Former Campus Band leader Justin Kintzel shares cherished memories from Liberty Mountain

“The more we know God’s Word, the deeper our worship becomes.”

Liberty University graduate Justin Kintzel (’09) said he lives by these words as he faithfully leads worship and serves at Grace Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., where he lives with his wife, Ashley, and their four children.

The family recently returned to campus for the School of Music’s Celebrating 50 Years of Music concert on Homecoming Weekend, in which Justin performed alongside many alumni, including former members of the Campus Band that he led from 2009-2014.

“It felt like coming home,” Justin said.

Kintzel became the Campus Band worship pastor soon after graduating with his Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design in 2009.

Before coming to Liberty, he had always had a passion for music and worship. That deepened when he attended Liberty’s College for a Weekend (CFAW) as a high school student in 2004.

“I remember walking into Convocation in the Vines Center and Dr. (Jerry) Falwell preached that day,” he said. “I remember being there with my mom, and the Campus Band got up on stage and there was this guy with an acoustic guitar who led ‘Blessed be Your Name,’ which was a hot-off-the-press song back then.”

Kintzel said that in that moment he leaned over to his mom and told her he wanted to come to Liberty and lead worship. Although his family was certain their son would end up going to college closer to home, the Colorado native arrived in Lynchburg the following fall.

“Just coming to Liberty and seeing what Liberty was blew my mind. And then every other school was ruined for me,” he said.

While at CFAW that weekend, Kintzel auditioned for one of Liberty’s traveling ministry teams. Although he was not chosen, he was offered a media position with “Light,” one of the traveling music teams.

“I said, ‘Yes,’ and they were like, ‘Do you need any time to pray about that?’ and I said, ‘No, the answer is yes,” Kintzel said, laughing.

The next summer, prior to starting his sophomore year, Kintzel was at a Liberty music team gathering at an area bowling alley when he met Ashley, a Lynchburg native and an incoming freshman who was going to be a female vocalist with the Sounds of Liberty.

“She went home that night and told her parents she had met the man she was going to end up marrying,” he said.

Although he enjoyed his media work with Light, Kintzel said he still tried out for the Campus Band his sophomore and junior years. Ironically, in his senior year, when he didn’t try out, he was asked to join.

“Campus Band was the crown jewel in my mind,” he said. “That was what I wanted to do from the very beginning. It was a dream come true in many ways.”

Due to the responsibility, Kintzel cut his course load in half and delayed graduation by a year to devote more time to the band.

Soon after graduating, he was offered the worship pastor position with the band.

Kintzel said he treasures many memories with the Campus Band. While Convocations and recording the band’s “Love Displayed” album in 2013 are certainly near the top, one of his dearest memories is the pureness and desire for the Lord’s presence he experienced during Campus Church on Wednesday nights in the Thomas Road Baptist Church sanctuary. He said that students would often remain after the service for hours.

“The students would just stay,” he said, “and so we started singing more and more and more. And sometimes we would do two more hours of worship. It got to the point where we would ask the students what they wanted to sing, and they would just shout songs at us.”

“That would happen almost every Wednesday night,” he continued. “That was just a really special time, and what we found was that the Campus Church crowd became really unified with us in worshiping Jesus. That same crowd would then go to Convocation, which aided in Convocation becoming an even more worshipful environment.”

In 2014, soon after moving back West, Kintzel experienced a dry season in his faith as he and his family were met with several trials, including a crisis with his daughter’s health.

“Although we don’t like to talk about it a ton, I believe one of the methods God uses to grow us is suffering,” Kintzel said. “He uses pain to wean us off of the world.”

While he admitted the concept of suffering bringing Christians closer to the Lord was rarely on his mind prior to this season of life, Kintzel was able to see the hand of God in a powerful way during this time.

“I think before then my relationship with God was very transactional, where I would do something right and He reciprocated with a blessing,” he said. “I think that comfort and success can become an idol. It can replace worship.”

Now, years later, Kintzel said he and his family are cherishing the place where God has brought them in life, largely due to their church family and the deeper dive they have taken into God’s Word.

“If the Bible is true, and it is, that means it’s the most important thing in existence,” he said. “And we need to know not just what it says, but we have to submit to it even if we don’t like it. And that’s really the key. This is God’s heart.”

Kintzel said that his deeper understanding of the goodness and faithfulness of God has affected the way he now leads his congregation in song.

“In leading worship, I try to bring across the understanding that God is good and that He’s righteous and perfect and He’s all-powerful,” he said. “But also that His Word is true and can be accessed and we have it. We actually have the very words of God, which is the heart of God.”

Kintzel has continued to write and produce worship music including his most recent single, “My Confidence” which came out in 2019, and is currently pursuing his Master of Divinity. Although he is not certain where that may lead him, he is confident in one thing.

“It’s been a pretty long road, and I think along that road God has taught us that even in the midst of serious circumstances and heartache, He is still good and that the Word is still true and that we can still trust in Him and rely on Him even when we don’t feel good.”