WorshipSource.com

A few years ago on a Saturday morning, I sat down at my kitchen table, opened up my Bible to Psalms, and proceeded to steal lyrics from God’s Word – a fact of which I am not ashamed in the least. In fact, “steal from the best” is one of my unofficial mantras (I don’t think I actually have an official mantra…). Anyway, in a few hours I had most of “Great is Your Name” completed, but it had a very different melody and feel from the current version. After finishing it up a few days later, we started using it in worship at my church, Lake Pointe. It lasted a couple of years (the song, not the church); then at some point I decided it seemed a little out of date (the song, not the church), upon which I moved it to my “archive” file.

 Then one recent late-night I decided to revisit it – maybe add a hallelujah section, or somehow update it a little. In the process, I fell into a groove that started working, and in about 30 minutes completely rewrote the music, including that new hallelujah section. After re-introducing it to my congregation, it quickly became a favorite – and only 2 or 3 members recognized it from its previous incarnation! Which semi-proves my theory that most of the people out there aren’t necessarily paying attention – but that’s another article altogether…