(RNS) Charles Billingsley, a singer/songwriter at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is used to performing worship songs for others. Once the lead vocalist of the worship group NewSong, he has produced 23 solo recordings and led worship at events such as Women of Joy and Gridiron Men’s Conference.
But as he lay in a hospital bed struggling with COVID-19 on Good Friday (April 10) — the release date of his new album, “I Was Made For This” — Billingsley discovered how much listening to that music could help him.
Billingsley, now a teaching pastor and worship leader at the megachurch, talks about surviving COVID-19, what he thinks of Liberty University’s coronavirus response, and the role of worship music in difficult times.