Generations of faith and song

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a story of faith, family, and song — how one musician’s spiritual heritage continues to shape the next generation.

MAST: WORLD’s Travis Kircher reports.

MUSIC: [Jesus Loves Me]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: This, kids, is what the older folks call a record. A window to the past. This record was cut sometime around 1963. The man at the piano is Oren Paris, a traveling evangelist.

And the little girl belting out “Jesus Loves Me” is his 4-year-old daughter…Twila.

TWILA PARIS: So yeah, my dad when I was very young, he was in ministry. He would be at one church one week, another church another week, so he was a preacher, but he also was a songwriter and singer…

The Paris family—Twila and her parents—would travel from church to church where Oren preached revival services that might run for two weeks at a time.

PARIS: Sometimes we would stay in the pastor's home. Very rarely in a hotel in those days. And so my question was always, "Do they have kids?" Because that meant I'd have somebody to play with for the next week or two.

Twila became a regular on-stage participant in those services from the age of 2.

PARIS: And so by the time I was 4, he asked me if I wanted to make an album. And I said, “Sure.” So we, you know, we did an independent album…

Oren had a rule that all of his children had to take piano lessons. Twila first learned from her grandmother…and some time Oren took over, he gave then 12-year-old Twila some challenging homework.

PARIS: My assignment was to write a song before next week. And I was like, “What? I can't write a song!” “Well, go try.” So I did, and I came back and I had written a bad song…

Twila officially denies any memory of that song…but says that lesson from her father demystified the songwriting process…and gave her the boldness to try again. By the time she was a teen, she had written several songs she played for friends and her local church. And when a major record label offered to sign her sometime around the age of 20, she knew exactly who to go to for advice.

PARIS: And I was like, “Well, I don't know, I've got to talk to my dad! He's out of town. You know, he's in Thailand right now!” He was on a mission trip, you know.

SONG: [The Warrior is a Child]

Twila Paris became known for songs like “The Warrior is a Child,” “Lamb of God,” and “God is in Control.”

SONG: [God is in Control]

But as a self-proclaimed introvert, she says she felt more comfortable in a studio writing music than performing at large scale concerts. She says her dad helped with that too.

PARIS: I remember my dad said to me, “You know what, Twila? If you're God-conscious, you won't be self conscious. Think about what it is that God wants to do through you. Focus on that, and on Him, and then you won't have space left over in your mind to worry about, ‘Oh, how am I coming off? What are they thinking about me?’” And that was absolutely true.

MUSIC: [Destiny]

Twila Paris would go on to release more than 20 albums, with over 30 number one Christian radio singles. In the mid-1990s she was named the Gospel Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year for three years in a row. But since then, life has slowed down.

Now at the age of 66, Twila admits she and her husband are taking a step back.

PARIS: For people who know this reference—the Princess Bride reference of being mostly retired? [LAUGHS] But a lot will be under the radar these days. You know, opportunities to serve in sometimes small but important ways, right?

Her father passed away in 2012.

PARIS: He is the person who taught me to love God and taught me to write a song.

But despite his death, his influence continues.

ALLIE: You actually have to be the hands and feet of Jesus…

That’s 21-year-old Allie Paris, Twila’s niece. Allie is chief operating officer of Counteract USA, an organization aimed at building community and Christian discipleship among young people, particularly Gen Z.

ALLIE PARIS: I would say Gen Z is a very passionate generation, and so wherever they fall, they're going to be passionate for either whatever they believe, whatever side they're on…

Allie says weekly Sunday Bible studies at her grandfather Oren’s house in her childhood played a role in her career path.

ALLIE: Every single week, we would meet with the siblings and all the cousins and just have a time of fellowship and really digging into the Word. And so that was something that I think I now see the effect that had on me and my siblings.

And even though Allie didn’t pursue a singing career like her Aunt Twila, she says there’s one musical chore grandpa Oren didn’t let her skip.

ALLIE: We were all forced to learn piano from a very early age. And so that was a school subject.

MUSIC: [Jewels]

Twila gets emotional when she talks about seeing God work through the lives of young people.

PARIS: I remember hearing my mom and dad talk about this—and my mom's about to turn 91 and she still prays for us faithfully—but it's more fulfilling than even the amazing opportunities you had and the amazing things that you got to do when you see the next generation…moving into their calling. There’s just nothing like it.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

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