The CEO of Bethel Music announced his resignation on Friday after 13 “wonderful and challenging” years of leading the popular worship group.
“When we founded the label, we knew God was going to use us to build something special, but God’s plan was even bigger than our dreams, and we had big dreams,” Joel Taylor wrote on Instagram.
“We had no investment capital and minimal support, so with the little revenue we had, I hired a part-time bookkeeper and got an intern,” he added. “At the time, the music industry was in a downward spiral, and labels were doing massive layoffs.”
Taylor recalled being told, “we could never do it on our own” when working to create the record label.
“They didn’t play worship on the radio back then, and they told us we wouldn’t ever be on the radio,” he said. “When we wanted to bring worship to the world on tour, we were told people wouldn’t host us.”
“We had to listen to God and believe in our hearts that the “impossible” could happen, and it did,” he continued. “I love stepping into the unknown and trusting God as he manifests what seems to be the impossible, and [I] am excited to do it again.”
At the end of his post, Taylor shared that he was grateful for his time at Bethel Church in Redding, California and that he will be moving to Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and two children in the next four weeks.
“A lot of people ask what I’m going to do next. I’ve been on a deep pursuit of God, His truth, His presence, and His direction as I enter into my second half of life. There’s so much noise and distraction out there, and it’s easy to get lost in it,” Taylor wrote.
“I have a lot of plans and opportunities in front of me, but Jesus showed us that the greatest call is to love God, to love yourself, and to love people, and this is what I’m going to do next,” he concluded.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Arkira
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
