Paul Baloche

Paul Baloche is an American Christian music artist, worship leader, and songwriter. A native of New Jersey, Baloche is currently the worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas. Baloche composes on piano and acoustic guitar, favoring guitar when leading worship. His wife, Rita Baloche, is also a Christian songwriter. Several Christian artists, such as Michael W. Smith and Sonicflood, have recorded Baloche's songs. Many of his songs are among the most performed songs in services according to CCLI, a company that handles copyright licensing of Christian songs and other resource materials for use in churches. Among them are "Open the Eyes of My Heart" (ranked number 2) and "Above All" (ranked number 22), cowritten with Lenny Leblanc. "Above All" was nominated for Song of the Year in both the 2002 and 2003 Dove Awards, and in 2002, Michael W. Smith's recording of that song won Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year. Baloche was also nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2002. Baloche uses his position as a recording artist to provide resources for churches. His catalog of six albums is focused on providing worship music for the listener to worship along with, and for churches to use in their own services. His albums are released by Hosanna! Music, a division of Integrity Music. Through Integrity, Baloche has also written a book, God Songs, and released instructional DVDs that cover a variety of issues central to contemporary worship, such as music styles, music theory, creating flow in worship, and guitar techniques (including his distinct open chord voicings). In addition to his material output, Baloche annually participates in several seminars for worship leaders and musicians throughout North America (many of which are facilitated by Integrity), and has started to participate in seminars in Asia as well. His 2006 release, A Greater Song, is a live recording featuring new songs, some cowritten with leading worship artists like Matt Redman ("A Greater Song") and Integrity executive vice president Don Moen ("Thank You Lord").