At one time, Brandon Scott Thomas ('92) was an entertainer on cruise ships who had his eye on Broadway.
"But I ended up here," he says from his office at Otter Creek Church in Brentwood, Tenn. "It's been a series of doors I believe God opened."
Thomas' journey bypassed Broadway by ultimately leading him from Abilene to Nashville, where, in addition to serving as worship minister at Otter Creek, he works as a music producer and leader of The ZOE Group, a singing group that has produced 13 praise and worship CDs.
"When ZOE began, it was very small," says Thomas, who lives in Nashville with his wife, Sheryl (Rathbun '94), also a ZOE Group member, and their three children. "We just wanted a safe place for people to experience worship."
That was in 1997. Since then, ZOE has expanded into The ZOE Group, Inc. (www.zoegroup.org), a worship resource group that holds the annual ZOE Conference at different locations around the country, and publishes New Wineskins magazine.
Thomas says a need for worship resources has become obvious as more churches have incorporated worship ministries.
"Worship ministry is now where youth ministry was in the early 1970s," he says. "We wanted to try a more holistic approach to equipping worship ministers. We don't just give them tools, we create an experience."
Thomas attributes part of ZOE's success to the music resources available in Music City, where he is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammy folks).
"Being in Nashville has afforded us a lot of opportunities," he says. "There are songwriters here and we have our pick of recording studios. On the business end, it makes it really easy to be out here."
Working in Nashville, the hub of Christian music, also has allowed Thomas to branch out in the music industry. He recently produced This is My Story, This is My Song, a collection of hymns marketed by Family Christian Stores. The boxed CD set contains 150 classic hymns and a booklet detailing the history behind each one.
He also has produced Playground: A Place I Know, an acoustic children's worship CD featuring the music of ACU alum and pop-folk writer and vocalist TJ McCloud ('03), and I Want to Shine.
"ZOE kind of launched me into these other areas of praise and worship," Thomas says. "You can't write a script for a music career in Nashville. It's just a weird tapestry of events that God brings into your life."
