always the tiger on the box that pops . It can be other things . And so in a world of sameness , your cover pops , right ? It ’ s different . And also you used to be able to plan on what looks good on a 12-inch album cover , but now you have to plan what looks good down to the size of your thumbnail and what is identifiable . And so your cover does that . When I saw it , I thought , “ Okay , this is good and this is why it ’ s good ”. Anyway , that is my thoughts on the cover , let ’ s talk more about the music .
I really love the song “ He Who Is To Come ”. And you wrote that with Cody ( Carnes ) and Kristian ( Stanfill ). Can you tell us about the genesis of that song and how the three of you came together to compose it a while back ? I saw that video of you doing it at Passion 2024 . It was astounding . So tell us about that song .
[ Sean ] That song is a really special song to me . Cody and Kristian are really good friends . So , I think we write often together . And I think a lot of why I think that ’ s important is because it ’ s a relational effort . I think when we know each other , we don ’ t just know the veneer , that we don ’ t just know our platform ourselves . And it ’ s really important that we do hard work to kind of remove the platform . And so the deeper we know each other , the more our hearts are open , and it ’ s like it creates room for the spirit of God to do something that is meaningful . These are wild days , and we are having a conversation about how inflammatory everything feels and how a lot of times our impulse is to fortify our little castles .
And really , if you keep pulling it back , what ’ s driving that is this really intense fear . And we position ourselves over and against our enemy , and that ’ s how we build our community . It ’ s not what we ’ re for , it ’ s what we ’ re against . And it ’ s just caught up in a lot of culture war stuff . And it ’ s just like , but where ’ s the through line ? Where ’ s the true north ? And we ‘ re inevitably just led to this promise of God that I think is a more anchoring promise to us right now than we ’ re giving it credit . And I just think in a lot of modern culture , Christian culture , we sing a lot about the cross , and we should sing a lot about this remarkable idea that God becomes like us to free us from ourselves . This is what makes God , God . And he went down into the pit to pull us up from it . This is what makes God , God . This is remarkable . But there ’ s this other pillar of our faith that we spend very little time talking about , and it ’ s that He ’ s coming back .
Yeah , Jesus left us with this remarkable promise that he ’ s going to come back . And somehow in the mystery of all that , when it unfolds , he ’ s going to set everything . And it just feels like what is the anchor that we need right now ? What is something , what is the promise of God that I can hold onto ? And if I believe it ’ s so much so that it will produce the fruit of the spirit in me and how I engage with the world today , it ’ s probably that Jesus … that God ’ s got it .
That when it ’ s time , somehow every tear is going to be wiped away , and every wrong is going to be set , and every dark corner is going to be lit up by the beauty and light and radiance of God . And every evil is going to be vanquished . So , the last thing that I should be doing is allowing my imagination to be corrupted by the idea that the kingdom of God is under threat . It is not . Jesus is coming back . We just had a conversation about that , and it was a bit of an intimidating idea to say , “ Well , we should write . Nobody writes about second coming ”. It just feels it ’ s a hefty weight to try
and do , but we just went for it and it so it felt so rich and it felt so stabilizing .
[ WM ] It is interesting to me because I ’ m a product of the Southern California Jesus Movement 55 years ago , and so most of the songs were about that . They were about Jesus coming back , and I ’ ve often thought my first reaction in heaven will not be joy . It will be tears because it ’ s all over ! I don ’ t have to deal with anything anymore . It ’ s over and the sense of incredible relief . So , I ’ ve thought about that in the past . Maybe it ’ ll be tears and then the joy will come . Just a thought .
[ Sean ] I love that .
[ WM ] Well , I know that you ’ re based out of a church that values worship as a lifestyle . And Louie ( Giglio ), please give Louie my love , is all about that . But some of our readers may serve in churches that might not afford worship it ’ s proper due . How would you encourage worship leaders in that situation today ?
[ Sean ] I think it is a step at a time . I am graced with the gift of being able to pop in and out of a lot of communities . One of the remarkable things about that is you get such a kaleidoscope of the beauty of the kingdom , and it ’ s taught me a lot about how to set my expectations , because not every community worships God the same way . I ’ m really starting to take things
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