Bart Millard

“A Little Hope' is a song we wrote a couple of years ago and hated the thought of it not getting at least a little attention. It's a song that just makes you smile.”

“After 'The Hurt & The Healer', we kind of hit a wall. I grew up in a somewhat legalistic church and it taught me that faith is enough, but here's three more things left just in case. There's always things left to do to be closer to God.”

“More than anything, whether it's my dad's fault or whatever, I wouldn't allow myself to be loved. I lived most of my life thinking that I was unlovable, that I was broken goods, or whatever.”

“My dad was a monster and I realized if the gospel could change that dude, the gospel can change anybody.”

“Yeah, musically, from a production standpoint my favorite is probably 'Have a Little Talk with Jesus'. Just the way it turned out production wise with the clarinet and everything, it sounds like something from a movie.”

“The second that MercyMe stopped being my identity, instead of quitting, I started falling back in love with it.”

“I finally got the dad I always wanted and then he left. At 18, 19 years old, I was really upset and had to work through that.”

“We have jokingly said if you've got good hair, can sing and know three chords, you can lead worship at First Baptist Houston or wherever. But that's kind of scary, putting somebody on stage just because they have a good voice. Do they know theologically and spiritually what they're saying and why they're doing it?”

“I did everything religion told me to do for a long time only to end up frustrated, beat down and jaded. I couldn't keep up. No matter how hard I tried, it was never enough. So I decided to quit. And I did.”

“You didn't choose Christian music because it's more beneficial. It doesn't pay more. It doesn't make you more famous. There's some reason why you came to this. What changed your life at some point?”

“Let me put it this way, if you were drowning, you wouldn't really be in a place to lend a hand as far as being rescued. You'd be at the mercy of the lifeguard. Once pulled out, you may be a little out of it, not sure where you are, but safe nonetheless.”

“Probably about 10 years ago or so I told my grandmother that I always wanted to make a record of hymns if I could ever make a career of all of this. She kind of held me to it. She passed away in 1999. I just never forgot it.”

“I believe my life has been covered by grace since I trusted in Christ at age 13. I just had to turn 40 to notice.”

“We are not disqualified or bad people trying to be good. We are holy, righteous, and redeemed. Sometimes, we spend more time on what we used to be and not who we are now.”

“If you go to a Christmas concert, you take your wife on a nice evening, people are dressed up a little bit more, and it's definitely a sit-down event.”

“I just want people to not assume their story is over, especially when maybe they have somebody in their life that they've given up on or they think it's hopeless.”

“I am just sitting back and trying to take in the idea that the God who created everything around us, He didn't call the mountains or the forest or the ocean to spend eternity with Him, but He called us.”

“I've been through difficult times where it just seems like hope is nowhere to be found, but those are some of the greater moments where we run to Christ a little faster and hang on a little tighter.”

“I ended up living in fear for most of my childhood.”

“On Christmas Eve, it's my wife and my son and my daughter and I. We're home, and we open our presents together on Christmas Day, and then after we go visit the rest of the family.”