Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 33

Live and Instagram Live. There were going to
be more podcasts than ever, so let’s not talk
and do lives or give a bunch of opinions, lets
just sing a song and let that encourage people.
The very first thing we did was a hymn that’s
been precious to me literally my whole life,
and it’s called “His Eye is on the Sparrow”.
There was no big intention or big plan behind
it, it was just, I’m going to sing a hymn that’s
encouraged me and that I hope will encourage
others. We just didn’t expect, I kind of thought
people would love it, but that performance is at
like twelve million views or something. I didn’t
think about what I was saying at the time, but
I said, “A song a day keeps the crazies away”,
and people were like, wait, are you going to
do a song a day? And really that was how it
started, we thought that was something easy
that we can do and we can sew into people’s
minds, just one song everyday.
At that time we thought that quarantine was
going to last for two weeks (laughs) and then
we were like fifty-one songs in. We thought,
what would it mean if we could actually bring
people into our home, and at this point were
hearing from people, “We feel like they know
what our house looks like, we come into your
living room every night, we feel like we know
you guys.” And we thought, how cool would it
be to take them with us to our favorite venue
in Nashville, which is where we live. We called
the Ryman Auditorium, we were like, “Hey,
this is what we’re doing…” And I do have a
non-profit Hope for Justice, and during this
season all non-profits are suffering, and also
the children that we serve are more at risk right
now than ever before. It just all made sense,
we just threw out a bunch of ideas, and we
thought that the Ryman would probably say
no, and we called them and they told us that
they actually knew what we’d been doing and
they loved it and paid attention on Facebook.
They actually gave us the venue for free! And
anyone who knows anything about this kind of
stuff knows that never happens, nobody gives
you a venue for free! They said that if we could
take care of the three people that they have to
have on sight they would let us come in, and
then the lighting people that are our friends.
We were only allowed to have ten people
come in because of our mayor’s mandate, but
everybody donated their time, and it was such
a beautiful moment. I have to tell you, I’ve sung
in the Ryman many times with people in the
seats, but there has never been a more special
time for me than that moment where the empty
seats were our backdrop. I still get a lump in
my throat just talking about it, because it was
almost like this sacred moment. They call the
Ryman the “mother church” of Nashville and
that’s because it’s a famous country music
venue now but it started as a church, and it
was actually built to hold revivals. There is just
something about doing that in that building at
this moment that I think we will tuck away and
hold forever in our hearts.
And then people connected to it, and they
ended up giving, and it was this really beautiful
moment. I think you go through this time of
quarantine, and then the racial issues, which are
not new in our country, but are at the forefront
of our conversation and our thinking right now.
Sometimes when you decide to take a stand
for something, not politically, but spiritually, you
kind of go, “This is not a political issue. I am a
follower of Jesus and He makes it very clear
in His word that we are to mourn with those
who mourn, that we are to stand for those
who cannot speak for themselves”. When He
said to love thy neighbor and they said, who
is thy neighbor? And they use that example
of the Samaritan woman, and we understand
that this isn’t about religion, this is about a
relationship with Jesus that saves. When you
begin speaking about that stuff you’re going to
turn some people off, and that happened. We
had plenty of people who thought, “I like you
when you’re singing your songs, but if you start
My Weapon
talking about things that I am uncomfortable
with then I’m going to tune you out”, and we
did have a few thousand people who chose to
stop following us, and that was okay. It breaks
my heart that we are in the position that we’re
in. At the same time the church needs to speak
up! We have enough politics, were choking
on all of that, and we’re choking on religion,
and we don’t need anything divisive. We need
Jesus. When you put Jesus at the forefront it
will always offend people because Jesus saying
that He is the way and the truth of life, and that
you can’t get to the Father except through Him,
that’s going to offend some people. But He is
also the peacemaker and the peace speaker,
so when you have that as your guide just hold
onto it and know that He will bring the people
that need to follow and He will sift through and
get rid of the people who don’t need to follow.
I hope that doesn’t sound too direct, but that’s
kind of how we feel about it (laughs).
[WM] I too was absolutely stunned to see
some of that feedback, and especially from a
concert that had such good intentions and was
so beautiful.
[Natalie] It breaks the heart of Father God.
We’ve allowed ourselves as the church to
get really loud about things that Jesus never
modeled in scripture. And then we’ve allowed
ourselves to become quiet about those things
that He was loud about. I feel like this is just
another opportunity. He is so full of grace, and
I feel like He is giving us another opportunity
to right our wrongs, so I just want to be on the
side of right, I want to be on His side and to
do the right thing, even if it can be offensive, or
be misinterpreted. I think when you hear people
talk about you in a way that’s not true, or to
align you with an ideology or a thinking that
you don’t even hold, you feel like you need to
defend yourself, but no you don’t, because that
is also what He modeled for us. He will be our
defender! You don’t have to defend yourself.
[WM] Let’s talk about recording. Earlier
this year you released “My Weapon (Sacred
Version)”. It’s is a beautiful prayer set against
September 2020
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