May 20 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Stan Moser's 1970 entrance into the Christian music business was unglamorous at best: a part-time job at Word Music while he was finishing college. But within ten years, Moser had moved from the bottom of the corporate ladder to the head of Word Records and was the dominant executive in the emerging Christian music industry. And he signed a young teenager who would change the face of Christian contemporary music: Amy Grant.

Then an interview with John Styll, publisher and executive editor of "Contemporary Christian Music" magazine, changed the way he looked at himself, his achievements, and the industry he was helping to shape. "I thought that was the greatest interview. I was blown away by how good I was," Moser recalls. "But later, the Lord said, 'You know that article? I thought it was disgusting. Until I give you something to say, I don't want to see you quoted anywhere again.' " The inaudible but unmistakable voice tore at his pride and filled him with shame. Five years passed before he was quoted again in print.

This interview was conducted last year when Moser was the CEO for Star Song Records. Then, last November, with 26 years in the Christian music industry behind him, he quit.

When I began my career, there was no such thing as contemporary Christian music (CCM). But you could see that something spiritual was happening in the music industry. I believe it was a genuine outpouring of God's Spirit. I'm from the sixties generation, and we were a generation of people who were searching. Even those of us who were good Baptist kids--not hippies, dopers, and dropouts--were still searching for some ultimate truths. Then, as my generation discovered Christ, revival happened.

As people of the hippie movement found Christ, they ...