Tilghman told his church that he’s at the mercy of the producers of the show concerning how they portray him. The pastor told the congregation he told the producers, “Whatever you do, I don’t want you to paint me as a religious zealot…I love the Lord and I’m a man of faith, but I don’t want you to do that.” The other thing he asked the producers not to do was “paint my family like some kind of fairy tale family…we’ve been through the ringer and through the mill more times than I care to admit.”
During the sermon, Tilghman got even more personal by sharing that he had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in order to be on the show. One of the questions he was asked was “Do you consider everyday life a strain?” Tilghman responded “true” and explained, good-naturedly “I got a high-maintenance wife [to which the congregation laughed], I got a whole bunch of kids, I got the church situation going on.”
The 41-year-old expanded on the complex role of being a pastor. “It’s not necessarily your fault or my fault,” he said, indicating he was talking about the congregation, “but the way that the church works is when you’re the pastor, somebody’s really happy with you and somebody’s really unhappy with you for the same thing.”
Judging by the way the pastor performed at the Voice audition and the way he led worship on Sunday, though, singing brings him a lot of joy.
