One of Gospel music’s most recognizable voices, Marvin Sapp – Founder and Pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan – returns to a live setting on Thirsty. “I love recording live,” says Sapp. “I like to feed off the energy of the people. With a live recording, I get a chance to feel what they feel, draw off their emotions, and see their tears. It really helps to direct me in ministering to them.”

“The night of the live recording was unbelievable,” says Sapp. “It was a mind-blowing, life-changing experience. I really had the opportunity to minister songs that ministered to me,” says Sapp, who recorded Thirsty at Resurrection Life Church, Grandville, MI under the musical direction of producer Aaron Lindsey, with Myron Butler directing background vocals.

Although the evening was filled with amazing new music, for the pastor, the night was bittersweet. “A lot of people don’t know, but during that period, within a 90-day span, I lost three of the most important men in my life: my father, Henry Lewis Sapp Jr.; my musical mentor, L. Craig Tyson, who co-founded Tyscot Records; and my spiritual father, Bishop Abney, who had passed the day before my live recording,” recalls Sapp.

It was particularly out of the pain and grief over his father’s death that the lead single, “Never Would Have Made It” was born. “Never Would Have Made It” was written the Sunday after Dr. Sapp buried his father. He says, “We had already eulogized him. I had to throw the blanket in with him and close the casket. I had to stand up and say ‘earth to earth, ashes to ashes’. I had to preach the message and drop him off at the cemetery to be buried. But the Sunday after that, I went into the church, everyone was in position, functioning normally, and I was standing there thinking, ‘What is going on? Don’t these people see that I’m in pain?’” At that moment, Sapp decided he wasn’t going to preach the Sunday morning message. That’s when he heard the voice of God.

“The Lord said to me, ‘Marvin, there’s something you need to understand. Although your father isn’t with you physically, I will never leave you nor will I forsake you. I will be with you always even until the end of the earth’. Then I walked into the pulpit with my Bible. When God began to assure me that He was there for me, I stood up. I grabbed the microphone and started singing, ‘Never Would Have Made It’”,” he recalls. The song happened prophetically, right on the spot and is destined to be one of the album’s favorites.

The title track is also a byproduct of Sapp discerning God’s voice in his life, especially when he was faced with challenges. Whatever Sapp was going through, the voice of God would instruct him to “thirst for me,” and when Sapp’s focused shifted from the issue at hand to the everpresent Father, inevitably the burden was lifted. Written by Jason Nelson, “Thirsty” is a sweet, reverential track that cleanses the soul.

Throughout the twelve tracks of Thirsty, Sapp shows that his five-year hiatus from recording – and the fire of adversity – has given him even more experiences to minister from. During his recording hiatus, Sapp has been “focusing on the church and building up the membership.” The Lighthouse Full Life Center Church began with 24 members and now –between its two church sites – has grown to 1500 members in just four years. Although he’s thrilled with the physical growth of the church, he’s more concerned with the building up of his members, as individuals. “We deal with the mind, the body and the spirit. We teach people to elevate their thoughts and to change their outlook on life. We encourage people to empower, not enable. We want to be a church that’s a 21st century in its application. Not just being a place that grandma used to say was ‘a wheel in the middle of a wheel’, but being a church that’s relevant to 21st century believers,” explains Sapp – who keeps his heart close to home no matter where his ministry takes him. “I’ve been focused on being a good father and a good husband. My wife and I have been married for 15 years now.” With almost 200 preaching and singing engagements per year, Sapp has hardly been resting on his laurels.

Sapp sees Thirsty as an extension of his church ministry, “I’ve always wanted to encourage the believer. All of my music, all of the songs I sing are trying to get the believer to understand that the greater one on the inside of them is far greater than any circumstance that goes on around them,” says Sapp.

“My focus has always been to do music that uplifts the believer; that encourages the believer; that strengthens the believer. It’s the same goal I have at my church. If people leave empowered, then I know I’ve not only mastered the pulpit, but the pulpit of music as well.”