Sheila, I’m delighted to get to chat with you here on the Women In Worship Network!
Your career has been incredibly multi-faceted. As well as all your singing/recording, you’ve written over 17 books. You faithfully blog and twitter. You were a presenter on the 700 Club & the BBC’s Rock Gospel Show. You studied at the London School of Theology & Fuller Seminary. You’ve had your own talk show. WOW! Where did all this begin – how did you start in your career/ministry?
When I was sixteen years old I joined a Scottish gospel group, “Unity”, as one of the vocalists. We mostly toured Scotland but we did make a record at what was then ICC studios in the one and only Eastbourne!
When I joined British Youth for Christ after seminary, Graham Kendrick was my boss. (I used to babysit his dog Paddington when Graham and Jill would go out to eat because he would cry if he was left alone:) Graham wrote the first songs that I ever recorded as a solo artist. He was a wonderful boss. He was passionate in his relationship with Christ and understood the need for a good curry after a gig:)
God used ‘Spring Harvest’ to perform a radical make-over on my heart. When Luis Palau spoke about what it means to be a ‘living sacrifice’ I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life finding as many ways as possible to talk about the relentless love of God.
When I look back now, what’s clear to me is that God has always opened doors for me when and where I least expected it. Whether it was touring with Cliff Richard and having him produce my CD’s or hosting BBC’s ‘Rock Gospel Show’ these were things I would never have imagined myself doing but I learned that if God opens a door it doesn’t really matter if you feel up to the job or not, just show up and let God do the rest.
When I was first signed to Sparrow Records and invited to tour America and open for Phil Keaggy I had no idea that God would place such a passion for the Church in America on my heart. As far as I could see there was a church on every corner so why would they need some woman with a funny accent to make her home there? But I will never forget what happened to me as my flight touched down on US soil for the first time. I found myself weeping and praying for this nation. America is blessed with so many churches but in many cases, so little freedom and grace.
You’re amazingly honest and real in your blog and in your books. Your journey hasn’t always been an easy one. For the girls reading this interview, what’s your advice as they step out into music…If you were a girl starting out in music all over again, what would you do differently?
That’s a great question but I’m not sure I’d do anything differently Vicky. I love the way that God shows up in our brokenness, fear and insecurity, loving us back to life over and over again.
But the one thing that I have now, that I didn’t have when I started out, is a small group of girlfriends who know me inside and out. I treasure those friendships with my whole heart. When I started out though, I don’t think I would have been able to have the relationships I have now. I spent so many years in ministry more compelled by shame than by passion.
When I was a little girl my dad had a serious brain injury that changed his personality from being a warm loving dad to a frightening stranger. The last time I ever looked in my dad’s eyes it was as he was about to bring his cane down on my skull. I pulled it from him and he fell, roaring and screaming like a wild animal. He died a few months later at 34 in a psychiatric hospital.
I felt so guilty that I lived and he did. When I gave my life to Christ at eleven, I determined that whatever my dad saw in me and hated, I would never let God see. I spent the next twenty years trying to be perfect so that God would keep loving me.
I found out that when you are in pain, ministry is a perfect place to hide because no one questions your driving force, is it pain or passion, a wound or a call?
God in his mercy let my life hit the wall and in 1992 I went from being co-host on ‘The 700 Club’ in the morning and by that evening I was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital. God took me to the place of my greatest fears to show me that even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is there. Sometimes God will take you to prison to set you free.
The Women of Faith movement is a key part of your ministry. These events are massively influential, attracting thousands women in arenas across the States. Tell us about the vision and values of WOF, and what you guys long to see God do in the women who attend…
I can hardly believe that this is my fourteenth year with Women Of Faith. When I was invited to join in 1996 I was eight months pregnant and I remember saying to Steve Arterburn, the founder of WOF, “Listen dude I can hardly make it across the kitchen never mind an airport!” I also had a preconceived idea of what ‘women’s ministry’ looked like and I didn’t like it. I don’t have any Tupperware an I am not a fan of Laura Ashely so I was sure I wouldn’t fit until I met the rest of the team.
What I found so compelling about the other speakers was their commitment to telling the truth. I listened as Barbara Johnson talked about what it’s like to have to identify your youngest boy, sent home in a body bag from Vietnam, so bloated from laying face down in a rice field for four days she didn’t recognize him. I listened as Patsy Clairmont talked about what it’s like as an agoraphobic to live on three packs of cigarettes and ten pots of coffee a day.
What I love most about Women of Faith is that we invite women from every walk of life to come into an arena and let God love them just as they are right now. One woman who comes every year, owns a bar where she displays all our photos and every Thursday night she closes the bar and invites women in for a bible study!
More than four million women have attended over the last fourteen years and it is clear to every member of the team, this is a God thing, we just get to show up and let him shine. Every Friday night I stand at the back of the arena and look out at the crowd of 15,000-18,000 women and say, “Father, it looks like I’ve under-catered one more time, will you take these loaves and fish and feed your people.”
One of your blog posts really touched me – the one about feeling like you’re in a circus, needing to keep the plates spinning. How do you keep everything in your life ‘spinning’ when you do so much? Any advice for us on that?
I have learned that, “no” is a complete sentence:) I no longer feel obliged to make everyone happy with me – that is such a brutal place to live.
I want to do the things God has called me to do with all my heart, but others will try and heap stuff on top of that and make it sound spiritual. For example, last year when my son Christian was twelve, we made Tuesday night our ‘date night’ to shoot hoops in the yard. (that would be basketball, people!). A woman in our neighborhood knocked on my door one day and asked me if I would be willing to host a bible study in my home. I told her that if I could, I would love to. She said the only night that worked for everyone was Tuesday. I told her that I was sorry but I couldn’t do Tuesday as I had promised Christian that we would shoot hoops that night. She said to me, “Are you telling me that shooting hoops with your son is more important than leading a bible study?” I told her, “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” She was not happy with me but I’m fine with that. What good is it to have neighbors who think you deeply ‘spiritual’ and a son who wonders why you don’t keep your word?
Do what God has called you to and let the rest go. More than anything, see yourself as a lamb being led by a shepherd who has promised us that his love and his grace will take us all the way home.
Sheila -thank you SO much for sharing so openly, honestly and wonderfully, about ministry and life… I personally got a LOT out of reading your words, so I know the many girls and women in our online community here will too!
(You can keep in touch with Shelia here: http://www.sheilawalshblog.com and http://twitter.com/sheilawalsh. Go see her at a Women Of Faith event too, if they are coming to a city near you! The WOF tour schedule is here: http://www.womenoffaith.com)
(Also, if you follow Sheila on Twitter you can see photos of her dogs Tink & Belle too, in their favorite outfits!!….aren’t they cute!!)
Great interview Vicky. See you in Denver Sheila!