God Works in the Wilderness: Music Artist John Elliott's Remarkable Ministry
by Randall Murphree
December 29, 2003
(AgapePress) - He wrote the scripture chorus "I am Crucified With Christ" and the moving "Embrace the Cross," but vocalist Steve Green made us familiar with them. He wrote "How Great His Love Must Be" and "You Are Faithful Lord," but Billy and Sarah Gaines recorded them for us to hear. He wrote "Somebody's Prayin' For Me," but Ricky Skaggs and other artists put it on the airwaves.John Elliot -- not a household name. Yet his ministry reaches around the world. "Somebody's Prayin' For Me" has brought more mail and comments than any other song he's written. Its impact was illustrated in one Nashville event.
"The Nashville Songwriters Association asked me to sing," John says, "and this was primarily a secular audience. These were country writers. I sang 'Somebody's Praying,' and then I heard crying, sobbing all over that audience. There were a lot of people sitting out there, some of them into hard stuff – and most of them had somebody somewhere they knew was praying for them."
Trained as a classical pianist from age eight, John showed great promise, placing as a finalist in international competition at Carnegie Hall at age 20. Not long after that, he lost the use of two fingers on his right hand.
He gave up piano and went to seminary for a master's degree in New Testament. While serving as campus minister at Purdue in the early 1980s, he began to write Christian songs. As God worked in his heart, John learned to die to himself and his own dreams. He moved to Nashville in 1983, God healed his fingers, and he's been writing, singing and playing God's praises ever since.
Miracle Move to Texas
John spent 14 years in Nashville. While living in the inner city, he and his wife, Carol, began looking for a place in the country. He would be a songwriter, work in Nashville studios and volunteer as worship leader at his church. But God had other plans.
One morning while reading his Bible, John felt God's direction toward Texas. Without telling Carol, he began to pray, "Lord, if this is you, please confirm it, because this is a really unexpected turn of events."
"On the third morning," he says, "I went downstairs and Carol said, 'John, are we supposed to be thinking about Texas?'" He told her about his prayers and made plans to look at houses two weeks later, when he was already booked for ministry in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
"The second house I looked at was it," he says. "This is just one in a long series of events in which the Lord showed Himself to be incredible in the way He provides.
"We moved to a little remote town in the dry country north of Fort Worth, and what is amazing is how the Lord just continued to have invitations come. In fact, everything increased. The Lord sent us to the wilderness, and in the wilderness, He's blessed us more."
Since 1997, the Elliotts have thrived in the country near Decatur, Texas, where their five children are home schooled and have plenty of room to roam.
Ministry to the World
Max Lucado echos numerous Christian leaders who commend John. Lucado has said, "When I need a solid word with powerful music, I listen to John Elliott. He is a prize of the kingdom." John's ministry events incorporate his world class keyboard work, his mellow and moving vocal style, his humble personal testimony, and his deep, clear insights into the truths of Scripture.
In the 1980s, John read the autobiography of George Mueller, founder of children's homes in Great Britain in the mid-1800s. Mueller never asked for money for his ministry, relying wholly on prayer and God's provision.
"Outside the Bible, that book has influenced me more than any other book," John says. "I knew it was right for me, as much as possible, to pattern my approach to ministry after his example. To let prayer be the dominant characteristic of my ministry."
John has made several mission trips to South America and Spain. Another mission took him to Albania soon after the Iron Curtain fell. This trip is one of the highlights of his years in ministry. A friend with International Teams called and asked, "Can you come to Albania?"
"I thought he was joking," John says. "Albania was a closed country, so I said, 'Right, that'll be fine. Then we'll go do a crusade on the moon!"
But it was for real. "Brother Andrew was speaking at an open air crusade," he says. "I was invited to help lead worship. I'll never forget the hunger of those people, and the way they responded."
Another highlight occurred in Nashville. "I was leading worship at a conference," he recalls. "We sang the old hymn 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God' and there was such a presence of the Lord that after the first verse, the people were so filled with a sense of God's presence that they just cheered and applauded for several minutes." That continued after each stanza of the old hymn.
John says, "The great highlights are when you encounter times when God is clearly present."
Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
