Multi-platinum-selling songwriter, mesmerizing entertainer, powerful speaker, and popular blog-author, Christa has traveled the world and shared the stage with renowned artists from the Jonas Brothers and Michael W. Smith to Jordin Sparks and Israel Houghton.
Guest Information
Christa Black Gifford
Website: christablack.com
Bio
A natural-born performer, Christa Black Gifford’s life embodies the entirety of the modern artist. Multi-platinum-selling songwriter, mesmerizing entertainer, powerful speaker, and popular blog-author, Christa has traveled the world and shared the stage with renowned artists from the Jonas Brothers and Michael W. Smith to Jordin Sparks and Israel Houghton.
While Christa’s effortless singing and accomplished violin and songwriting abilities have attracted critical acclaim, she is much more than just a musician. Her passion for speaking and writing have inspired thousands to find freedom from addictions, eating disorders, shame, and self-hatred.
Christa began her songwriting career during one of the most difficult times in her life. In a desert treatment facility for eating disorders, she admitted herself for forty days and picked up an old guitar, writing songs that helped cope with the pain of her addictions. Songwriting for personal therapy led to writing for others, and her songs—including the multi-platinum-selling songs God Loves Ugly and Was I The Only One recorded by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, Deep In Love With You and Help Is On The Way by Grammy winning artist Michael W. Smith, and One Thing Remains and Be Lifted High by Passion, Jesus Culture, and Bethel Live—have inspired listeners to explore places of their heart they might have fought to ignore.
Christa’s book God Loves Ugly chronicles her personal journey out of destructive cycles into a life of freedom. Unashamedly transparent, she describes her painful struggle to find personal peace from the monsters of insecurity, self-hatred, sexual abuse, depression, and eating disorders. She takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery, exposing the negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions that can lead to paths of bondage. Her conversational style and light-hearted storytelling will leave you laughing at her mistakes, challenged by her teaching, and crying with her pain, inviting the reader into practical steps towards healing and freedom.
Both the book and CD God Loves Ugly coincide, pairing chapters with songs that represent each topic addressed.
An avid communicator, Christa’s speaking is as captivating as her singing. Her enthusiasm for releasing people into wholeness and freedom is evident in everything she does, whether it’s singing in front of thousands of people, speaking to inspire, writing a song that reflects her heart, or taking a stranger out to coffee and hearing their story.
“So many people get the microphone and have nothing relevant to say,” says Black. “In fact, I lived that way for a lot of my life, desiring fame and recognition out of insecurity and a need for approval. Performance comes from perfection, but excellence comes from identity. I want people knowing their worth and value—their true identity—and that it’s their absolute right and inheritance to live full and free.”
Christa lives in Nashville, TN with her husband Lucas Gifford and son Moses Grae Lionheart.