After some of the most successful and expanding years of his career, including leading worship at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, Grammy Award-winning worship leader Chris Tomlin is kicking off 2026 with new music, releasing the Jesus SavesEP.
The 53-year-old artist’s four-song project includes various renditions of the title track, a studio version, a live recording, a collaboration with the Birmingham Youth & Young Adult Fellowship Choir, and “He Has Done Great Things,” featuring fellow worship leader Phil Wickham.
The Texas native said in a statement that his latest project is part of his mission to “help give people a voice to worship God.”
The new EP follows Tomlin’s 18th studio album, The King Is Still the King, which upon its release in late September notched the biggest global streaming week of his career and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart.
The album’s single “How Good It Is” marked Tomlin’s biggest radio debut since 2020, finishing the year in the top five at Christian radio and reaching No. 2 on the Mediabase audience chart.
The album also included a revival of what scholars consider to be the oldest known Christian hymns. Tomlin collaborated with Ben Fielding to co-write “The First Hymn” using the original 35 words and melodies found in ancient papyri from around 200 AD.
“These lyrics are literally 1,800 years old,” Tomlin previously told The Christian Post about the song. “These songs were probably written by a small group of believers who died for their faith, and now we can sing them again.”
“It’s not my song, it’s the church’s,” he said. “Think about it. 1,800 years ago, people were singing the same words. No other music has as much history. You can’t touch it in country. You can’t touch it in hip-hop. Church music has been there since the beginning.”
“We are just the next ones to carry the torch,” he added.
Throughout his career, the Texas native has had 21 No. 1 radio singles, 30 Top 10 hits, more than 158 weeks at No. 1 on the Christian charts, and has won a Grammy Award, multiple Billboard Music Awards, and 30 Dove Awards.
In 2025, more than 20 years into his career, Tomlin achieved platinum certification with his 21st No. 1 single, “Holy Forever.” In September, Tomlin stood in front of tens of thousands of people inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, to hold a memorial service for slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Standing in front of an audience of dignitaries, politicians and mourners, he began with one of Kirk’s favorite hymns, “Great is Our God,” followed by “Holy Forever.”
“I was very moved,” Tomlin told CP the day after leading the service. “What a wake-up call for our country to have Jesus preached so boldly throughout that day. It felt like a change and something people had been praying for.”
Tomlin said he met an Uber driver in front of the memorial to see how widespread the ripples were. “He said to me, ‘Hey, what happened to Charlie, it woke me up. He’s going to be baptized this Sunday,'” the artist said. “Then I thought, how many people across the country feel the same way? There’s no denying that. God is doing something.”
Tomlin also served as an executive producer on the film The Last Supper, provided the song “No Greater Love” as an end credits track, and appeared on the soundtrack for the Amazon Prime Video series House of David with the collaboration “After Your Heart” with Ben Fielding and Benjamin William Hastings.
“Worship is so much more true than singing. It is our life and our dedication to God,” Tomlin told CP. “This film can open people’s hearts. It can open people’s hearts to God…and hopefully it can increase people’s faith. People will be inspired and their faith will be uplifted. What a great thing to be a part of.”
Tomlin also told CP that the scale of his recent success is consistent with what he sees as a renewed spiritual hunger among audiences.
“I have a hunger that I haven’t felt in a while,” he said. “People are coming hungry and looking for a connection with God. It feels like we’re in a moment of awakening.”
Originally published by Christian Post
