Mark Schultz: I was with the singers group at Colby Community College and I wrote some songs and they let me perform them. That was a good confidence builder. Then, I went to KS State and I was in the K-State Singers, which is a nice little group of 12. I sort a traveled around and did my own…they let me do my own songs there, that was great. I graduated from K-State and the week after I moved to Nashville, became a waiter. Had a marketing degree and became a waiter. Started off into the music business, it was awful and I hated it. I wasn't doing anything musical because I was so tired from being in the music business. I met up with a youth minister at the restaurant. He came up to my table and we got to talking. He and his wife, they were great and he said, "You need to come be a youth minister." I said, "No way in a million years will I be a youth minister." He talked me into it and I came and I fell in love with the kids, fell in love with the job. Been there for 7 years. I decided I'm not gonna to be a singer-guy any more, I'm gonna be a youth-guy. Fell in love with it and just started writing songs about the kids and the youth group and there it is. The rest is history.

Shawn DC Larson: How has your music affected the people who have listened to your CDs and concerts?

Mark Schultz: I've been overwhelmed with the mail. I think one song in particular "He's My Son", just…that song was never meant to be a radio song. That was for a family in our youth group that I just wanted to write a song about. Never meant to be on a record, never meant to, we just put it on there. The first time they played it, they didn't play it on a Christian station, they started playing it on mainstream stations. Which is cool, it's about a dad praying about his son. They played it on a country station in St. Louis and they got a thousand e-mails about it. I just went "wow". So I started everywhere I went on tours and radio stations they said play that song, I like that song and the phone lines would light up and people would call for 30 minutes, 40 minutes…it was pretty unbelievable. I thought to myself, you know here's another song I tried to write for 3 months and I felt like a complete looser and I gave up and came back 20 min later and God wrote it in 45 minutes. It was done and I just went "that had nothing to do with me". Again, it's getting back and going I'm nothing, it's up to God.

Shawn DC Larson: Has there been a change of style from your first album to your second?

Mark Schultz: There's not one song on the next album that sounds like the next one. And, I think this one is a better record. Which is hard to do your 2nd one out. You're first one has all your babies on it. This 2nd one, I gotta tell you, a lot of the kids in the youth group like it better than the 1st one.

Shawn DC Larson: What's your favorite song on it?

Mark Schultz: It's hard to say. There's a song called, "Back in His Arms Again", which is a song about a kid who left the youth group, got a way from God, came back one night and said, "You know what, I think I got away from God and I don't think He knows where I'm at." I looked in the scripture where it talks about the shepherd and the sheep, 100 of them and one getting' away and God, the shepherd, doesn't stay with all of them he just goes and finds the lost one. . . .Talks about Jesus pickin' him up and walkin' him back to the rest of the flock. Another song I wrote, "I've Been There". . .Talks about there's no place you can go where God hasn't already been. No matter how low you get, God's already been there and He wait for you there, to get there. Phenomenal thing, so you don't walk through that alone. Another favorite of mine, been a favorite song of mine since 1985, we did a remix of "Mister Mister's Kyrie and it smokes. It is the coolest thing and I love that, too. Those are probably, I don't know, I sing a song with Rachel Lampa , a huge ballad, I love it and I do a duet with Chris Rice. A song called "Holy One".

Shawn DC Larson: Was Chris Rice fun to work with?

Mark Schultz: He's awesome. Unbelievable, a great guy.

Shawn DC Larson: Do you have family?

Mark Schultz: I come from a family, but I'm not married or anything.

Shawn DC Larson: What's it like being a professional musician with family, friends, music, youth group all competing with your time? Is it like a juggling act?

Mark Schultz: It's hard. I wish I could say, "Oh, man it all fits together perfectly" but it's a mess. At times horrible. At times I feel like, "What am I doing, why am I doing this?" I stick with it for a while and I feel God saying, "You know what, you don't need to kill yourself or ruin all your relationships to be on the road." That was the thing I realized the first year that all the relationships that made me who I am, I haven't got to invest in those. When you're on the road you meet people for 20 seconds at a time. Instead of going a mile deep with the folks that have meant the most to you, you go about a fingernail depth with a lot more folks. At the end of the day, you're pretty empty if you don't have that, even though people pour out what the songs mean, you're missing their history and walkin' with somebody. That's hard to do when you're gone all the time. I'm tryin' to work now.

Shawn DC Larson: What about your relationship with Jesus? is it hard too putting that into the mix?

Mark Schultz: What I'm realizing, here's the thing…if I didn't have the youth group, I'd be in a world of trouble. You can get so busy singing, you can forget why you're doing it, you're just in a bus, you're traveling and you get in the bus and travel and sing, you get in the bus, travel, sing. What you don't allow yourself time to do, is what Jesus talks about the most: When I get, when there's too many people around and it gets crowded and you can't think, he just goes off and just has quiet time, prays by himself, gets away. That's one thing on the road you can't do very well. You're always…I went with the youth group this last week to CO to a leadership mission trip. That whole week it rained, so we had to stay indoors, and we just prayed all week. Some of the best times of listening, I've ever had.

Shawn DC Larson: Establishing a relationship with the Lord. Obviously that's a priority…how do you make in your 1st priority as a professional.

Mark Schultz: For me, I've gotta have accountability. Accountability is it's not comfortable for me to still be with the youth group, because of my schedule, nor does it fit my schedule to be a youth guy and do music all the time. Those two things bang head, but I need them both to be fulfilled. So you almost have to put yourself in a front row position to you're your feet grounded to say, "You are going to do this, if you stop it you're wasting your time because you're not being used."

Shawn DC Larson: Speaking of accountability when you're out on the road, do you make it a habit to go to different churches, visiting different places so you can have that accountability?

Mark Schultz: To tell you the truth, no. Because if we have a Sat show in FL and a Sun show in Alabama, we're in a bus the whole time going over there. I'm going to start traveling with youth ministers, bringing them on the road with me if I ever get the chance because that's when we're together the most.

Shawn Larson: Can you give some advice to unsigned groups that are coming up here to Estes Park for the GMA Christian Artists Conference

Mark Schultz: It sounds lame, but it's true. Do what you're doing, right there where you're doin' it. Just be that and be it the best you can be. If God intends for you to…he'll move things for you. It takes puttin' your heart out there and kinda puttin' yourself out there, it feels uncomfortable. For me, as soon as I stopped worrying about, I wanna be a performer, a songwriter, a music person, it happened. Because I fell in love with the kids in youth group and I found out what God wanted me to do. I started writing songs for the kids, thinking maybe this is what I am suppose to do is just write and make their experiences richer by having songs that communicate to people what God's done through these kids, then it ended up on a record and then it just touches people and then I go, you know what, it had nothing to do with me. I think the biggest part is, just take yourself out of the equation. I think I do my best work and strongest stuff when I realize I am a minor part to a big picture instead of thinking everything revolves around me. When I take myself out of it God is free to use you, you're not using God. You let God use you, instead of you telling God how it's gonna be, let God tell you how it's gonna be. I don't know how many times I've gone into our youth minister's office with tears in my eyes and gone you know what? God just used the "stupid guy" again. Because, stuff happens and God works through me, not just music but just hangin' out with the kids and havin' the right things to say at the right time when I thought I was just babbling and kids go "you know, that thing right there changed my life". And I go "you know what, you're not talkin' to me, you're talking to God because I was just babblin'". So, to me that s the biggest thing, just take yourself out of the equation and just do what God asks, "just let me use you for my purpose"