Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 24

funny one. There was basically a space for an
upbeat opening song on the EP and all the
other options weren’t feeling right. I remember
being very close to the deadline and saying to
God, “I’ve got nothing in the tank right now, I
do really need you to do something here - this
song has to be God breathed.”
So shortly after that the pandemic hit, and after
doing a lot of worship stuff in the lead up to
it, I started to feel unwell myself. I felt unwell
with suspected Covid-19 (luckily in my case
I had relatively mild symptoms). It was just at
the start of lockdown in London. Given the
way the pandemic was unfolding, it felt like
a pretty scary time. Our first child was just
six months old at the time and I felt guilty for
bringing this virus home to Sarah and our
son. I began feeling fairly anxious. I started to
think about all of the destruction that this virus
is causing – it’s bringing death, it’s attacking
the frailest in society disproportionately, it’s
crippling economies, it’s breeding fear and it’s
even shutting churches down. It seemed like
everything this virus was and is doing is the
antithesis of what God does.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time
overseeing worship at KXC, it’s that worship is
far more important than just singing songs. I’ve
learned that when you participate in worship,
you are actually entering into a spiritual battle.
Ephesians 6:12 talks about this – that our
battle is not against flesh and blood but against
what is unseen. With that in mind, while lying
in bed with a fever from this virus, I started to
write and sing what became the opening lines
to this song: “I’m fighting back with a song of
praise, I’m fighting back lifting up Your name,”
and it became a prayer that God would let his
kingdom come, right here in our city and this
country, right now.
We see it in the Bible, whenever anyone is
in a sticky moment, the best and the most
courageous thing to do is to worship. That is
the choice we have!
My wife Sarah and I wrote the rest of the song
Fighting Back
during the lockdown in the following few weeks.
What was becoming clear was that although
this virus wasn’t from God, he could still use
it. We were beginning to see churches working
together in ways we’d never seen. Oppression
and injustices were being exposed and the
church was also being refined. We felt we
wanted to capture this theme in the song – that
God would continue to redeem his people and
even though we were in numerous scattered
rooms, his kingdom was still advancing.
The final piece in the puzzle for the song, arose
during our Tuesday morning KXC staff meeting
over Zoom, where Pete shared 1 Thessalonians
4:13: “We want you to know what will happen
to the believers who have died so you will not
grieve like people who have no hope.” Instantly,
I knew that needed to be the bridge of this
song. Even amongst all the suffering, fear and
death that we were seeing around us, we rest
in the hope that Jesus has ultimately defeated
the grave.
As believers, even though we do grieve, our
grieving looks different because we grieve with
hope. Jesus is calling us to be this hope in the
world right now. When we are in a spiritual
battle, this song has helped us lift up the name
of Jesus. It is our prayer that this song also
helps others do that too.
[WM] The British have a history of being
courageous during a time of calamity, and
every song on this project is well crafted, so
well done! I presume that these songs are tried
and tested over your congregation. “Kingdom
Dreamers” is a great song of anticipation,
expectation, and faith building. Tell us about
this song?
“Could it be that a move of God is coming
Can you feel, all the ground beneath us is
shaking
Let it be this day on Earth
Cause we’re all kingdom dreamers
Could it be, we’ll see miracles and healings
As we pray You will shatter all addictions
Let it be this day on Earth
‘Cause we’re all Kingdom dreamers
God let your will be done”
[Tom] Thank you! And yes, I love this song.
24 September 2020
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