Sweet Adoration -- Lynn Sutter, Brown Bannister, Dawn Rodgers

The three of them decided that a love song was how they wanted to express what they felt in 1980. What they sensed may have elicited ‘Thank You’, or perhaps the title might have been ‘ Recreation’ to describe the request they make in the song’s third verse. But instead, “Sweet Adoration” was what they called it, as they focused on this basic emotion to describe the admiration they held for the Creator. What life events make someone express feeling like this? Do Brown Bannister, Lynn Sutter, and Dawn Rodgers say something about affection in this song that’s different from the other kinds of love we practice here?

The three of them wrote many songs (see the many links below), including this “Sweet Adoration” in 1980 for Debby Boone’s “With My Song” album. Though sometimes the song’s first verse may be all we hear or see included in a hymnal, that practice may tell only part of the song’s story. We can see the composers felt a deep devotion, according to the opening verse’s words, but verse two may tell us the circumstances that at least one of them was experiencing that spurred this song’s development. Someone, or perhaps Brown, Lynn, and Dawn together could remember times in which each of them had struggled, times when they called out to Him and felt His protection. His presence was more than an oasis to refresh them. In fact, He took them to another place, where heartache and anything terrestrial was a distant memory. God doesn’t just help us get over the hurdles…they don’t exist where He takes us. Even at a young age (Brown Bannister was probably about 29 years old or less in 1980, if he graduated from Abilene Christian U. in the 1973-75 period), people can have struggles that lay them low. What were the ones that made Bannister, Sutter, and Rodgers seek Him out in song, asking Him to transform them (verse 3)?

“Sweet Adoration” tells me that these three writers had discovered an avenue for managing life. Don’t try to pray away whatever’s inevitable here. Instead, seek out what worked for Him when He was here. Becoming like Him, at least as much as is humanly possible, is a method that Bannister, Sutter, and Rodgers evidently thought was an exercise worth pursuing. Why? After all, in one perspective, searching for His great heart could be a frustrating, lifelong quest for something intangible. But, perhaps these composers had also discovered something else here, something about trouble. He waits just on the other side. Could that be why Jesus was so resolute about the trouble that waited for Him one Friday?   

According to these links, all three of the songwriters are credited with the song as it was included on the Debby Boone 1980 album “With My Song”, and Sutter apparently married someone named Adler:  http://www.christianmusicarchive.com/album/with-my-song

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_My_Song

This site indicates that Lynn Sutter is credited with the 1978 album “Everlasting Kind of Love”: http://www.christianmusicarchive.com/artist/lynn-sutter

This You Tube site shows a picture of Sutter on the album “It’s a New Day”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vvjI7Nxf14&feature=related

Sutter also composed the 1984 song “Nobody Loves You Like Jesus”: http://music.aol.com/song/lynn-sutter/nobody-loves-you-like-jesus/4426678

Sutter composed the 1978 song “I’ve Never Been Loved Like This Before”: http://music.aol.com/song/lynn-sutter/ive-never-been-loved-like-this-before/4426682

Following site has biographic information on Brown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bannister

This link shows a Dawn Rodgers album “Adoration”: http://www.amazon.com/Adoration-Songs-Worship-Dawn-Rodgers/dp/B0002IQORS

The following site has a second verse to the song: http://www.higherpraise.com/lyrics/cool/s/5022.htm

This site has a 3^rd verse to the song:

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/Worship-Songs-Sweet-adoration-lyrics.html