Great Are You Lord -- Steve and Vikki Cook

He and his wife were kinda new at the songwriting and publishing adventure to which they decided to devote themselves. But, only good thoughts emerge from what Steve Cook remembers of Great Are You Lord, and how it came to be penned by him and his wife Vikki. Perhaps that’s because the Lord wants to bless those who are praising Him, and who seek to draw others into that praise too. But, rather than you hearing it secondhand from this blogger, hear about it directly from Steve’s own words about this episode. Here’s what he has to say. 

We wrote Great Are You Lord around 1983 while living in northern California near Redding.  I was working at a Christian radio station and we were a part of a Calvary Chapel church in Redding and serving on the worship team.  The song was inspired by a book by Mel Tari called Like A Mighty Wind which chronicles the revival that took place on the island of Timor in the mid-1960s. (See a picture of that island here, taken from space by NASA.)  The book left me with a deep sense of awe on the greatness of God and most of the song was written in one sitting.  An important contribution to the song came from Tommy Coomes, who at the time, was the #2 man at Maranatha! Music in Costa Mesa, California. Through a contact with our senior pastor at the church we attended we were able to meet with Tommy and sing a few of our songs.  He was very encouraging and shortly thereafter offered to publish the songs, which we were delighted to do.  Maranatha! Music was one of the top two worship music publishers at the time.  Tommy also made a lyric suggestion which made the song stronger, but he asked for no co-writing credit.  He was very generous in that regard.  Once Maranatha! Music signed the song they included it on a number of their recordings over the next 5-10 years.  We were humbled and blessed by it.

The song also played a key role in our focus as songwriters.  Before writing this song Vikki and I primarily wrote Christian artist songs for our band.  The genre would come to be known as Contemporary Christian Music, but there seemed to be a grace on this simple worship song that we wrote that caused us to wonder and finally decide that writing for the local church was how we wanted to invest our songwriting talents, and so we have done that to this day.  To date, we have written something over 100 worship songs, but Great Are You Lord was the first.

Steve’s story should make us aware that God’s still doing amazing things all around the globe, though those things may not headline the news too often. Let them impress you, the way what happened on Timor did for Mel Tari, and then for Steve Cook too. You might end up writing something that is rather special, and help burn into your memory and spirit an historical event via a musical imprint. Steve related this story to me with nothing more to spark his memory than a brief e:mail from me. It happened 36 years ago, and Steve sounds like he remembered it like it happened yesterday. You think God knows something about our insides and how music helps us remember?

The story of the song was provided by one of the authors to this blogger in an e:mail dated 12 October 2019. Many thanks to Steve Cook!

See here for very brief information on author: https://hymnary.org/person/Cook_V

See for the worship ministry of which the authors are a part: https://www.weareworship.com/us/worship-leaders-2/sovereign-grace-music/

A site that tells some of the details of Sovereign Grace Music: https://sovereigngracemusic.org/about/faq/