He’s a
Canadian, and was in British Columbia (see its flag here) when he penned some
words and fused them with some music in 1991. David Ruis proclaimed that
“You’re Worthy of My Praise” to the church where he was working, in order to
bring disciples into the Christian fellowship, the calling that David believed
was his. Music had been ingrained in his life from a young age, so because he
was engaged primarily in planting a church, the music he loved was a part of
the natural repertoire he used to season that effort. The freshness of faith
that he wanted to inspire was also something that he’d learned as a youngster.
As a classically-trained musician, David has the wherewithal to focus on the
musically complex; yet he doesn’t, a disposition reflected in the words he’d
write around 1991. Bow, worship, serve. Meet David Ruis.
David Ruis
was just 5 years old when a pair of young newly-minted Christian parents made a
decision to make David’s education a well-rounded one, rich in music. Piano and
voice lessons, especially in the classics, were standard fare for young David,
perhaps not unlike another young David many centuries earlier. He sang in a choir
in Calgary, besides playing piano at a high level in the Royal Conservatory.
So, David was well on his way to writing and performing music as a collegian,
and then at age 21 when he was involved in a planting a church, an effort that
would influence how he would come to write ‘You’re Worthy…’ several years
later. He says that the focus on starting a new church drew him into the type
of songs he would write through 1991, including in British Columbia, where he wrote
‘You’re Worthy…’ as one of his first efforts. Twenty-eight-year old David’s
musical DNA would continue to animate his being for some time. The particular
circumstances of the genesis of ‘You’re Worthy…’ include songwriting times with
just a piano and his two-year old daughter, who sang the echo parts to help
David craft the tune, a process that brought to fruition this song-gift over
time. He says the church’s very affecting worship experiences also played an
important role in his songwriting. Ruis was ultimately doing what church
planters do: drawing new Christians into devotion with uncomplicated concepts that
children could even understand – with submissive words like ‘praise’, ‘follow’,
‘bow’, ‘hail’, and of course ‘worship’. Ruis and his family have evidently
engaged in this church planting lifestyle in several places in Canada and the
United States, including in the American states of Missouri and California, and
in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia.
Given the upbringing
and the lifestyle of the Ruis family (David and his wife Anita, and at least
four children), what are the odds that more songs like what David wrote in 1991
will emerge? It’s almost a rhetorical question, isn’t it? The Ruises are part
of what’s known as Impactnations and the Vineyard churches, which are focused
on spreading Christian fellowship churches across the globe. Besides Canada and
the United States, they have reportedly been involved in efforts far from what
they might call home base – in Nepal and India. If they haven’t already been
translated, one can imagine that David’s songs will soon be in other tongues
besides English. That’s just the way praise travels – across the planet, and
eventually into the heavens too. You think it’s already up there? Let’s go see!
See the story
in the book “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas
Nelson Publishers, 2008.
See this
link for a brief biography of the Ruis family: http://www.impactnations.org/FAQRetrieve.aspx?ID=56971
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