Leading the throng in worship at Cross Rhythms '98 is MATT REDMAN. With a new album and big exposure in the US, the ministry of Britain's spearhead worship leader continues to expand. He spoke to Heather Bellamy

Matt Redman

Matt Redman is a name that we are all familiar with. A sensitive worship leader based at Soul Survivor he has become renowned for his gentle vulnerability as he takes people into that heart of worship. With his fourth and latest album "Intimacy" hitting the streets in April, we felt that it was time to pin him down and have a chat.

Heather: Matt, you've just got back from South Africa. What is it that you've been involved with out there?
Matt: We're setting up a Soul Survivor South Africa and working with a lot of local churches out there, setting up a youth event for people in their teens and 20's in the same way that we've done here.

It's the fourth time that we've been out there. The Lord's opening doors in a really wonderful way. So this time we went to Capetown, Port Elizabeth and Durban. We've been involved with a couple of youth conferences and some other youth events. There's a special dynamic over there because you've got all these different races together. In a country where that hasn't happened in the past we've been privileged to have a lot of people from different backgrounds like in the Bible where different tribes and tongues come together to worship. We're going back in September this year and that will be the official Soul Survivor festival. By the looks of things it will become an annual event.

Heather: Your fourth album, 'Intimacy', has just been released. What is the inspiration behind it?
Matt: In terms of the title I've been wanting to get the word intimacy into a song for ages just because we have such a high value of it at Soul Survivor in terms of coming closer to God through worship. But I didn't expect it to become the title of the song and especially not the title of an album! It's great though to blatantly have that value on the front cover of the album. There are lots of different inspirations and themes in all of the songs, but hopefully intimacy is a thread running through all of them. The biggest aim is to get some fresh worship songs out to the Church. I've never seen myself as an "artist", I'm a worship leader and doing an album is an extension of this in terms of putting some songs out that can be used by congregations and just seeing if anyone else wants to use them.

Heather: Can you articulate your relationship with God at the moment in regards to your music?
Matt: I find that music is a wonderful way of drawing near to God and worshipping him and communicating and expressing your devotion to him. The challenge for all of us though is never to become too consumed by the music to the point that you can lose your focus. In the end it's all about Jesus. God isn't looking at the outward appearance; he's looking at the heart.

For me, music is one of the main ways that I express myself to the Lord. When I write a song I'm always aware that I might end up using it in the Church, but initially it's between me and the Lord.

Heather: Your recent illness obviously was a bit of an unpleasant surprise. Tell me about that.
Matt: I had an acute form of tendonitis, my strumming arm and hand seized up. God has taught me a lot through it. Often people say it must be an attack from the Enemy. I don't know about that. All I know is that I feel strongly that God's allowed it. One reason is that it's good for me to have it all stripped away now and again. It's like the Lord strips away some things that you're leaning on and says where's your heart? He wants to examine you. I pray a lot, 'search me Lord and find if there's any offensive way in me.' It's been good for me to not be doing some stuff for a while and to be in that place that I was before I started playing. The Lord keeps calling me back to the heart of worship and saying 'come on, it's all about me.' It's all about Jesus.

Rather than saying why are you testing me, why this suffering, I'm saying 'Lord, I can really feel you in this and I'm so glad that you would treat me like a good Father would and you're disciplining me, like it says in Hebrews chapter 12.

Heather: What precisely is intimacy with God?
Matt: The most used word for worship in the New Testament is a Greek word proskuneo and it literally means 'to come towards to kiss'. Initially you think how can this be about God, it's not very reverent, but in fact it was used in that culture for when a hound would lick its master's hand. So you've got a picture of closeness and intimacy, but also a picture of reverence. All over the Bible the Lord is calling his people to an intimate relationship with him. For example, Jesus in John chapter 15 verse 15 says, 'I have called you friend.' But they are often accompanied by reverence as well. Intimacy is something God's been doing in the Church, calling his people to an intimate relationship and I wanted to tackle this head on by writing a song that is blatantly about this.

Heather: Following on from this, what have you learned is the heart of worship to God?
Matt: In the end the heart of worship is that worship is all about Jesus. Sometimes we can be guilty, and I have been on occasions, of making it a little too much about ourselves. What God's been teaching us at Soul Survivor Watford Church is that we're required to bring an offering of worship to him because he's worthy, nothing must stand in the way, not PA volumes, musical tastes, or whether we do or don't like a song. It's not about the music or how we're feeling, it's about Jesus. Worship is the whole of your life, but music is a very special way of worshipping the Lord, simply because the Lord's ordained it that way.

The Lord keeps revealing new aspects of worship. You think worship is one thing, but he keeps broadening it.

For example, I used to think that songs about intercession weren't worship and yet they are as it's a way of calling out for the honour of God's name and for the things that are on his heart.

Heather: The song "Now To Live The Life" is a statement about being a disciple. Tell me about that?
Matt: God's been showing us at Soul Survivor that worship and justice are inseparable. So many places in the Bible point to this in terms of you can't be singing one thing with your lips and then living another thing with your life. The Bible especially points to the way that you treat the poor and the way that you deal with the oppressed. In Amos chapter five verses 23 and 24, it says 'Away with the noise of your songs!...Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream!" And that's not because it's rubbish music, but because their lives aren't matching up. I don't want to find myself in that situation. "You were punished, you were crushed/But that punishment has become my peace," is a powerful line from the song "For The Cross".

Heather: Can you explain your understanding of this a bit more?
Matt: It's basically from Isaiah 53 which says, 'The punishment that brought us peace was upon him." I've tried to use a lot of the words from Isaiah 53 in the verses because I think they're so powerful. There are some really strong words in it like punished, oppressed, afflicted and rejected, so I tried to get in the song some of the brutal reality of what Jesus suffered on the cross.