COME AWAKEN US

THE ANNUAL - OCTOBER

SCROLL DOWN FOR SONG STORY AND CHORD CHART

DAN HAMES, MADDIE JONES AND JAMIE THOMSON

Copyright © 2018 Dan Hames, Maddie Jones and Jamie Thomson

Lead Vocal: Esther-Jane White

Produced and Mixed by: Tom Read

SONG STORY

“BREATH OF LIFE COME SWEEPING THROUGH US”

DAN WRITES:

One of the most ancient prayers of the Church is 'Come, Holy Spirit' and, while we believe the Spirit is always with us, we know that if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us (James 4:8). It's a core value of St Aldates that, in worship, prayer, and preaching, we truly meet with God by the presence and power of the Spirit.

At our last songwriting retreat a few of us noted that many worship songs that focus on the Holy Spirit are meditative, quiet, even a little introspective – perhaps mostly designed for prayer and contemplation. In one of the later writing sessions on the retreat, Maddie, Jamie and I started work on this song as a more upbeat 'gathering song'. The idea was to make it programmatic for our services to express our love and reliance on the Spirit, setting up the expectation of his work among us from the very start. We don't want to relegate him to the final fifteen minutes of our services!

We begun with the opening line of Bessie Head's 1920 hymn, 'O Breath of life, come sweeping through us, revive your church with life and power', and wanted to touch on the way the Spirit draws us into relating to the Father and Son, and propels us out into the world beyond the four walls of the church building. Much more than giving us a cosy 'intimate moment' on a Sunday, the Holy Spirit fills us up to send us out.