Grammy Award-winning recording artist Smokie Norful recently stood at the crossroads, with a weighty decision at hand. The path he chose — to further embrace the call to ministry and plant his own church –– has been overwhelming and joyful. Smokie, Gospel music’s “Voice of Inspiration,” says that choice renewed his passion for singing and songwriting, and inspired his upcoming album, Life Changing, his third with EMI Gospel.

For at least six years, this pastor’s son from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, felt the calling to lead a congregation of his own –– but resisted. He had grown up in his father’s African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and witnessed early-on, the weight of a minister’s responsibilities and the time away from family. Though Smokie had initially moved to the Chicago area in 1998 to begin work on a Master of Divinity degree at Garrett Theological Seminary, and had spent time as an assistant pastor at a large church in the suburbs of Chicago (where his work with Joanne Brunson, leader of Gospel’s famed Thompson Community Choir, launched his recording career), his successful music career soon began making tremendous demands on him, along with his role as a husband and father.

Though Smokie felt conflicted, he couldn’t ignore the fact that the routine of being a working recording artist—the grind of promoting your album, the constant travel—had grown monotonous. Though he loved his work, he felt disconnected. He knew he needed to make some changes. “Being a recording artist is a passion, it has to be. If it’s not, you’ll burn out,” says Smokie. “I needed to get back to the thing that made me who I am—and that’s serving in church. I’m a church kid.”

Besides, Smokie is not one to ignore God’s will. “And I heard God’s voice very, very clearly,” he recalls.

By 2004, he was fortunate to have had poignant conversations with his favorite preacher, the venerable Bishop T.D. Jakes, a man whose life and ministry Smokie has long admired. Smokie had even decided to relocate to join the 28,000+ member Potter’s House church in Dallas. Smokie and his wife even went house shopping there. “It seemed as though nothing was coming together, though,” says Smokie of that time. “Finally, I said, ‘I don’t know why I’m tripping. This is my will, not God’s.’ I was stirred by the power of God moving though Bishop Jakes’ ministry, and the awesome wisdom he was pouring into me. However, deep within I knew I was, like Jonah, running from what I knew was part of my destiny.

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