bridge , “ sing it to the daughter and sing it to the sons , to every generation ”. And we all just kind of ... it is that the joy bomb hit the studio and we ' re like , that ' s it ! This is a song about declaring to the next generation , what we believe .
My favorite moment is we had the demo and we drove back home from Nashville to North Carolina . And me and Melissa ' s litmus test for songs is to play them for our kids . I have a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old , because they just , they don ' t BS this . They ' ll tell us the truth about these songs .
And we played it in the kitchen when we got home , like , " Hey , we wrote a new song ." And they loved Steph and Amanda . And so , they were excited we wrote it with them , played it for them and when we got to the bridge , sing it to the daughters , I looked across the room and my 15-year-old daughter , tears just literally shot out of her eyes , just pouring down her face . And she looked at me and said , " This is so special Dad , this is so special ." So yeah , that ' s some of the process in writing it .
[ WM ] Each of you are leaders in the worshiping community . I ’ ve got a couple of philosophical questions that I would like to ask you . The late John Wimber spoke of worship as also being an expression of prayer for the sick and compassion toward the poor . What are your thoughts about the true meaning of a worship expression outside the walls of a Sunday morning church service ?
[ Jonathan ] Wow . I remember being a 19-to- 20-year-old kid sharing my testimony at church after I really gave my heart to Jesus . I remember sharing 20 years ago that I wanted to be a part of a generation coming that would take worship outside of the walls of the church . And I ' ve gotten to be a part of some things where we ' ve worshiped in parks or worshiped out at . We ' ve been in on tours now where we ' re doing worship nights at theaters and clubs . I don ' t think anyone would ' ve imagined that 30 , 40 years ago even looking at you , Alex I know that you ' re a part of my Dad ' s generation . They used to have to sneak drums into church !
[ WM ] Oh yeah . As a drummer , I remember that a lot of churches flat out would not allow drums and you ' d have to play bongos or something and you weren ' t even a bongo player . So , yes . Exactly !
[ Jonathan ] It ’ s funny that your generation was trying to get the drums into the church . And then I ' m a 19-20-year-old-kid . I ' m like now how do we get the drums out of the church , and take this sound into the streets ? And I think I ' ve also been a part of some heartbreaking stories too , where I ' ve seen different friends and bands that want to take worship and maybe make it cool or make lyrics that people can hear at a bar and still connect to . But I ' ve also seen that not go so well because they , once they separate themselves from fellowship in the church , they ' ve just become a part of the world . They ' re not what Jesus said . They ' re not Him , and Jesus said I ' m in the world , but not of the world , but I ' ve watched them become part of the world .
I don ' t really have an answer . I think I ' m wondering , like what does it look like ? And I think for me , even with the focus of what our school is , it ' s not so much let ' s do a concert outside the church , but how do we become just individually , how do we become the kindness of Jesus , that ' s how do we become , as St Francis was to have said , " Preach the gospel everywhere and when necessary , use words ." So , I don ' t know , maybe there ' ll be some amazing worship concerts that lots of people come to know Jesus , but part of me just wonders how much ? Is it us preaching the