Los Angeles, New York, maybe even Nashville — when it comes to imagining where big-time Christian musicians make their homes, most probably would not think of Elizabethtown on the list.

"I know it isn't expected, but the truth is, we love where we live," said Gordy Martin, a record producer for his wife and musical partner Marie Barlow Martin, speaking in an interview from New York on Thursday.

"We always wanted to live in the country, and the truth is you can't find a more beautiful rural setting than Lancaster County," he said.

At work on their fourth CD and just back from performing at a conference for one of the largest Christian organizations in the United States, the Barlows mix Marie's big Broadway voice and Gordy's quiet guitar-strumming and banjo picking to create a beautiful sound that's drawing the attention of many Christians.

The couple will bring their signature sound to Lancaster at a special concert Dec. 30 at Lancaster's Calvary Church.

Originally from eastern Washington State, Gordy was raised in a musical family and was playing guitar and mandolin by age 5. A graduate from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Gordy worked as a studio musician and studio producer before teaming up with his wife, Marie.

"We made our first CD in 2004, and people heard it and just really loved it — some have even called Marie's voice a 'national treasure,'!\p" Gordy said. "Luckily, our recordings since then have done rather well, so we're able to keep doing what we love."

Marie said the biggest challenge of her job is to keep every concert new.

"To be effective as a musical ministry, the message to our audience has to be fresh and alive every time, which requires a tremendous amount of energy and focus," Marie said from her home in Elizabethtown. "There are some jobs out there where all you have to do is show up on time and just kind of snooze through the day … but creative people don't have that option."

"We have to be at our best, every day," she said. "And we have to be effective every time that we step out on the stage."

The daughter of an Air Force colonel who moved constantly because of his job, Marie said she "considers California home" even though she spent large portions of her childhood living in and around Washington, D.C.

A graduate of Pepperdine University, Marie moved to New York where she began making a name for herself in the Broadway community, going on to perform in a national tour of "Annie" and originating the role of Elena in the acclaimed recent off-Broadway musical "Berlin."

Although she became a Christian at age 15, it took meeting and falling in love with her husband to get her to make the jump from New York theater and into recording.

"I know it's hard for some people to imagine, but it isn't a challenge at all to work with, live with and then perform with my spouse. I mean, really — we're just made for each other," Marie said. "He's strong where I'm weak, and we make such a perfect team that … we try not to question it. We just feel happiness that one of us can be strong where the other is weak, and that we can both pick up where the other left off."

While they are hard at work on their CD — to be called "Shelter" and that will be recorded in Nashville in early 2008 by an arranger who has worked with singer Billy Joel — in November they traveled to San Diego to give a 40-minute concert at one of the largest Christian gatherings of its kind: the four-day Christian Camp and Conference Association, which serves more than 8 million Christians through 120,000 churches across North America.

"We have done a lot of concerts at various Christian camps, and as I understand it, we were recommended by some of the larger ones to … go and perform in San Diego," Gordy said. "It was an amazing experience and a great privilege to be asked, as that some of the best known Christian artists in the music industry have preceded us."

"It was a huge audience, but I felt a little bit prepared for it, at least," Gordy said, "since once I got the opportunity to perform before an audience of 50,000 in Osaka, Japan."

Of course, Marie said, it doesn't matter if she and her husband are performing in front of one person or hundreds of thousands, because in her worldview, that "one person" has been brought there as part of God's plan.

"Our hope is that we can be heard by whoever needs to hear us, whenever they need to hear us. That's what this ministry is about: bringing out the word of God," she said. "We're just trying to build something that will sustain us and bring joyfulness to as many people as possible."

Gordy Martin and Marie Barlow Martin will perform at 6 p.m. Sunday at Calvary Church, 1051 Landis Valley Road. The concert is free, but offerings will be taken. For more information, call 509-6248.