Beneath her youthful exterior and fresh-faced exuberance, Andrews is a focused artist who knows exactly what she wants to say. She creates music that serves as a personal conduit for those seeking to find peace, inspiration and hope. Andrews shares that theme on her debut album with a well-crafted set of songs that are musically inventive and lyrically challenging. It’s a potent combination that is garnering Andrews enthusiastic support. Even before The Invitation hit store shelves, Andrews was tapped to open Aaron Shust’s spring tour. In Billboard magazine’s yearly “Faces to Watch” feature, she was singled out as one of the year’s most promising new artists.

Andrews felt the call into music very early in life. Growing up in Wilson, NC, she started singing in church when she was only six years old. Andrews’ childhood love of music matured into a desire to really pursue the craft. She learned to play piano, began writing songs and during her high school years, she began singing at her church.

Andrews attended Liberty University where she majored in family and child development, and planned on working in an orphanage after graduation. She was born an only child, but her parents provided homes for many foster children. “We had about 20 kids come through our home in a period of about 10 years,” she recalls. “We ended up adopting three of the boys. They are my brothers now. I forget they are adopted.”

Seeing the impact her parents had on other children was an inspiration to Meredith and she had planned on a life of service, working to help children. However, during her junior year at Liberty, she had a change of heart. Then, while singing at Liberty, a pastor from Chicago’s 12,000-member Harvest Bible Chapel heard her and recruited Andrews to join his worship team. “I went up there in April 2005, which was a month before I graduated from Liberty,” Andrews recalls. “They let me sing with the worship team and I just remember thinking this is a place where I can really grow and that night, they offered me a job.”

Just as God led Andrews to Liberty University then on to Harvest Bible Chapel, he opened doors in Nashville that led her to sign with Word Records. “I wasn’t really looking for a record deal. It just fell in my lap,” says Andrews. “I’m so humbled by it all.”

Andrews wrote or co-wrote every song on The Invitation. Produced by Jason Ingram, the project not only showcases Andrews’ skills as a songwriter, but her engaging vocals as well. She has a clear, pure voice that draws the listener into her songs. The opening track, “You Invite Me In,” reminds us all that there is always hope. It’s a message that also resonates powerfully on the stunning ballad “You’re Not Alone.”

“In a voice that is hauntingly vulnerable, she shares her heart in a poignant lyric that other believers will readily relate to on an intimate level. It’s that ability to be so transparent in her writing and her delivery of these songs that invites others in.

“When we were in the studio recording, I remember listening to Jacob, my fiancé,’ playing piano on ‘The River’ and there was the element in that song as well as ‘Invite Me In’ and ‘Lift Up Your Head.’ That theme runs through all of the songs, but as he was playing this song and I was sitting at this table, all of a sudden it just hit me, The Invitation! That’s what the album should be called!”
  
Though Andrews’ music is poised to impact a national audience with the release of The Invitation, she continues to serve where she feels she should – leading worship at Harvest Bible Chapel. Additionally, her desire to help underprivileged children has never waned and she’s established Meredith Andrews Ministries to aid orphans and children in need.

Meredith Andrews has seen the impact music can have on people’s lives, but it’s not her agenda she wants to share. “I never want to write songs just to write songs,” she says. “I always want them to be about conveying the heart of God to people.”