GREYSON JOHNSTON
Doxology: A Beaufort Story

story by ZANE VICKERY
photos by CHRISTI CLARK

 

It is May 9th, and the sun is resting its last hues and shades of dusk on the waters of Lucy Creek. Yet, as all approaches stillness at low tide, the slumbering dock house begins to awaken with life. Gravel crunches under the tires of arriving vehicles, pockets of people birth conversation, laughs and embraces, and notes of music pour out of the building’s doors with every entrance. Within its hardwood confines, the venue glows with warm light and a congregation forms with hearts prepared to sing. This canvas is the setting on which Greyson Johnston, a local worship pastor and musician, is about to paint his debut live worship album.

Greyson, a Beaufort native, began musicianship at twelve years of age. He says, “I began playing guitar because of a guy named Chris Carter. I thought he had to be the coolest dude for leading worship in our youth group with a Kirk Hammet (Metallica) model guitar and I wanted to be cool too. Funnily enough, I pretty much started writing songs as soon as I learned chords.” However, far before that, the influence of Greyson’s mother, Natalie, created a more significant impact on his musicality. “I have always been singing with my Mama. I don’t think I’d be where I am today without that influence in my life, seeing her playing and leading in church for as long as I can remember.” He states, “ For a long time, music was a love. Then it became a job. Now, I guess I mostly see it as a tool in the ministry that God has laid out for me. I still love music or I wouldn’t be able to do what I am doing, but it certainly has a deeper value in my life now than just something that I love, rather, something that I love to do unto the glory of God.”

Upon this foundation, Greyson established the cornerstones of craft that would lead to his own songs of worship being born. In 2013, he enrolled into a worship school called 10,000 Fathers, started by Christian songwriter Aaron Keyes. He describes, “One of the core values the school instills into their students is the value of the local church singing songs written out of that local body of believers for that local body of believers.” During this tenure of study, Johnston wrote a song called “Your Love Is All We Need” after a three year dry spell of songwriting. It was selected to be featured on 10,000 Fathers’ first live album. “After that, I continued writing and leading songs I’d written in the church I worked for, but outside of Sundays those songs were unavailable to be heard.”

Johnston now works and leads worship at a local church, Cross Community Church. “I was challenged by my pastor and one of the elders to make the songs I had written available to our congregation during the week.” Greyson initially pushed back at the idea of an album. “There was a reason I hadn’t put a project out before. Ultimately, it came down to a fear of being known. Songs are personal things and you make yourself vulnerable by inviting people into them. I realized that what I was doing in not making these songs available was robbing the body of Christ from the gifts and talents God has given me and, in turn, was being a poor steward of those gifts.”

Greyson’s next step was to call Atlanta-based producer David Walker and over a period of a few days this past spring, plan the project. His rapport with David in songwriting began nearly three years earlier in Walker’s basement. “We were sharing songs that we had written and song ideas that seemed to have nowhere to go. He asked me why I hadn’t put out a record and I said something to the effect of, “There is a lot of music being put out. Some of it is good. Some of it is really great. Most of it is just noise. I don’t want to add to the noise.”

Greyson struggled with this perception from then until the week of production leading up to recording the songs. “I had a hard time valuing my contributions to the process and an ease in devaluing the quality of my writing. It wasn’t until we were recording and hearing my friends singing the songs behind me that I realized the value in these songs were not in their subjective quality, but in their purpose of drawing attention to Christ above all. If they accomplished that, they were far from noisy.”

Far from it indeed. As a testimony to the giftedness, humility and stewardship that Greyson displays, over 17,000 dollars was raised by a village of contributors to fully fund the project. On May 9th, 2019, that village gathered at the Lucy Creek dockhouse to sing the songs of worship borne of Greyson’s heart. As they began to sing, Johnston’s joy was evident by his smile and glazed eyes. He shares, “There is this connectedness that happens when leading worship that really does not happen in any other avenue of performance. There is a connection vertically with God as we sing to Him, connection inward as God communes with us, and this horizontal connection that happens within the corporate gathering of believers hearing each other sing eternal truths. That’s why I believe that the congregation is at least as important as me leading on a Sunday. They’re better worship leaders than I am.”

Johnston’s hope for these songs is simply put, “I have heard worship songs described as pocket theology in that most people will remember the chorus of a song they sang in church more than the well-articulated three point sermon the pastor just preached. I hope these songs will connect with the listener and take them to a deeper understanding of the love and grace of God. I hope the truths in these songs wouldn’t allow for indifference, but demand a response to those truths.”

Artistry far outlasts the artist. Greyson is highly aware of this legacy, especially when it concerns his family. “I am married to the best woman, Lauryn, and have two boys, Everett-5 and Walker-3. We also currently have an almost 3-year-old foster daughter.

I would love for my kids to share a love for music with me, but it’s not something I would force on them. It wasn’t forced on me as a kid, but being around it all the time passively taught me a love for it. The question I ask myself is what level of influence do I want the songs I’m writing to have on my kids? The answer would be I hope the songs that fill our home would point them to a deeper understanding of the God who loves them.”

Greyson’s six track album is slated to release in August of 2019.

When asked what he will take away from this project, he confidently declares that “I have a lot of people who love, support, and believe in me even when I’m not believing in myself.”
“And that God finishes what He starts.”