Finding his voice

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: Comparisons! We all are tempted to make them from time to time.

Myrna, you discovered that even successful CCM artists can struggle with it.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: They sure can, Paul. And I recently met a singer/songwriter who is honest about both his struggles and his victories in this area.

CHAPMAN CONCERT AMBI: Saddle up your horses…

MYRNA BROWN, REPORTER: And with that familiar chorus from singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman, a few hundred of his fans, at this summer’s Lifest Christian Music Festival, are instantly taken back to an era of baggy jeans and mullets.

MARTY: And I remember Steven, Steve, standing at a typewriter because everything was typed out on a typewriter back then. He was standing up. He was just starting to grow the mullet out [LAUGHTER]

That’s John Martin Keith or Marty, as he likes to be called, standing just a few feet away from Chapman on the Festival’s main stage. Marty, a 6 foot 1, red-head just might be Chapman’s biggest fan.

MARTY: He was my hero musically and spiritually and ministry based. I always wanted to do what he did.

Both born in Paducah, Kentucky, a small town in the western part of the state, Marty even took guitar lessons from Steve Curtis Chapman’s father—the town’s guitar store owner.

MARTY: I’m the youngest student that Herb Chapman at Chapman Music has ever had at four years old. I still hold that record.

During his nearly 15-year-stint as a student, Marty says he and the Chapmans became very close.

MARTY: So he became very much a second father to me. Herb Chapman is, one of the things I love about him and his sons Steven Curtis and Herbie Chapman is that they all are always talking about the Lord and I’ve always loved that and wanted to incorporate that into my life.

And his music…

ANNOUNCER: He’s a worship pastor, he’s a singer/songwriter. Will you guys please welcome John Martin Keith? [APPLAUSE]

On another stage north of Chapman’s setup, Marty kicks off his own concert, sitting on a stool, strumming through a chord progression.

MARTY SONG: I feel my day with a million things I have to do…

He co-wrote that song, “Can You Hear Me?” with a friend in 2005. But Marty remembers a season in his music ministry, marked by mimicry.

MARTY: And for a long time, when I was a teenager, I was doing a lot of Steve Curtis covers. I was using his background tracks and half my concert was just kind of doing his stuff.

BROWN : Have you ever been tempted to compare your life, your ministry with his? His stage versus your stage?

MARTY: Uh, oh sure. He’s always kind of been the template for me. I’ll put it that way. Wanted to base my ministry off of what he had done because he was very successful at how he did it. Man, I want to do that. I want to be that kind of an artist. At some point I had to find my own identity.

That journey began in the summer of 1992. With the distant beat from the music festival thumping in the background, Marty sits backstage to recall his senior year in high school.

MARTY: My two best friends and I were wanting to start a prayer group at my high school, Heath High School in West Paducah Kentucky. And we wanted to start a prayer group and a Bible club.

The school administration said yes, if Marty and his friends could find a teacher to sponsor them.

MARTY: My band teacher became our sponsor. His name is Roger Hayes. And we called it the Agape Club and agape means unconditional love.

Marty says the Agape Club was simply a way to pray for their classmates.

MARTY: We felt very strongly like we need to do this. We want to have a way to share the Gospel with them.

The daily morning prayer meetings not only grew in size, but they also continued years after Marty graduated. One year indelibly stands out.

MARTY: December 1, of 1997. It was a Monday. Monday right after Thanksgiving. So it was the first day back in school and I woke up that morning and turned on the news.

REPORTER: What happened in the lobby of this West Kentucky high school would change a nation.

SCHOOL OFFICIAL TO POLICE DISPATCHER: I hear gunshots. Where’s the shots fired? Heath High School. Where? In the lobby. In the high school? In the high school. Ma’am is anyone injured I think so.

In the middle of the very same prayer group Marty helped to start five years earlier, a 14-year-old male student opened fire, injuring five other students and killing three. The next day, the school and the entire community came together not only to grieve but also to pray.

MARTY: So it wasn’t just 30 people, but it was a few hundred that packed the lobby.

After the shooting Marty turned those tears into lyrics.

WELCOME HOME SONG: You lived a good life on this earth…

A musical tribute to Nicole Hadley, Jessica James and Kayce Steger, the three girls killed that day.

MARTY: And so that’s been a huge part of my story when I do concerts is telling their story and sharing this song.

Marty says God also gave him another ministry.

MARTY: We’re going to lead into some worship time here…

MARTY: And so I go all over the country and I fill in for worship leaders, for worship pastors and lead worship for their churches. Usually my wife and daughter will go with me whenever possible and we get to minister to the worship pastors and their families.

Putting into practice Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Bon Aqua, Tennessee.

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