After graduating from Howard Payne University in 1997 with a degree in English and a teaching certification, Chad Edgington, now senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Olney, formed the pop-rock band The Luxury Liners.
During his time at Howard Payne, Edgington played in the university band and worked as a production stage manager for its music theatre before forming The Luxury Liners with a close friend.
“David Dewese and I … were students at Howard Payne University in the mid-1990s. We formed bands while we were in college and played at talent shows, school events, and regularly at a local coffee shop in Brownwood,” Edgington said.
“After we both graduated, we moved to Nashville [Tenn.] and formed The Luxury Liners. All the major labels had offices in Nashville—and it was closer than Los Angeles or New York. We also loved country music. So, it seemed like a good place to go to learn about the music business and how to write songs,” he continued.
The band performed together for about four and a half years, with Dewese and Edgington joined by drummer Scott Carpenter and, at times, additional musicians on bass. During that time, the band secured a production deal, recorded two CDs, and was named one of Billboard magazine’s Hot Prospects in 1998.
While performing with the band, Edgington taught at a private Christian school and served as a youth minister. Although The Luxury Liners did not perform explicitly Christian music, his faith remained an important part of his life.
“I think David and I both realized that we enjoyed music and wanted to explore writing and performing together. We are both believers, and as young men had a strong commitment to the Lord. Being at Howard Payne, given the nature of a small Baptist college, sort of made us feel like we were in a Christian bubble,” Edgington said.
“We didn’t shy away from our faith, but our songs were not in the Christian genre. We mainly wrote love songs. But several of the songs had a spiritual edge. In Nashville, all the musical circles intersect. So, we had friends who were in the Christian, country, pop scenes.”
A chance to dream
For Edgington, forming The Luxury Liners was about more than simply starting a band. It was an opportunity to take a chance on a dream and see where it might lead. He looks back on the experience as a meaningful season of his life.
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“We were trying to, you know, see what would happen. … I think we started [the band] thinking, you know, ‘Let’s just see what will happen.’ Of course, sometimes whenever you do something like that … your desires change, your heart changes, … but [I] look back on it as a really awesome season of life,” Edgington said.
Edgington never formed the band with the intention of it being a temporary project.
“I don’t think we started it thinking it would be temporary. … I think we realized that when you’re young is the time to go try and do something like that,” Edgington said.
Through the band, the members recorded music and played shows in venues across the region.
“You always think you’re about to hit it big, and you know, we had recorded some music, and we knew a lot of people, played shows, and did concerts in different places. It was a lot of fun,” Edgington said.
Although the band never achieved the big break they hoped for, Edgington said forming it gave them the opportunity to pursue their dream and see where it could take them.
“I’m sure we were always looking for a big break or to be discovered. I think everybody wants fame and fortune when they are young. Of course, that never happened. But sometimes in life, you have to do things so you don’t spend the rest of your life regretting that you never tried to follow your dreams. The other great regret eliminator is following Christ and obeying what the Bible teaches.”
Faith in the music scene
While attending Howard Payne, Edgington found himself wrestling with questions of faith and working through things he felt he needed to resolve spiritually. At the same time, music emerged as one of the dreams he wanted to pursue.
“I had this dream of doing music, and you know, we were Christians who did music. … The question was like, ‘What would it be like?’ We’d been in a Christian college surrounded by Christians, and I guess in our mind it felt like we were in a bubble,” Edgington explained.
“Would we be able to do what we [were] doing? … Can you be a Christian no matter where you are? Can you have a Christian influence even if you’re, you know, not explicitly part of the Christian culture?”
“We were just good Christian boys from the Baptist college, and everybody seemed to really respect that,” Edgington said.
While touring, Edgington and his bandmates encountered people from a variety of backgrounds at clubs, coffee shops, and other venues, creating opportunities to openly share their faith.
“We just were who we were. … We [were] always really open to talking about spiritual things.”
Living differently
As he navigated the music scene beyond the Christian college environment, Edgington continued to openly live out his faith, including through his growing involvement with First Baptist Church of Nashville.
“For a while, we attended the First Baptist Church of Nashville, and they had a great young adult Sunday school class. We were the token long-haired musicians in the class. After I got married, we started attending a church in our neighborhood called Park Avenue Baptist Church,” he explained.
“It was a declining inner-city Baptist church. They took my wife, Melissa, and me in as their own children. We wound up teaching at their private school and working on the church staff. I grew tremendously during that time and matured as a Christian.
“I think Melissa and I can look back at that time and see how the Lord taught us to depend on him since we were so far from our families. We learned the importance of having a life that was centered around our church family. We came to love ministry and discipleship. What a formative time that was.”
As Edgington pursued music, he found himself spending much of his time around people whose lifestyles differed from his own, creating more opportunities to live out and share his faith.
“We were with lost people all the time—and they acted lost. But they respected that we lived differently. We didn’t drink. We didn’t have sex. People couldn’t believe we were virgins—they would ask. But I learned that people go to bars to be with people; they are seeking community. They were open to spiritual conversations.”
Music and a new calling
After four years with The Luxury Liners, Edgington eventually felt called to attend law school, graduating from Texas Tech Law School in 2004.
“I felt the Lord leading me in a different direction. … After four years, we had all gotten married, and I think we were looking down the road toward other goals,” he said.
During law school, he became known locally for his Elvis impressions, eventually performing one to two shows a month at the Cactus Theater in Lubbock. The performances became his only job while attending law school, and he also entertained at private events and Raider Alley.
In a 2006 edition of the Texas Tech Lawyer magazine, Edgington recounted he began putting on a show after receiving a white Elvis suit as a gift.
“As I was leaving for law school, Donna Hilley, a Nashville music executive, bought a white Elvis suit for me as a gift, because she enjoyed my Elvis impersonation. I didn’t know I would use it so much.”
After graduating law school, Edgington “began to practice law, and I eventually became a pastor full time. David and the band continued to play, made more records, and even had some success with a song that was featured on the WB television show ‘One Tree Hill.’ David eventually moved to California and did some work as a solo artist,” Edgington said.
Edgington eventually became a lawyer in Eastland and played guitar in the First Baptist Church of Eastland praise band and at Sunday services. He also sang in the “Voices of Praise” adult ensemble.
Continuing the legacy
Today, Edgington is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Olney, where he was called in 2013 after leaving his full-time law practice in January 2009. Music remains an important part of his life, a passion he has passed on to his son. The two recently collaborated on a song they submitted to the Texas Baptists songwriting competition. While it didn’t win, they enjoyed working on it.
Edgington finds joy in watching his son pursue music and experience many of the same moments he once did.
“My son’s got a band now, and it’s been fun to watch them kind of do all the fun stuff [like] recording music and playing music that we did all those years ago,” he said.
Edgington hopes to encourage more songwriting within Texas Baptist churches, with a desire to collaborate with churches and see where the Lord leads.
“We sing a lot of other people’s songs. … Not a lot of songs that we sing come from Baptist churches in Texas, or even Southern Baptist churches in America. Why don’t we write our own songs? … There’s 5,000 Baptist churches in Texas. Out of those 5,000 churches, do we not have any way to write songs about our experiences with the Lord?”
Edgington hopes Texas Baptist songwriting competitions and similar efforts will help recognize and encourage musical talent within Baptist churches.
“I don’t know what a Texas Baptist worship song sounds like [or] what [those] expressions of praise [would sound] like. And might those resonate in all our churches and other churches throughout the world? … Just to sit down with a guitar and write songs for the church is something I really long for and desire to do. So, it’s full circle there, right?”
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