A couple who’ve
been around as much as these two might know a thing or two, because they’ve
seen a thing or two (or, so the insurance commercial says!). Kirk and Deby
Dearman spent a lot of time abroad prior to the 1990s trying to spread a
message through a musical mission in Europe. And, even after they returned to
U.S. soil in 1991 (in the Nashville area), they must have felt a calling that
took form in one of their songs “Instruments of Your Peace”, allowing them to
continue the mission they’d been conducting since their European days. This
song’s purpose may be what took a further evolution into a still larger effort
to draw people to a peaceful place. Wanna go there?
The Dearmans have
had some varied experiences that have no doubt contributed to their development
as worship ministry transmitters. Kirk’s musical adventures began as a
five-year old with a mother’s wisdom to channel him with piano lessons, a path
that blossomed into songwriting and worldwide touring with a musical group by
the time he was 20. Meanwhile, Deby too was living all over the world as part
of a military family, before meeting Kirk while in college and finding her
artistic voice in speech, drama, and stage song and dance. They lived in Dallas,
Texas for a while as Kirk ministered at a church as choir director, but it wasn’t
long before this married couple and their two daughters went to Europe for
seven years. Together with another couple, they formed Creative Arts Europe, a performing arts group that traveled all over
the continent. By the early 1990s, Kirk and Deby moved the family back to
Nashville from Brussels, where one could speculate they would slow down. This was
where Come to the Quiet came to life,
their effort to remind Christ-followers of the veneration God deserves. Therein,
they combine the arts with contemplative worship in an Anglican service in the
Episcopal church. It’s the focus of their website (see link below), as well as
their life of encouragement via a joint ministry with some friends in something
known as The Journey to Wholeness in
Christ, designed to help emotionally troubled people heal. These two have
indeed been all over, perhaps giving them a special taste and a need for peace
themselves from what, at times, might look like a hectic jaunt from here to
there. You might say they have now been living, as well as singing, as instruments
of peace.
Hate, hurt, struggle,
darkness, and grief – those are the episodes that seemed to have bothered the
consciences of the Dearmans around 1993 when they wrote “Instruments…”. Those
are the dark emotions they saw, apparently, and chose to not accept. They offer
alternatives like these: God’s love, grace, peace, light, and a shoulder for
support. It’s all packed into the two verses and chorus they offer, and it hasn’t
stopped when Kirk’s fingers pull away from the keyboard, or when they both drop
their microphones. They themselves are the instruments. Deby’s artist strokes,
Kirk’s pen, and both’s ongoing advice to others in the arts and among the
Christian community are tools too. God’s musical gifts are great, but they don’t
stop there. Just ask Kirk and Deby.
The composers’
website is here:
https://www.cometothequiet.com/about-us
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