Micah Stampley: a special voice of praise

He is God's Minister of Music, a licensed minister, a husband, a father of five and one of gospel music's newest male stars. He is Micah Stampley.

At only 34, the sought-after psalmist is already a music veteran. His first CD, The Songbook of Micah, made music history as the second-highest debut for a male gospel artist. To put that in perspective, his debut surpasses those of gospel superstars Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin and Smokie Norful. The gospel newcomer is hard at work on his sophomore project, tentatively titled A Fresh Wind, set for release later this year.

Stampley and his wife, Heidi, who is also his songwriting partner, have five children at home in Sugarland, Texas, four boys--Brandon, 11; Micah, 6; Adam, 4; David, 1--and one daughter, Mary, 2. In addition to his recording career, Stampley continues to serve Houston's St. Agnes Baptist Church as assistant minister of music. So with his church duties, recording, writing and touring, how does he keep it all together with such a young family?

"I've made it a personal goal of mine to only do three days of work a week so that I can raise my children," he says. "I don't want to be one of those artists who never sees their children. I am really a family man, and that's how we keep balance."

In all of the excitement of his mushrooming music career, the singer-songwriter says he has had to learn how to say no. "It just became overwhelming," he says, "but when the contract expires, my family are the ones who are still here, and I have to be there to take care of them."

Because family is Stampley's overriding concern, he and his wife also home-school their children. He was born in Los Angeles, but was raised in Baton Rouge, La., where his family had moved when he was still an infant. His father, Richard Stampley, is a carpenter and craftsman of fine furniture and cabinetry who was called into the ministry in the mid-'80s, while his mother, Delmarie, cared for the couple's eight children.

Micah joined the church choir and started singing publicly at age 4. He taught himself piano and keyboards, and became the official minister of music at his father's church at age 13. "I always loved the gospel music I was raised on," he says, "and anything with a choir sound immediately grabbed me, but the secular stuff really opened my ears, musically, to a whole world that was out there that I hardly knew existed. I was hearing melodies and chord progressions that had never occurred to me before. It really spun my head around."

But it is Stampley's soaring voice and its multioctave crescendo of staggering power that moves his listeners to tears or to their knees in prayer and supplication. It has lifted Stampley from near total obscurity to one of gospel's most talked-about new artists in less than a year's time. He is often compared to gospel great Donnie McClurkin, who has publicly anointed Stampley as his musical heir. He says he considers McClurkin to be "a spiritual father." McClurkin has predicted that Stampley "will go far beyond what God has blessed [me] to do."

In January 2004, Stampley won the Stellar Award's national Star Search, competing against thousands of other candidates around the country. One week later, Bishop T.D. Jakes invited him to sing at his church and personally offered him a record deal on the spot with his label, Dexterity Sounds/EMI.

"Right away it was apparent to us that Micah is uniquely gifted, and we at Dexterity Sounds felt his powerfully melodious voice was one the world needed to hear," Bishop Jakes says. "We were proud to sign him to our label and to make his tremendous musical gift available to a broader and more diverse audience. Personally, I think he is an incredible vocalist!"

In the music arena, Stampley says his songs are his exploration of redemption, worship and wholeness. His next album will continue that theme. "This next album is geared toward ... the pure worship," he says. "And once we get to a place of true repentance, then we can say to God that now I can come before you and worship because I'm clean."

Stampley encourages people to lead holy lives and says he wants them to experience closeness with God. He admits that he has struggled in this area. "I was one of the ones who would do the club scene on Saturday night and go to church on Sunday morning, and lead the praise and worship services," he says candidly. "I had a form of godliness, but was truly denying the power that was accessible to me. Since I've allowed Him to change my ways, there are places that I won't go anymore and things that I won't do because of my conviction."

That conviction, calling and ministry are leading him beyond the arts to deal concretely with people and issues. He and his wife, who is a registered nurse, also want to build shelters for the homeless, to feed, clothe and nurture the body and the spirit, offering healing, hope and rehabilitation. "The music is key to the ministry, and it's where I've invested the greatest part of my life," he says.