Dove Award winner for the 2008 New Artist of the Year, Brandon Heath has taken his own advice since the release of his debut album, Don't Get Comfortable (Reunion Records/Provident-Integrity).

In 2007, with his music career just starting to take off, Heath, a Nashville native, accepted a position as worship leader at a United Methodist church near Houston. "I was out there on tour and they asked me to be their worship leader," Heath recalled. "Think of the audacity of that. But I was like, 'yeah.' "

The move wasn't a savvy career decision, but met his desire to be "part of the body of believers" and captured the spirit of the title of his forthcoming sophomore release, What If We, due out in August. "(That phrase) is all about possibilities. And possibilities don't happen without taking risks," he said.

Heath recalled how while working in a coffee bar he had found it easy to make snap judgments about customers based on how they looked or acted or talked. "And that's so unlike Jesus," he said. "We miss something special when we don't get to know someone that isn't like (us). (We're) children of God, but so often we don't look at people like that. Sometimes I see how beautiful people are ...Like a hand. It's so weird, but it's so functional and beautiful."

Read more in the July 7 issue of Christian Retailing International.

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