a saying , “ Some things are felt and things are tellt .” In other words , some things are caught and things and other things are taught . So tell us about growing up in a church and learning from Darlene Zschech what things were taught and what things were caught by you ?
[ Hannah ] I love that question . It ’ s so wonderful that you said that . I think to start with the taught side of things , I think as a teenager growing up , I would sneak into any session that Darlene was speaking in or leading worship in , because there would just be these offhand comments that kind of spoke to her disciplines around creativity or how she would treat the platform . She would always emphasize this message of , “ You hear it a lot , but worship is a lifestyle .” And to me , as a musician who radically found faith in Christ as a teenager , I was captivated by this person who spoke not just of here ’ s how you do well on stage , but this thing is so much bigger than this . She used to say things like , “ The platform ’ s just a blip ,” and , “ 99 % of your life is happening outside of that .” And so there was such a great emphasis on walking with God and having an intimate relationship with him and allowing all of the ministry things that you do to be peripheral to this living , breathing , real relationship with God . And I was captivated by that as a teenager and still am now . And I think she would just kind of articulate that in a way that felt really practical to walk off a big worship set with thousands of people , and she ’ s like , “ This is nothing . We focus on God , but this is nothing . We ’ re going to go out and live our lives .”
It matters the way we live for God . Outside of the setting is everything . I matters how we treat people . So that articulation around the importance of not putting too much importance on the stage … on the platform , I think that was a big kind of practical lesson .
And in terms of what was caught , well , I think you can easily say those things and tick all the boxes , but what I sensed was that there was an authenticity about what she was saying . There was this other woman who says that she really
lived it . She really walked it out . And I think that added a weight to her words and left something with me . And I think to this day , I ’ m still trying to do the same thing even today in how I interact with even younger people and people I lead and have in my world . I ’ m not just here for you when I need you to do something , like to sing or to write a song or whatever . I love and believe in you . It matters . And that same emphasis on loving people and loving God hopefully exists even more so than it does on a Sunday .
[ WM ] Good stuff . That ’ s right . Our personal integrity is a critical component to leading worship , isn ’ t it ? There ’ s an unspoken power that comes with that . Speaking of Darlene , you recently released the song “ Broken Into Beautiful ,” and it features her alongside you , as well as the song “ In Jesus ’ Name .” What can you tell us about these songs ?
[ Hannah ] First of all , “ Broken Into Beautiful ,” is really just a song about God as our healer and a God who brings restoration into our lives . And ever since this song kind of existed , and we started leading it in our church and I released it on the live record , I always thought of Darlene .
I don ’ t know what it was . I think it was just the melody of the chorus . There ’ s something about the melody that just made me think of her singing it . I couldn ’ t shake it . So , I sat on that for six months and just was like , wouldn ’ t it be amazing to hear her voice on this song ? And then I went out on a limb and wrote to her really thinking she would probably say no , but I said , “ It ’ d be a dream . Would you sing on this with me ?” And she super graciously agreed , which was shocking . I even remember where I was standing . I was like , “ Oh , I didn ’ t see that coming .” I was just ready to have a shot . But to hear her , even knowing her revelation of healing and everything she ’ s been through with her own cancer journey , I think there ’ s a weight that she brings to the song just by the nature of who she is and what she ’ s walked through . That feels really important . And there ’ s so much I love about that song , but one thing in particular would just be there ’ s this line that says , “ In the stolen years will be restored with the harvest we ’ ve been waiting for .” And I just know personally , so many people who feel like they ’ ve lost some years of their life for different reasons in disappointment or discouragement or even sickness . And I just love the idea that we can put words to that . People can sing that promise , that God can restore , that he can restore the years that the locust has stolen that scripture from Joel . And so it feels exciting to me that there ’ s a song that exists that articulates that .
[ WM ] Great . That ’ s wonderful . Well , one more song to talk about is your composition “ God Song ” is not only pure poetry , but it also draws from another pool , and that pool is musicality . I ’ d love to hear the story behind this one . You play piano on it and co-wrote it with Benjamin Hastings , whom I ’ ve also interviewed . So what can you tell us about this ?
[ Hannah ] Okay . Ben and I started working on this song seven years before it was ever recorded . We wrote this song for church , and at the time , our church was looking for worship songs and preparing for a new project . And we started with this kind of piano intro , which you 10 September 2024 Subscribe for Free ...