Wednesday, November 03, 2010

do you not know

Here's a song I wrote in 1992. I was leading a worship band in St Aldate's Oxford at the time, and this song became one of the songs most requested of everything we did. It almost didn't make it.

I never had any confidence in my own material; I'd try a song out, and of course the first time a congregation sings a song - it goes kind of OK at best. They don't know it. How can they own it? How can they sing it from their soul? It takes a liitle time for something new to seep deeper into their soul. Especially as that worship band was, well, pushing the limits of what the church was used to at the time...

I played the song twice. Maybe three times. And dropped it. It wasn't working, I felt.

Till a couple of months later, several different people started to ask me what had happened to the "Wait on God" song - they had really loved it, really found it help them worship God. And I was genuinely surprised. More than surprised. So the song I had pensioned off in early summer got a second outing in the autumn - and this time it flew. Rising on eagle's wings.

It has stayed with me ever since, in several formats, including a full band recording with that first band, the Groove Heroes at St Aldates, a couple of different choir arrangements, and it subsequently entered the worship vocabulary of both St Mike's Aberystwyth & St Catherine's here in Pontypridd.

This video was filmed a couple of days ago by Matt Truelove, who has been doing a college project and wanted some music from me as part of it; kindly he sent me the full version of this in return for helping him out. Thanks Matt!

And all these years after writing the song, such a simple piece still has the power to make my heart sing, to draw me to Jesus, to lift me in worship. I'd have lost these words & music ages ago if it wasn't for those folk who'd pushed me and insisted I gave it another go. I can't remember who you were - but thank you too!

4 comments:

Somewhere round about said...

it's been a while....

great song, still is

Sandra Kinkead said...

Keep on playing, Marcus the musical vicar. I will keep on singing, too.

Sandra

Rolf Mason said...

Thanks so much for this!

I worshipped from 1997-2000. Who was in the 'Groove Heroes'??

Marcus Green said...

How time flies. The Groove Heroes was a worship group at Aldate's which was rather ahead of the curve. We were being a worship band before such things were common currency. No Delirious, no Matt Redman, no Tim Hughes in our day. We lived amongst the dinosaurs...

Me, Carolyn & Martin Turnidge, Andy Mayo on drums, Andy Crook on rhythm followed by Neil Smith, Prod on bass followed by Chas Winder. Richard Bell replaced Chas for our final recording.

We had a blast. These guys are still my heroes. We were focussed around a weekly prayer breakfast & pretty much everyone is still very much involved in worship leadership now, twenty years on, from New York to Madagascar.