Click image to play
I first met Kees Kraayenoord - a well known worship leader/songwriter from Holland - at the Calling All Nations event, which took place at the Olympic Stadium Berlin, in the summer of 2006.
Following this event, we met up again for dinner in Holland later in the year. He mentioned that he was coming across to the UK to write with Graham Kendrick. He wondered whether we could get together and write at the same time. That seemed like a really good idea, so we planned to do this.
It was in November 2006 that Kees came and stayed in our home for a couple of days and we wrote this song together. It has now become the title track of my latest CD.
Kees had a really strong melody and a few lyrics. I suggested that he drop the melody from the key of G to E, in order to make it more suitable for a congregation to sing.
We then talked a lot about what we thought the song should say. We wanted to communicate that worship is more than a song. It is a life given totally to God. Bringing a song is easy but God is after lives that are surrendered to Him.
We were also very clear that we wanted a song that made the link between worship and mission. As someone once said: “worship without mission is self-indulgent and mission without worship is self-defeating”. The two are inextricably linked. There is an aspect of worship that is vertical - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and there is an aspect of worship that is horizontal - “Love your neighbour...”. Hebrews 13:15-16, sums up the vertical and horizontal expressions of worship.
There is a need for worship that causes worshippers to touch the poor and the needy. I have been challenged by Amos 5: 21-24. Hence the line in the chorus:
Use my voice to tell your story
Use my arms to hold the lonely
Let that be my song of love for you
This song will hopefully help to get this message into peoples' hearts and sow in all of us a seed of mission, care for the poor and a cry for justice.
Click on the image to play the song.