The musical journey of this 23-year-old Pennsylvania native hasn’t been easy. When she was 14, Stephanie met her dad for the first time, and he got her name wrong. “I had given him so much thought and wondered what he was like. I just didn’t understand how this man could mess up his daughter’s name.”

This wound contributed to a diagnosis of depression, so Stephanie’s doctor suggested she see a counselor. “It’s amazing how God used something as tragic to a 14-year-old as her father’s not knowing her name to send me to a counselor. I saw my counselor four times, and it was exactly what I needed.”

Stephanie admitted to her counselor that she wanted to be a singer; it was the first time she’d ever articulated that dream out loud. Stephanie’s mom was surprised to hear that, but her heart was softened to allow Stephanie to seriously pursue music.

A Hard Lesson
Stephanie started helping her youth pastor lead worship, and he helped her to develop her gift and passion. After graduation, Stephanie headed to Greenville College, known for its CCM program. Stephanie says it’s a very competitive program, so “there was a lot of striving and doing anything I could to get to the top.” Stephanie started singing with a band from Greenville, and they began to get airtime on radio stations and interest from record labels in Nashville.

Stephanie says the summer after her freshman year, “My walk with the Lord just plummeted, because I was pretty consumed with myself and being a rock star. The Lord gave me a lot of opportunities to get out, but I just didn’t. I couldn’t, because my entire identity was wrapped up in being on stage. The Lord said, ‘This isn’t for Me. So by My grace, I’m going to let you fall.’ “

The band kicked Stephanie out, and her entire life changed. She switched her major and spent a month serving in Guatemala. Still running away from music, Stephanie then spent a semester in Africa. During this time, Stephanie didn’t do anything music-related, because she thought she’d heard the Lord wrong when He’d called her to music.

Once she returned from Africa, Stephanie felt the Lord nudging her toward music again. On April 23, 2005, Stephanie wrote in her journal that she’d stopped running and had finally surrendered her dream of still wanting to pursue music. “I told God, I’m just going to walk through doors as You open them,” Stephanie remembers. “And four hours later, He opened the first door!”

Greenville College hosts a Battle of the Bands competition every year, and the winner gets to play the main stage at Agape Music Festival. Stephanie walked into the Battle of the Bands competition, and three people stopped her and said she should have tried out. The director told Stephanie someone had backed out, and she had 5 minutes to put together an audition. Being out of practice, Stephanie wasn’t prepared to audition, but the Lord had other plans. She won first place and had two weeks to put together a band and songs to perform at the music festival.

Eyes on God
God opened another door when tobyMac’s bus arrived at the festival minutes before Stephanie performed. One of tobyMac’s band members gave him Stephanie’s demo tape, and tobyMac later approached Stephanie to talk about her music. He told her what impressed him about her was her heart.

“It was cool for someone like tobyMac to be sensitive to that, because the Lord really had to rebuild my life from the foundation up. He said, ‘Stephanie, when you’re on stage, it’s about Me. You keep your eyes on Me, and people will look where you’re looking. You are an ordinary person, and I am an extraordinary God.’ ”

Stephanie finished college, moved to Nashville and began working on her debut album. But her career didn’t immediately take off as she’d anticipated.

“I had to learn to wait with joy and trust that the Lord knew what He was doing. The first time I was pursuing music, I was striving and wearing myself out just trying to get myself known. But this time around, I took my hands off it. The more I surrender to the Lord, the more I see Him leading and moving this forward. He’s the One opening the doors.”

For the past two years, Stephanie’s been working at Starbucks while also working on her album. “Working at Starbucks, I thought that nothing was happening. But what God was doing was rebuilding a community who will speak into my life and tell me when I’m being an idiot and who will check on my heart. My first responsibility is to honor God and keep my eyes on Him. If I’m going to be on stage, then I want to have something to say.”

Check out Stephanie’s debut album, Not Afraid. Stephanie says, “It has lots of genres: pop to punk-rock to rock, and even a piano ballad. It’s guitar-driven, and, lyrically, it’s pretty broad.”