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Adult Contemporary

Beth Champion Mason

By Shaun L. Jackson

CBN.com Somewhere between Nashville and Virginia, driving through the mountains one October day, Beth Champion Mason was struck by the picture-perfect view of autumn colors against an azure-blue sky, and through that beauty God sent a simple message: “I love you.” In that moment, the song “Postcards” was born. It was a moment of clarity and peace, a moment when God was very present.

“I decided to call the new CD Postcards because a postcard tells a little blurb about a certain point along a journey, but it doesn’t tell the whole story,” Beth explains. “To me, these songs are like that – each one describes a point along my journey, but none of them tells the whole story about me or my faith. Every song is just a snapshot. But it seems to me that in life, if you look hard enough, during every point on your journey you can see the ways that God is trying to say, ‘I love you.’”

Beth’s journey has been a winding one. Raised in Southeast Virginia, Beth always loved singing, started playing piano at age 7, and wrote her first song at age 12. She had dreams of a singing career early on, but as she got a little older, Beth was sidetracked from her dreams and began a life of alcohol and drug abuse. She turned her back on the faith her parents tried to instill in her, and instead tried everything the world had to offer. Even while on this detour, Beth knew that God was the path she was seeking – yet she convinced herself that she had gone too far for God to still love her. She was wrong.

God miraculously opened Beth’s eyes to His redeeming love, and gave her the second chance she so desperately needed, delivering her from her addictions. Even though Beth was deeply grateful for God’s redemption, she thought that she had waited too long to pursue a music career. Besides, trying to make it as a professional musician was just not practical. Instead, she went to college, got a sensible degree, entered the business world, and put her music dreams away indefinitely. But Someone had other plans.

A few years later while deep in prayer, Beth felt the unmistakable call of God to dedicate her life to music ministry. Although she was not involved in music ministry at the time—and she wasn’t sure what form “music ministry” would take—she made a promise to God that if He would open the doors, she would walk through them. A short two weeks later, Beth received an unexpected phone call from the pastor at her church: the music minister had suddenly quit and the church was in need of an interim music director. Knowing that this was the first door the Lord was opening, she accepted. That interim position turned into a nearly two-year assignment. During that time, her purpose began to crystallize into a more clear vision. She began writing songs again, this time focusing them on encouraging other believers and expressing her own fears and joys in light of her relationship with God.

The Lord eventually led Beth to another church, where today she is the worship leader, and He started opening up doors for her to perform her songs in her local area. As she began sharing her music, more and more people started asking for recordings of her songs, so she finally decided it was time to record a CD. Though she never expected the CD to be much more than a local offering, her debut album All I Have, released in 2002, went on to receive international recognition in various competitions. Encouraged by the success of that CD, Beth went on to record her sophomore album, Postcards, which has been released regionally in Spring 2005. It will be released nationally in late summer 2005.

Beth now performs up and down the East Coast and beyond, including concerts, festival events, leading worship, coffeehouse concerts, and numerous other events—an average of 100 events per year. Though she has shared the stage with national artists such as FFH, she also loves to perform in intimate settings where she can get to know the people in her audience and really minister through the music.

It’s true that the Lord often works in mysterious ways. Though we prefer a direct route to our goals, He often chooses a winding path to lead us exactly where He wants us to be. And maybe it’s better that way. The scenic route usually has a much more interesting view. Beth Champion Mason is a songwriter and artist who is open to the Lord’s leading—no matter how mysterious—and winding—His ways might be.

Courtesy of Beth Champion Mason and Shaun L. Jackson



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