{"id":13632,"date":"2018-10-23T11:34:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T15:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13632"},"modified":"2018-10-23T11:34:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T15:34:17","slug":"austin-french-swore-hed-never-christian-now-hes-leading-people-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/10\/austin-french-swore-hed-never-christian-now-hes-leading-people-christ.html","title":{"rendered":"Austin French Swore He\u2019d Never Be Christian, Now He\u2019s Leading People to Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pixabay.com\"<\/a>
Pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is always tragic to hear about people who abandoned religion because they had a terrible experience with a specific congregation, rabbi, preacher or mosque. That, however, is what almost happened to popular Christian singer Austin French.<\/p>\n

French\u2019s father was a minister, and their family\u2019s life looked perfect from the outside. Behind closed doors, however, was a very different story and carefully kept secrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember people coming to us and saying, \u2018Your family’s the godliest family we’ve ever met,\u2019 but at home it felt like World War III, and the mask came off, abuse happened,\u201d French said. \u201cAs an 8-year-old kid I remember writing in my journal, \u2018I will never be a Christian.\u2019 I just hated the church \u2014 I hated Christians, didn’t want to be a part of it. [In our house,] it was fear-based. It wasn’t love-based and so I remember going and writing in this journal, \u2018If this is what being a Christian looks like, I don’t want to be a Christian.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Things only got worse when the church alienated his family after his parents divorced. Looking back, French knows that based on his experiences with his father and his father\u2019s church, French assumed that Jesus was similar to those who hurt and abandoned French\u2019s family. Then, French\u2019s mother began working at a small church and sent him to a music camp where a man gave the sermon that turned French\u2019s world upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cA guy got up on stage and said, \u2018Hey, I want to talk about hypocrisy. I’m gonna tell you there’s a lot of people who follow Jesus with their lips and they talk a really great game, but they’ve never followed Jesus with their life,\u2019\u201d French said. \u201c\u2018That is not what being a Christian is \u2014 being a Christian is [giving] your entire life to Jesus. It’s looking like Jesus because you’re spending time with Jesus \u2026 That’s the day I gave my life to Jesus and realized that I was saved by his scars,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn’t defined by mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, French is working to make \u201cmusic for broken people\u201d like he was when he was younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the songs on [my album, \u2018Wide Open,\u2019] are literally the stories of the last three to four years of my life,\u201d French said. \u201cSo, for people to finally listen and get to know me in a way through this music, I’m just so excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

French hopes that those who listen to his music will think deeper about their faith and come to know the Jesus that he knows now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is always tragic to hear about people who abandoned religion because they had a terrible experience with a specific congregation, rabbi, preacher or mosque. That, however, is what almost happened to popular Christian singer Austin French. French\u2019s father was a minister, and their family\u2019s life looked perfect from the outside. Behind closed doors, however,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3383,11],"tags":[3053,3766,587],"class_list":["post-13632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-celebrity","category-christian-music","tag-christian-music","tag-christian-musician","tag-music-2"],"yoast_head":"\nAustin French Swore He\u2019d Never Be Christian, Now He\u2019s Leading People to Christ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christian singer Austin French once swore he would \u201cnever be Christian\u201d after terrible experiences with religion when he was young.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/10\/austin-french-swore-hed-never-christian-now-hes-leading-people-christ.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Austin French Swore He\u2019d Never Be Christian, Now He\u2019s Leading People to Christ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christian singer Austin French once swore he would \u201cnever be Christian\u201d after terrible experiences with religion when he was young.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/10\/austin-french-swore-hed-never-christian-now-hes-leading-people-christ.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-23T15:34:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Hertzenberg\" \/>\n<meta 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