Interview with Stuart Townend

Stuart Townend is known and respected internationally for his songwriting and worship leading. He regularly leads worship at Church of Christ the King, Brighton, UK. Dave Fellingham caught up with Stuart to find out more about the man behind the music.

DF: Stuart, tell us a little about your childhood and how you became a Christian.

ST: I was born in Edinburgh, and brought up in West Yorkshire, the youngest of four boys, and the son of a Church of the Nazarene pastor who became an Anglican minister – so I had a varied church background!

As you might guess, church was a major part of our family life (including 2 services plus Sunday School every Sunday!), but as committed Christians my parents always made it clear that a personal faith and relationship with God was what mattered, not just church activities.

So, despite the fact that at the age of 5 I used to hold domestic preaching services at our house that the rest of the family had to attend – much to the annoyance of my brothers – it wasn’t until I was about 13 that I realised that spiritually I was ‘on the outside looking in’, so to speak, and I gave my life to Christ.

DF: When did you first start showing signs of your musical ability?

ST: Music was always in the family: whether it was my Dad singing and playing the piano accordion, or my brothers and me massacring Beatles songs together.

I think we all had an inherent musical ability which I took for granted (and which I see now in my kids), and which I only now realise doesn’t come naturally to everyone. That’s why I’d make a terrible music teacher – I assume everyone should be able to ‘hear it then play it’.

DF: What are your early musical influences?

ST: Aside from the Beatles songbook which was always by the piano, in my early years I was into David Bowie in a big way, then got into traditional Irish music, then Bob Dylan, then Stevie Wonder, then Jethro Tull, then Pat Matheny … I was a musical butterfly, really into one thing for a while, then flitting to something else.

There was some Christian music around, but I didn’t think it was very good! The only exception to that was the black gospel music of Andrae Crouch. Aside from the amazing sense of worship those recordings carried which I’d never experienced before (this was before I’d even heard of the charismatic movement), his piano playing was incredible, and I spent hours trying (in vain) to play like him. But that gospel style of playing has continued to be something I aspire to.

I was also having piano lessons for most of my childhood, and through that exposed to quite a lot of classical piano music – all of which I hated until I was about 15 and discovered Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Chopin, and found there was an emotional light and shade in that music I hadn’t really found before in music. I still hate Beethoven and Chopin, though … mainly because they are too difficult to play.

DF: Have you ever had to handle a crisis of faith in your life?

ST: Coming down to Brighton to study was a big challenge for me, initially on a social level, but subsequently spiritually as well. I was a pretty sheltered child who had never lived away from home, and the ‘bright lights’ of university life were pretty dazzling.

Like many kids brought up in a Christian environment, the lifestyle of the hedonistic non-Christian seems mysterious and quite exciting, and in the back of your mind you wonder whether a) that kind of lifestyle is really as hollow and unsatisfying as you’ve been brought up to believe and b) God will disappear if you turn your back on Him.

A year at an American university followed, where I drifted spiritually, but nevertheless I found that God was still undeniably, absolutely still there, however much I tried to ignore Him. And doing your own thing might be fun for a while, but never delivers what it promises, and can actually begin to mess up your life. Thankfully, God rescued me before things got out of hand.

Then about a year after that my Dad died suddenly, and although that caused a pain inside that will probably never go away completely, it never led me to doubt the existence of God or His love for me.

DF: You are an accomplished pianist and guitarist. Do you enjoy playing one rather than the other?

ST: I love having a choice! Guitar is great for exploring sounds and rhythms in a more rocky or bluesy way; piano is great for exploring chord progressions and voicings.

DF: When did you start to get involved in worship?

ST: I’d never been particularly interested in worship, but during my year on the New Life Team (now called Frontier Team?) I had a presentation to prepare, and had rather randomly (and foolishly, I felt) chosen the topic of worship. And as I frantically ‘crammed’ the night before the presentation, I felt God open my eyes to the wonder and calling of worship.

DF: What was your first worship song?

ST: I think it was Lord How Majestic You Are in 1990. Before that I’d just written performance songs.

DF: How did your worship leading develop?

ST: Dave, you were my main inspirer, role model and encourager! I was fortunate enough to be in your band, and also to play with people like Graham Kendrick and Bryn Haworth, and so got to see firsthand how character, skills and anointing combine to equip someone to lead.

As time went on, you encouraged me more and more to co-lead with you, and as a result doors began to open to lead more and more on my own, and I suppose I grew into the role of worship leader. It certainly wasn’t a career choice! It just seemed to fall into place as one door after another opened.

DF: What motivates you now to write worship songs?

ST: Of the various things I’m involved in, songwriting is probably the one I feel most passionate about, and the one for which I feel the greatest calling. Songs have such an important role to play. They help us paint a wonderful picture of the character of God in our worship, they give us words and music to express our response to this picture, but they also deposit something in our lives that goes beyond worship times and meetings.

