Truth is, when the multiple Grammy-winning recording artist skyrocketed onto the music scene in 1993, no one could have predicted the kind of success that has followed nor the controversy that has come with it, including his very public revelation of a past addiction to pornography during an hour-long interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show".

To his credit he has used his status to draw greater awareness to key issues, particularly those affecting youth, publishing his latest book, The Blueprint, earlier this year. In January, he corralled together some of gospel’s biggest stars to record a relief song for Haiti that would raise funds and awareness.  

For this, Franklin—who has often felt as if the weight of the gospel industry rested on his shoulders—is pleased.

"I hate that a cross section of our society sees Christians as weirdos and fanatics. I want to show that we are intelligent, creative people with concepts who can surpass the limits placed on us and at the same time maintain the integrity of our Christianity," said Franklin, who will be in Los Angeles later this month for “The Merge Summit”, a two-day confab designed to inspire and empower men and women of faith desiring to do business in the areas of arts and media and featuring Niecy Nash, Hezekiah Walker and Wendy Raquel Robinson.

Born and reared in Ft. Worth, Texas, Kirk Franklin began playing piano at the age of four after being adopted by a great aunt, Gertrude Franklin, when his mother—a teen mom—abandoned him. On Saturday mornings, the elderly Franklin collect cans to pay for his music lessons. On Sunday mornings, that same woman, the only mother he ever knew, made sure he was in church.

By the time he was out of kindergarten, Franklin was singing and playing on the white church circuit. At the age of seven, he was offered a contract with a Christian record company. (His great aunt thought him too young and so it was declined). At 11, he was appointed Minister of Music at the Mt. Rose Baptist Church. It was then that he began to write and rearrange Christian music.

At 19, he did his first home recording. "It flopped," reports Franklin. But in 1992, Franklin tried again, organizing "The Family"—a 17-member aggregation of talented vocalists and musicians and recording "Why We Sing.”

The following year he signed with GospoCentric Records and "Why We Sing" was released. Within a month, it was charting among Billboard's top five hottest selling gospel releases in the nation and Franklin was doing what he’d set out to do: “reach kids with a kind of gospel that gets them excited and encourages them to want to know more about Jesus."

"I went through a bad time where, like a lot of youngsters, I drifted away from the church. I began smoking pot and drinking with my buddies. Then, at age 15, a buddy of mine was shot to death. It was at that moment that my life changed. He was the first person my age that had died. I'd been in church all my life but that was the first time I was faced with the issue of what's going to happen to me when I died. That summer I gave my heart to Christ."

"I'll never forget a couple of days later, I was in the park with a couple of the boys and they were smoking and getting lit and so when they passed me a joint, I had such a peace about saying no."

"Alot of times now, when people ask me how I'm doing, I say ‘I'm growing in grace’ because grace is such an incredible concept that God has created that it will take you a lifetime to figure it out. As soon as you think you've learned it, God will put you in another situation where you realize how much you need it."

In November of 1996, Franklin was admitted in critical condition to a Memphis trauma center after falling head-first into a nine-foot deep orchestra pit at the Memphis Civic Theatre where hundreds of fans had gathered for "The Tour Of Life.”

A reflective Franklin has grown from the experience, observing, "there were times I looked in the mirror and as they say, tried to smell myself. But the grace of God is that he will pop you on the head and when God pops you, it's like 'boom, thank you Jesus.”

Even now, Franklin hardly has it easy.

"I have four kids, a wife and I travel a lot," Franklin explains. "Staying gone away from home, in itself, is something to keep you on your knees, because it would be a shame trying to win the world and lose your family." 

And even though he has been saved for years, Franklin admits that the struggle within remains his biggest test.

"When you really see God, God begins to show you how ugly you are. The things that become crutches. Just because you're saved doesn't mean that you know your identity in Christ, and understanding that and growing in that these last couple of years has been a wonderful thing of testing the faith."

"I wish that I walked in the spirit every five minutes. That I'd surrendered everything to Christ. That I looked at everything from a Christ-like consciousness, but the more I want to be like him the more I have to come to terms with my own shortcomings.

In 2007, Franklin released “The Fight Of My Life” and he appears to be living it day to day as he calls his quest for being Christ-like something he can’t seem to satisfy.

“For creative people it’s hard to fulfill us because we are always living for the next record or big hit and unfortunately that conflicts with scripture. Paul tells Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain. Jesus wants to be the satisfaction and everything else is just gravy so if Steven Speilberg calls that okay, but it’s not I’ve been living for this. Of course, that’s hard to preach in a society where Christlikeness is not a popular pitch,” said Franklin, who currently hosts and serves as co-executive producer of the BET original series, "Sunday Best".

"I go to the bathroom every day. That’s reality. I'm a man with a desire to show the world that it's not about the bumping and rocking. But when you finish all that to realize that there is forgiveness and salvation at the foot of Christ."