Our God – Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin, Chris Tomlin, and Jesse Reeves

Teamwork. Passion. Proclamation. Hubbub. Those are words that stand out if you talk to Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin, Chris Tomlin, and Jesse Reeves about what they did together over several days to create a song for a special occasion. “Our God” was something they were planning to say to young adults, but it began in a more ordinary impromptu way than perhaps you might imagine it did. Isn’t it odd that this God who’s so great operates oftentimes in such normal circumstances – like when He made some wine at a wedding (see picture)? This quartet’s thoughts introduce us to Him who did the amazing so long ago, a fact that we too often shelve and treat like a dusty history textbook. What they wanted to do with “Our God” was make Him alive again. Let’s see how they did this.

Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin talk on the NewSongCafé@worship.com show (see the link below) about how they and their friends collaborated in two different states to create the song. It was one of those after-show sessions apparently, where the song began, Redman says. He and Jonas Myrin were in Florida, and began plucking on a guitar and tinkling the keyboard in a hotel ballroom after a conference they had attended. Perhaps other creative minds might have sought out a quiet venue to mull over such a beginning, but not Redman and Myrin. Hotel workers were moving tables and chairs about, prepping for the next day’s hotel commitments. In the midst of this clamor, Redman says they saw an opportunity just to lift Him up, to proclaim Him. One wonders if the hotel staffers realized they were witnessing something special taking place. Something called ‘Passion’ was approaching, but perhaps it seemed rather ironic that all around Redman and Myrin,  workers were doing their routine. Fervor was on their minds again later in Atlanta, Georgia, as they prepared for a college-age crowd at the Passion 2010 Conference. That is where the song was completed, with the help of Chris Tomlin and Jesse Reeves. The song’s entry into worship vocabulary at the conference was complemented on the “Passion Awakening” album. Like its conference and album companions, “Our God” reminds us who believe and declares to those who don’t that He inspires zeal, perhaps most generationally associated with college students.  

Ever been on a college campus where a street preacher was proclaiming God to students hurrying to class? ‘Brother Jed’ was one I remember wandering about College Green in Athens, Ohio, and no, it seemed as if he inspired ridicule, rather than passion or even genuine curiosity. The Redman/Myrin/Tomlin/Reeves composition doesn’t wave an accusing finger at the sinner, like the street preachers I recall. Instead, it invites the hearer to just believe He’s unique. Link yourself to this person, and see where He can take you. That’s a dare, a challenge that maybe a cocky college student who’s just beginning his adult journey might accept. Are you ready for His adventure?   

Check out the following link to hear Redman and Tomlin talk about the song’s development:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZXaWN_9Z1E

This is the link to the conference video where song was performed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnCajwl2Nfc

See this link for details on Passion Conferences: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_Conferences