will come later because we ’ re teaching a lot of people as pastors kids , too . Were teaching a lot of people how to maintain something that was already done for them instead of finding out who they really are and then realizing it ’ s not “ you have to do all these things .” You get to do them .
[ WM ] See , I accepted Christ in October of 1969 , right out of high school and at a Billy Graham crusade in Southern California , and immediately got caught up in the Jesus Movement at Calvary Chapel in Southern California .
[ Stephen ] Oh , I love it .
[ WM ] But that was our focus . It ’ s still my focus . We didn ’ t talk about politics . We didn ’ t talk about it , it was so different .
[ Stephen ] No , man , Alex , it ’ s real . All real . And I feel like sometimes I ’ m saying that to a bunch of Christians that look at me like , “ Oh yeah , I forgot .” Or maybe I didn ’ t even know that . And I ’ m like , “ Oh my gosh . We ’ re not in a room just putting on a concert . We ’ re in the presence of Jesus .”
[ WM ] Well , listen , your single , “ O Holy Night ,” has just been released . Please tell us about it . There ’ s quite a controversial history behind that hymn , and your version is just stunning . I ’ ve watched a video of you singing it a cappella in Bethlehem , and that must have been an incredible experience .
[ Stephen ] Oh , thank you . What ’ s funny about that is that I actually went on this trip to Israel with some people , and it was really great , and I didn ’ t expect to end up in that building singing . I was just one of several people , and the tour guide just looked at me . He had no idea that I was a singer . He didn ’ t know anything about me . He just said , “ Hey , stand right here .” And this place is called the Church of the Angels . It ’ s this chapel in Bethlehem where if you stand in the middle the acoustics are really great . He said , “ Stand here and sing ‘ O Holy Night .’”
O Holy Night
Come , Jesus Come
He literally told me what song to sing and had no idea I could sing , and then told me to start singing . So I pulled my phone out , I had a hat on . I set my water bottle on this table , which by the way , I didn ’ t realize was like an altar or something . Look , I was literally sweating and just came in from outside . I didn ’ t know what was happening . So I ’ m singing this song a few years back and it was around Christmas time . I just took a clip of that and I put it on Instagram . And what I didn ’ t think about was when I put it out , I just thought , “ Oh , it ’ s Christmas time . I ’ ll put this little clip from this out .” And this was right after October 7th and all the attacks and the wars started happening in Israel . And so I posted this video , and Bethlehem is in Palestine . People started sharing this video by the millions on Instagram with the thought that I was in Palestine , and I was there . Steven is so brave . I ’ m like , “ No , it ’ s like two years old .” That was kind of funny . But yeah , that ’ s kind of how that video got put out , which is hilarious .
But since then , I ’ ve had a lot of people say , you should do a version . And even I was skeptical of doing a version . I was like , “ Man , this is a very cherished Christmas song by so many people .” To do a version is very risky . And I did my best , even as a producer and as a songwriter to do that in a way that I felt like didn ’ t go too far off script but felt a little fresh . Hopefully that was the case .
[ WM ] It is such a wonderful song . And I alluded to the history of it because it was controversial at times . Some of the church banned it many years ago for a couple of reasons . One , a lot of people loved it , and they would actually sing it in bars , which made the song unclean . And secondly , the church wanted Gregorian chants to be sung . And so it wasn ’ t allowed , but look at it now .
[ Stephen ] That ’ s hilarious . In 1906 , the first broadcast from one radio to the next , wasn ’ t military or anything , but it was like an open air , AM signal to a bunch of freighter boats . Boats . And it was the first thing ever heard over an air wave was the sound of a violin . And this man ’ s family singing “ O Holy Night .” It was first thing ever played over radio airways , and then they read the Christmas story . I just think that ’ s really cool how God kind of used this Christmas song to keep doing some pretty cool stuff .
[ WM ] And the song , “ Come , Jesus Come ”, is such a moving song . What ’ s the story behind it ?
[ Stephen ] Yeah . At the beginning of the pandemic , I was sitting home like everybody else , and I was reading Revelation and I was worshiping , and I just had the Bible open and I got to Revelation 22 . It says , “ The Spirit and the bride say , come .” Right after that , it says , “ All who hear this say come .” And then right after that , the last thing written in the whole Bible is Jesus saying , “ I ’ m coming soon .” And I started looking more into it . And I found that in the New Testament it references or mentions the cross around 48 times , which is a lot . Thank you for the cross . Right . It ’ s amazing . But it actually references or mentions the return of Jesus around 318 times .
And I have to go , “ Okay , there ’ s a reason .” There ’ s a reason why in Philippians 3:20 Paul says , we ’ re not citizens in this world . We ’ re citizens of heaven , and we eagerly , eagerly anticipate the return of our Lord . My problem with that was , at that time , I was really reading all that and being in that moment with the Lord ,
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