Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
September 2014 – AFA Journal interviewed music artist Guy Penrod for his insight on the church; marriage and family; homeschooling and parenting; and his music. The popular artist spent 14 years with the Gaither Vocal Band before beginning his solo career. He grew up the son of a Baptist pastor in Texas and New Mexico churches.
AFA Journal: What life lessons did you learn from being a preacher’s kid?
Guy Penrod: I learned the importance of soul winning. My dad was an old-fashioned guy from that perspective. I remember as a kid going up and down the blocks of the streets in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Dad went to the city planner’s office. He got maps of the neighborhoods, and he would grid those out and give those to his associates and staff members for visitation.
I remember as a little kid hearing him say, “Good morning, my name is Joe Penrod. I pastor Temple Baptist Church right over here. And I’d just like to stop in today to see if there’s anything we could do for you, and I want to talk to you about your soul.” As I travel the country now and do concerts, I meet people all over the place who were touched by my dad’s ministry.
AFAJ: How do you perceive the church in our culture today?
GP: I sense an atmosphere that’s right for church bashing. I don’t like that. I agree with a statement Bill Gaither used to make: “The church is kind of like the Ark, and I’ll bet it got stinky out there with all the different animals after a period of time, but it was the best ship afloat.” It’s messy because we’re in it, but it is the Bride of Christ, and it should be honored and revered.
AFAJ: What prompted you and your wife, Angie, to homeschool?
GP: Angie was on the education track and got her degree in physical education. And with my music career being like it is, it just made a lot of sense for us. Even beyond religious reasons, there are other convictions that we have.
An old friend confronted me one time when I was working really hard in a session. I would show up at a studio at 10 a.m. and … it often lasted until 1 or 2 a.m. [the next morning]. I was burning the candle at both ends.
My friend said, “If you’re not careful, you’re going to miss your life – going fast and trying to schedule ‘quality time’ with your kids.” He said, “Quality time, son, is a myth. Quality happens within quantity.”
AFAJ: Did that have an impact on your decision to homeschool?
GP: We thought back on our education – what did we remember? You don’t remember history timelines, and you don’t remember rules to the English language. Those things just kind of come up as you need them, and they’re either in you or they’re not. But we realized that it’s character issues that would mold our kids into who they are.
We bought into that idea, and started putting our toe in the water with our first son. Little did we know we would have seven sons, and then a daughter. It’s a long haul, and we’re still doing it. We got to thinking about it the other day and realized we’ll have two in college at the same time for the next 14 years.
I’ve got to sell a lot of CDs! That’s a lot of singing.
AFAJ: How does homeschooling impact a marriage?
GP: It’s a subject that causes a husband and wife to sit down and assess what they value, what they believe. It will determine whether a wife wants to be in the workplace. How big a house can you have? How often do you eat out? If you end up prioritizing those things, you can’t homeschool because your bills are too high.
But if you can keep things in perspective with regard to what’s important to you, you budget accordingly so that you can have a mom at home to school those kids. For Angie and me, it’s a perfect fit. Angie wanted nothing more than to be a mother and a wife. She thought it to be her highest calling.
My wife does most of the curriculum-based teaching. I do a lot of the hands-on stuff. We live on a farm, so we hunt. I teach hunting and cleaning and anatomy. I deal with farming – livestock and cows and tractoring.
AFAJ: You’ve said you want to change the culture your kids are growing up in. How do you do that?
GP: We’re helping mold their character in our home, so that’s a day-in, day-out parental challenge regarding what they inherit through our belief system, the belief system we pray they will espouse.
Music is a powerful tool [for reinforcing values]. I think what we experience in culture is often a rehashing and repackaging from a marketing perspective, if you will, of old, undesirable ideas. You know the Bible says in 1 John 2:16 there are three [dangers to our spiritual lives]: the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Satan takes those three things and repackages them to every new generation.
AFAJ: How do you introduce family or spiritual issues in music?
GP: My goal with music is to lift up the good things. I espouse things like marriage, like stopping and taking time with your wife and your kids. On Breathe Deep, I sing about those issues. Those are spiritual pursuits.
“Are You the One” is a song on that album that talks about dealing with tough subjects in life. If we don’t talk about it from our belief system’s perspective, someone will talk to our kids about partying, about sex, about alcohol, about drugs, about behaving improperly, all that sort of thing.
If you get a man and a woman to commit to each other “till death do us part,” they can do it. There is a God. It’s His plan, and I think we need to esteem those things and hold them up, and not get caught up in the downward spiral that exists in our culture.
AFAJ: Is there any other critical cultural issue that you haven’t mentioned yet?
GP: I was watching an interview this morning of a pro-life woman and a pro-choice woman trying to explain their views. I’m thinking of my song “Young Enough to Know Better” that deals with abstinence. Why talk about that? Because we need to. It’s one of the most devastating issues taking place in our teen culture right now.
The Breathe Deep album has a lot of that kind of stuff on it. I want to cut more and more of that kind of music. 
GUY PENROD FAVORITES
▶ Worship – New music project that offers today’s worship songs in easy-to-sing-along arrangements.
▶ Breathe Deep – Tackles issues in touching ways – pornography, parenting, abstinence and others.
▶ Hymns – Endears with inspiring arrangements of many old favorites.
Available on CD or as download at retailers and here.
