for the rest of your life . You act because you ’ re wounded and want an escape . But when you worship , I get to actually heal your heart .” So , I picked it up , almost as a commissioning . And that ’ s why I started .
[ WM ] Wow . That ’ s amazing . And how cool is it that you picked up piano out of jealousy , and God used it to show you exactly who you are and give you purpose and calling . That ’ s just so like God !
[ Rita ] Yeah . It really is . I remember , you know , in my early twenties , I had this dream that I was just playing this black grand piano , and in the dream , it almost started looking like jello . It just started to wobble and , and reshape itself , and it turned into the shoulder of the Lord . I had never got that image out of my head . I felt like he ’ d given me that to remember every time I sat down at the piano , it was as if I was leaning against the shoulder of the Lord .
[ WM ] That ’ s so powerful . Thank you for sharing that . So , you are a part of Women Who Worship , which is part of a community , called Worship Together . Women Who Worship is defined by a global community of artists , writers , musicians , and creatives created to unite and amplify the voices of women in worship . I , personally love this mission statement for so many different reasons , but tell me for you , what was it that attracted you to this community and how did you get involved ?
[ Rita ] Well , the original concept came from Karrie Dawley at my label , Capitol . It had been in the back of her mind , but we started talking about it because I have been pioneering women in worship and had been a part of movements like this . But Karrie was like a mother in the house to help spearhead it . She was doing this gathering in Nashville . She ’ d asked me to come speak , and it was just a handful of women at the time . Karrie had asked me to speak , and I had asked her to give me the names and emails of the women because I wanted to get a prophetic word for each of them . But then the list just kept growing and growing and by the time we were done , it was almost like 50 women . It created this synergy , among that group that birthed this thing that it just got bigger and bigger .
One of the end goals was to actually begin to record songs with the voices of these women . Sometimes when women do something separate from men , it can feel or look like ‘ I am Woman , hear me roar ’, or like we are a better as a gender . But it really isn ’ t that at all . It ’ s just celebrating the ‘ other than ’ of our gender and the uniqueness of a woman ’ s voice and a woman ’ s authority really . It ’ s just celebrating that thing that a woman has that only a woman can deliver . When she sings a song , it ’ s a very different thing when a man sings or leads a song . There ’ s just a different authority that ’ s attached to it . It ’ s not a ‘ better than ’ authority .