. I love that we get to carry out that mission every day.”