Tomlin was born in Grand Saline, Texas in 1972 to Donna and Connie Tomlin. He has two younger brothers, Ryan and Cory. Tomlin was given his first guitar by his father and learned how to play by playing along with Willie Nelson records.

Tomlin wrote his first worship song at age fourteen. During high school, he learned to lead worship in his youth group. After graduating from Grand Saline High School in 1990, he entered Tyler Junior College (TJC) planning for a medical or physical therapy career. Tomlin graduated in 1992 and enrolled in Texas A&M University to study medicine. He grew active in a campus Christian group called Breakaway, where he became the worship leader. In 1994, Tomlin graduated from Texas A&M with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. After college Tomlin participated as a worship leader at various camps in Texas, including Dawson McAllister Youth Conferences. While at Breakaway, Tomlin participated in a Bible study led by then Choice Ministries founder Louie Giglio. In 1997, Tomlin partnered with Giglio to found Passion Conferences.

In 1995, Tomlin released Inside Your Love, which was released independently. In 1998, he released Authentic on Sparrow Records.

In 2000, Tomlin signed onto newly founded sixstepsrecords, a subsidiary of Passion Conferences. His first nationally released solo project, titled The Noise We Make, was released in 2001, featuring the song “Forever”. He released the live EP 545 and his second studio album Not to Us in 2002.

On June 14, 2007, Tomlin’s version of the song “Indescribable” was used as the official wake-up call for Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester on Space Shuttle mission STS-117.

According to Christian Copyright Licensing International’s list of the top 25 worship songs in the US in August 2007, Tomlin held five spots with songs he has either written, co-written or performed: “How Great Is Our God” (No. 1), “Forever” (No. 5), “Holy Is the Lord” (No. 7), “We Fall Down” (No. 12), and “Indescribable” (No. 22) (written by Laura Story). In 2008, Tomlin held 6 spots on 20 The Countdown Magazine’s top 20 praise and worship songs: “We Fall Down” (No. 14), “Forever” (No. 10), “Holy is the Lord” (No. 8), “Indescribable” (No. 6), “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” (No. 3), and “How Great is our God” (No. 1). In 2012, CCLI reported that his songs were performed more than 3 million times in churches around the world. TIME magazine has called him “most often sung artist anywhere” in 2006, and in 2013, he was also pronounced the most sung songwriter in the world. In 2017, he became only the fourth artist to receive the Sound Exchange Digital Radio Award for surpassing a billion digital radio streams, and in 2018, he became the first Christian artist to receive the Billionaire award from Pandora for reaching a billion Pandora streams.

Tomlin is one of the members of CompassionArt, a charity and songwriting team that released an album in 2008. In 2014, he became a member on the board of directors of CURE International, a nonprofit organization that provides medical care to children in the developing world.

In May 2008, Tomlin announced a move from the Austin Stone Community Church, to start a new church with Louie Giglio in Atlanta, Georgia. The Passion City Church held its first service on February 15, 2009, and features Tomlin as one of its worship leaders.

Tomlin married Lauren Bricken on November 9, 2010. Together they have two daughters, Ashlyn and Madison. They live on a 25-acre (10 ha) estate on the outskirts of Franklin, Tennessee which they have nicknamed “Peacefield”.

In April 2019, Tomlin and his wife Lauren started Angel Armies, a nonprofit organization that works to bring people and ministry organizations together to attempt to solve issues related to vulnerable youth in the United States.