If there’s one thing Tauren Wells wants Christians to reconsider, it’s what they think they know about joy.
“I thought that joy was an emotion. Happiness was an emotion. And it’s not,” the 39-year-old Houston, Texas, native told The Christian Post. “Joy is not a feeling. It’s a focus, and it’s a choosing.”
In his debut book, Joy Bomb: Unleash Jesus’s Explosive Joy for an Extraordinary Life, the Grammy-nominated artist, pastor and father of four invites readers into an ancient yet radical vision of happiness — not one based on fleeting emotions, but grounded in the enduring character of God. And it all started with a Bible reading plan.
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“I was going through my Bible-in-a-year plan by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, and it brought me to Matthew 5,” Wells recalled. “Nicky pointed out that the word ‘blessed’ in the original language meant ‘happy.’ I think I knew that, but it wouldn’t leave me. I realized Jesus used a framework of happiness in the Beatitudes to reveal the path to joy.”
For the “Hills and Valleys” singer, the implications were staggering.
“How important to the heart of God must our happiness be if it’s the first thing Jesus talks about in His inaugural sermon?” he asked.
The idea that God actually desires one’s joy isn’t new, but it’s often dismissed or misunderstood in Christian culture, he said, challenging the notion that holiness and happiness are at odds.
“They’re very connected,” the singer, who previously served as a worship leader and pastor at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, said. “They flow from the same source. God is holy, and God is joy. The Scripture says, ‘In His presence is fullness of joy.'”
“You’ve got to choose the wonder of the moment,” he added. “Ask not just ‘Why?’ but ‘What are you teaching me in this?’… I don’t want to miss that moment. So I have to choose a new focus.”
That focus has led him to new places — literally. In January 2024, Wells and his wife, Lorna, launched Church of Whitestone in Austin, Texas, which has the stated aim of helping “people discover their God-authored identity through whole-hearted relationship with Jesus.”
“We were prepared for small,” he says. “We were bought in on small. And 3,600 people walked through the doors week one.”
Despite the unexpected growth, the Wellses are focused on intimacy over scale.
“God is doing something so much bigger than us, so much greater than us, but our heart is to still fight for it to feel small, intimate, connected, genuine, authentic. These are things that are not up for sale for us, just for crowd size. Because, honestly, we didn’t move to Austin to create a crowd. We went to create a family, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
The transition from music to ministry wasn’t a departure from Wells’ calling — it was an evolution.
“A long time ago, God gave me a framework: identity, calling, assignment,” he says. “Identity never changes. You’re a child of God. Calling is how God has purposed you to impact the world. Assignments change like the seasons.”
For Wells, pastoring is just the latest assignment, though he’s still making music (his song “Take It All Back” featuring We The Kingdom and Davies recently went Gold).
“I’m not held hostage by ‘Tauren the artist’ or ‘Tauren the singer.’ God has given me permission to walk into something new. And it’s the same for others. You don’t have to be held hostage by who you were in a previous season,” he said.
Still, the influence of his musical background remains. Wells says his theology — and songwriting — have shifted since attending Bible college.
“I would like to believe that my theology has become more biblical, and that’s so important, because how you see Scripture determines how you see God, and how you see God really determined how you interpret the world. Songwriting is basically the expression of what happens at the intersection of all of those interpretations,” he said.
His upcoming album, Let the Church Sing, reflects that evolution.
“All my new song titles have the word ‘church’ in them,” he said. “‘Here Comes the Church,’ ‘Church on Fire,’ ‘Let the Church Sing.’ It’s not about buildings. It’s about who God has called us to be.”
“The Church is so significant in the story of God in the story of the world,” Wells contends. “So that’s kind of what I’ve been exploring over the last, really, two or three years now, as I’ve been in church-planting mode, and you can kind of hear that in the songs that I’m able to be a part of right now.”
At its core, Joy Bomb is less about good vibes and more about good theology. It draws readers back to the Sermon on the Mount and invites them to see Jesus not as a distant teacher but as the embodiment of joy itself.
“After having gone through this process of writing the book, I’m more convinced than ever that God is uniquely invested in our happiness,” Wells said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our circumstances will be good or positive, but if we’re really pulling from the character of Jesus in us, we will be able to see him in every circumstance, and that is what brings ultimate joy and contentment.”
As younger generations experience increasing anxiety, depression and suicide ideation, Wells hopes his book will serve as both a spiritual wake-up call and reminder that joy isn’t found in circumstances, performance or productivity but in the presence of a Savior.
“Someone not feeling joy might be the least likely to pick up a book called Joy Bomb, but this is for them. Joy isn’t just a characteristic. It’s a person. You don’t spell ‘happy’ H-A-P-P-Y. You spell it J-E-S-U-S,” he said.
“Jesus sits down in a desolate, isolated place and gives a master class on joy,” he continued. “If you’re in a desolate, isolated place, you’re in the perfect position to meet Him.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
