For Alabama worship leader Isaiah Moore, “American Idol” wasn’t a detour from his faith journey. In fact, he says, his fellow competitors’ faith bolstered his own.

Moore was one of 16 singers who made their exit in Sunday night’s episode. The 22-year-old is a worship leader at Redeemer Community Church in Oneont. He and his wife changed their honeymoon plans so he could audition for the show, and he created a bit of a stir as the show’s trio of celebrity judges puzzled over the pronunciation of “Oneonta.”

As Moore and others learned they wouldn’t compete in the next round of the show, they got some encouragement from judge Carrie Underwood. “For this chapter of your story, it’s a ‘no,‘” she said. “But turn this ‘no’ into something incredible.”

To hear Moore tell it, it’s already something incredible.

“Well my American Idol Journey has come and gone!” he posted Sunday evening on Facebook. “I had the GREATEST experience ever. I am not upset one bit that I’m leaving, only because I saw all the amazing talent and I know that I was surrounded by greatness!”

Moore summed up his experience in a few bullet points. The first was that “God deserves all the Glory, and every single person I met gave him that.”

In particular, he said, there was a key moment during the making of the “Idol Arena” episode that aired March 31. As he sat there “stressed out,” Moore said, he looked over and saw fellow competitor Haley Esquinance sharing the Gospel with someone.

“Like in the middle of all this chaos, she only had one thing in mind and that was to talk about Jesus,” Moore wrote. “I got to get in on the conversation a little but seeing her faith and seeing it in action changed my whole perspective on things. That someone in a competition who might be getting sent home in the next 5 minutes, was only worried about the message of Jesus Christ being reached to someone else. We made it through, but that was on my mind the rest of the night.”

Esquinance, like Moore, was cut in Sunday’s episode. Like Moore, she said the experience had been uplifting nonetheless.

“I walked into this experience not fully knowing what to expect,” she told supporters. “Little did I know, God had exceedingly and abundantly more in store for me than I could have ever imagined. I’ve always prayed for opportunities to grow closer to Him, but I never expected it to come in the form of a singing competition. Who am I to put limits on what God can do? … I get to say that He used me to be a part of something bigger than myself. How incredible is it that I had the opportunity to worship and pray with American Idol? That alone is a blessing.”

Moore praised the production team and crew as well as his fellow contestants.

As for what comes next, Moore previously posted that he and his wife, Abby Grace Moore, plan to go on a mission trip to Honduras this summer.