I had the honor of talking with Chris Davenport , a worship leader , artist , and songwriter based in Nashville , TN . He was part of Hillsong , has written many songs that the church sings in worship services around the world , and has now collaborated with Brandon Lake and Cody Carnes on his latest song , “ Plead The Blood ”. We are thankful he shared some of his wisdom and story with [ WM ].
[ Haley Morgan ] Hey , Chris ! So excited to get to talk with you and get to know you a little bit more . We ’ re all very excited about your new song “ Plead The Blood .” It ’ s so powerful ! I truly believe it ’ s going to be an anthem for the church . Before we dive into talking about the song , I would love to know just a little about your story . Where did you grow up ? How did you become involved with Hillsong ?
[ Chris Davenport ] Thanks so much . Yeah , I would say I grew up in Memphis , because that ’ s where I spent my teenage years . I started getting into music when I was about fifteen or sixteen . I made the change from full-time amateur athlete .
[ WM ] A lot of us did have to make that choice at some point … ( laughing ).
[ Chris ] Yes , exactly . So , that ’ s when I started getting involved with church . I was laughing with someone the other day and we were having a similar conversation as this . It was like , up until a certain time , it really didn ’ t occur to me that songs were written by people .
I was raised on some really good songwriters , but then I got into church , and there were songs I really enjoyed and thought , “ Oh , these songs are amazing !” And the lion ’ s share of them were coming from the Hillsong world . So , I really got connected to their music through playing it at church . I ended up dropping out of high school to do music full-time and eventually went to Sydney , Australia to go to their Bible college and did three years of college , getting involved serving and volunteering at the church . I helped with production , played guitar , and helped with music directing and worship .
Eventually , I started writing and was connected to that world for probably fifteen years or so . It had such a rich soil of people to learn from , and I consider myself very lucky for that experience .
[ WM ] Yeah , for sure . That ’ s so awesome ! What are some of the earliest songs that you were a part of with Hillsong ?
[ Chris ] The very first song that I was a part of was a song called “ Rhythms of Grace ”, that was on a Hillsong United album in 2011 or 2012 , I think . I wrote that with a guy named Dean Ussher , who was the kind of campus worship pastor . We actually wrote that song for
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