It has been said that more people learn their theology through songs than through sermons and books and, given the reach and enduring nature of songs, it’s probably true. With this in mind, I am motivated to help plant truth in people’s minds and hearts that will help them to walk in the light of the truth of the gospel.

DF: Your songs are rich in content What has shaped your theology?

ST: Aside from my upbringing, during which I was steeped in the Scriptures, CCK in Brighton has provided a steady diet of brilliant biblical teaching, which has inspired me on countless occasions to write songs. In particular, Terry’s preaching on grace has had a profound effect on me and I find that grace message popping up in one way or another in most of the songs I write!

The emphasis within Newfrontiers of ‘the big picture’ of God’s purposes has also been very influential. I find that even when I’m writing a song about individual renewal or personal devotion, it’s important to set it into context. God’s touch on our lives is not just about personal gratification, but about Him building His church for the establishing of His kingdom.

DF: How important is a song’s content in congregational worship?

ST: I think it’s really important we feed our minds the truth about God. The Bible encourages us to meditate, to consider, to declare … and without that we tend to focus on ourselves – our feelings, our desires – and worship becomes self-serving rather than God-glorifying.

It’s a pretty awesome responsibility to be putting words in the mouths of thousands of people through a song you’ve written! So I tend to try and make sure that what I’ve written is true, clear and meaningful.

DF: How important is musical style and melody?

ST: Despite what I’ve said about lyrical content, it would be a mistake to think that music is simply a vehicle for words. Music is a profound part of our humanity. It is found in every known culture, past and present, and according to the Bible is part of the culture of heaven, too!

Music touches us at a deep level that words often can’t reach, affecting our emotional, even our spiritual wellbeing – look at how David’s music affected Saul’s spiritual state – and God can use it powerfully to reveal, say, His love towards us or His passion for the lost in ways that words can’t express.

So when a beautiful, soaring melody combines with profound, poetic words, it engages our spirits and our minds in worship, and the effect can be pretty amazing!

DF:  In Christ Alone was voted into the top ten hymns on Songs Of Praise. Can you tell us how it came to be written?

ST: It came about in a rather unusual way. Before then I had never done any co-writing. But I was introduced through a mutual friend to a man called Keith Getty, who I had heard was a terrific melody writer. We met up for a coffee at a conference, and he promised to send me a CD of song ideas.

I didn’t really think any more about it. Then a CD arrived in the post containing three song ideas played on a piano. I didn’t get past the first melody, because I was so taken with it – it was quite hymn-like, but with a beautiful celtic lilt – I immediately started writing down some lines on the life of Christ. Within a couple of days I had the whole lyric, sent it to Keith, he suggested a couple of changes, and In Christ Alone was finished.

That was the start of a very fruitful writing partnership with Keith. I think it’s quite amusing that God would bring the two of us together – we are very different personalities, from very different musical and church backgrounds. But we share a passion to feed the church with the wonderful truths of God through song, and that seems to have found a resonance in the hearts of Christians across many countries and denominations. And through it Caroline and I have become really good friends with Keith and his wife Kristyn.

DF: The Power Of The Cross is also being sung widely. With the many songs in our hymnology on this theme what motivated you to write this one?

ST: I think there is a real lack of narrative songs in the church’s repertoire, songs that actually ‘tell the story’ rather than focus on our response, songs that are rooted in extraordinary fact rather than personal emotion, songs that even unbelievers can sing, because they deal with objective truth. The cross is not just a wonderful concept – it’s a glorious historical fact, with implications for the whole of human history!

So we wanted to write a song on the cross that dwelt on the events of that Good Friday, setting the scene and describing the progression of events: walking through each stage of Christ’s suffering; seeing the skies darken, the curtain of the temple rip in two, the dead raised to life; the cry of ‘it is finished’ – and then only applying the significance of it to our own lives at the end of the song. And when we see the events unfold, the suffering, the cost to Christ of taking our sin, I think it actually heightens our response of worship.

We’ve tried to take a more ‘narrative’ approach in a few other songs, too: See What A Morning, describing the Easter Sunday, and Joy Has Dawned on the birth of Christ, for example. But there are so many more possibilities. What about Gethsemane? Christ’s temptations in the wilderness? Or even some of the Old Testament stories? Should we not be singing stories of God’s faithfulness and salvation, just as God’s people did in the Old Testament?

DF: What are your hopes and aspirations for worship in the contemporary church?

ST: I am really encouraged that worship is valued so highly in the church today. I am also pleased that the standard and range of lyric writing seems to be on the up – people aren’t settling for a few well-worn phrases in their songs any more.

I think we still have a lot of work to do, crafting the expression of eternal truths in powerful, poetic language, and continuing the long folk music tradition of telling stories through song.

But I also think as songwriters we need to get to grips with what it really means to worship God in spirit and truth. If people are really learning what God is like largely through our songs, how thorough a picture of God’s character are we painting through those songs?