Nathan and Christie Nockels (Watermark)


How long have they been married?

Nathan and Christie have been married since June of 1995, about 6-1/2 years. They are parents of a 16-month-old son, Noah Luke.


How did they meet?

The two met in August 1993, while attending a Christian music seminar at Estes Park, Colo. Nathan was a freshman at Oklahoma Baptist College in Shawnee, Okla., and they had mutual friends. Although Christie was one year behind Nathan, the next year she also enrolled at Oklahoma Baptist, where both Nathan and she studied music. When they met, they instantly took a liking to one another. Christie went home the following week and broke up with a guy she had been dating. "It took me meeting someone like Nathan to know that there were men out there who were seeking after God and using their gifts for God," says Christie. When Nathan met Christie, he wrestled with the idea of asking her out. "Well, she was beautiful. Being a dumb guy, we work on a different plane than girls. I just automatically assumed that she was way out of my league," admits Nathan. They were engaged a year later.


How did Nathan propose to Christie?

After eating at one of their favorite restaurants, Nathan told Christie he was going to take her to their special place, a park in Oklahoma City where they kissed for the first time. Whenever Nathan took Christie to the park, he made her shut her eyes, so she never knew how to get there. This time, he told her he would give her a piggyback ride. When she opened her eyes, she found herself not at the park, but in front of the house where Nathan grew up. His mother had laced twinkling lights in the ivy that cascaded down latticework on the house and there was a piano on the porch. Nathan played the piano and sang to her, and then got down on his knee and proposed.


What are the benefits of working together in the studio and on the road?

Nathan: It's cool that instead of photo albums — we'll probably have those too — we have these records with songs that reflect each stage of our lives. When I listen to track three on our new CD, I think about when we sat in our backyard and wrote that song and what was going on in our lives.

Christie: It's just such a unique thing to be able to work together, creating songs. We both felt called into ministry when we were young. There is something very fulfilling when you're both working toward the same thing. We truly work 50-50 on everything and it's a real joy.


Has working together strengthened their relationship?

Nathan: Definitely. We can't do a concert together if there is something between us. So, it keeps us in a constant state of communication. And songwriting is very spiritual. You really have to open up and talk about how you feel about things. We write the songs sitting in the same room together, so a lot of times, we end up not writing, but talking through things we need to talk about, or Christie crying and me apologizing.


How does working together affect their spiritual life?

Christie: It's hard to be married in front of everybody. We usually have nine or 10 people with us on our bus and that can be really challenging. It's hard for us to spend time with Noah and have some alone time. It's hard on a tour. This last tour, we created a devotional book, and we did devotions and prayed with the whole group. It was really cool.


Is there a downside to working together?

Nathan: God has uniquely blessed our marriage because we really like hanging out together. We like spending time together at home, too, but we need time to let each other breathe.

Christie: That's a hard one for me because he is doing a lot of production here in Nashville and he has a ton of friends. I don't know anybody because I'm at home with the baby. So, we experience some real-life stuff when we're home and he is doing a project. When we get home from a tour, I want to rest, and he keeps going. He can't sit around. He has to be doing something unless football's on.


How do they keep their romance alive?

Nathan: Good question [he laughs]. We go see a movie and it's not about the movie, it's about breaking away. It's like taking a car ride and not having the baby in the back. Those times keep the flame alive. We don't have to be Watermark or a mom or a dad, and we don't have to write lyrics for a song. It's at those times that I treat her like a girlfriend as opposed to my workmate.


Courtesy of K-Love.