Believe it or not, the Catholic Playlist show got its start in July 2013 and to date we’ve now produced 170 episodes of the flagship contemporary show. A long time ago when building this website I published the About the Show page to inform curious visitors about the Catholic Playlist show. While revisiting the About page recently I noticed you won’t find my motivation to continue producing new shows. Yes, it’s fun to discover new music and the show seems to play an important role in getting music to reach more ears and touch more lives. But is this reason enough to leave home after a long day at my full-time job, go to an empty radio studio at 8pm on a week night to record and produce the show, and finally come home at 1am or 2am or even later with a finished show? The 3-4+ hours to produce each show doesn’t include the time to do the graphics, writing podcast and website posts, social media campaigns and more. There’s nothing glamorous about the work and the donations we get for the show barely covers the cost of the music. So I don’t do it for the fame or the money.

Then I came across this post from Danielle Noonan, a talented singer and songwriter who’s been heard many times in the Catholic Playlist:

“I never in a million years envisioned myself being a wife, mom and full time musician. All of those things separately, yes, but if you know me personally, balancing things can be somewhat of a messy and comical experience…for me. So my most recent question to some of my closest friends is why are we doing this? Why, above all things, are we creatives for the church? I don’t ask because I think it’s not worth it but because deep down there’s nothing else we’d rather do more than create beauty for the church and that’s insane. Let’s be honest. Real talk here…There’s nothing glamorous about being a musician in the church. When I travel, especially alone, it’s well…lonely. Who loves airports, being away from their family, not hanging out with their friends, getting calls your kiddos are sick, or you missed a party or school performance. No one in their right mind wakes up one morning and thinks, “hey, you know what, I really don’t want to hang out with my husband and kiddos today so I’m gonna take the red eye and sleep on a couch.” It’s ridiculous, but as a creative, especially a creative in the church we are fighting for our church. We’re fighting to bring beauty, truth and joy into a world that’s broken and not just for the young church but for everyone. We’re fighting for generations who’ve been shown that what they can produce through their hands holds more value than what is produced within their own hearts. Where’s that gotten us? It’s our job as creatives to not just bring beauty to the church but to bring beauty out of it. We can all be mirrors of God’s beauty, love, and redemption and as a creative, meeting people where they are and sharing our music and testimonies gives all of our hearts a chance to be broken just a little more so we all mirror Him.”

And so I’ve found my reason. It’s to “bring beauty, truth and joy into a world that’s broken” – beauty created by talented creatives like Danielle who need an outlet to share their music and testimonies. That’s why I’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours listening to music and assembling the best playlists I can with the best and newest contemporary Christian music from Catholic artists only. The slogan I’ve used for a long time says it well – “Sharing the joy of the Gospel through the power of music!”

And now a question for you: Why do you enjoy listening to the Catholic Playlist show? What do you get from it?

Use the comments section below to share. Thanks!