Christian Artist Shares the Miracle That Inspired Her New Album
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian artist Amanda Cook is sharing her thoughts on the definition of worship music and what it was like to deconstruct her faith.
“What worship really is…it’s a response to something,” she said while appearing on the “Worship is My Weapon” podcast.
Cook continued, “You can’t consume what overtakes you, and…you can’t. It’s not up for consumption. All you can do is stand in front of it and be wowed.”
“When I think about that, mixed with the power of imagination in the human soul and what we’re actually talking about when we’re talking about the landscape of God and divine love, and we’re talking about the personhood of Jesus, the humanity of Jesus…we’re singing as a prayer. As a container for talking about the spaciousness of music,” she said. “The map, really, that’s how I’ve always looked at the landscape of where music and God intersect.”
Cook also spoke about deconstructing her faith, comparing it to a controlled burn on farmlands.
“Controlled burns yield a different result,” she explained. “As far as my focus is concerned. It’s on wanting to not let anything go to waste.”
Cook continued, “Jesus is with me. This is the promise. This is what the promise is: the with-ness of Jesus, the with-ness of everything that I am, everything that I face. I’m never going to have to be isolated in my own mind. That’s the promise of the Holy Spirit.”
Cook has previously spoken about her journey in the music industry. Her parents were both worship leaders, and she said that, from a young age, she “had to be a part of it.”
“It takes so much courage to step out and take a risk to sing out prophetically and requires us putting our whole hearts into it,” she told Cross Rhythms of the worship leader role. “If we haven’t developed trust and relationship with our leadership, we are going to feel very vulnerable and sensitive to any feedback that our leadership gives about those moments. If leaders are going to trust me and release me to lead their group of people, hopefully there is a relationship built way before that.”
Cook’s latest project, an EP titled SURVEY: Part 1, was born when the singer-songwriter attended a church service.
“It kinda sorta felt like a miracle to be there, and I started wondering if life is always a miracle that keeps miracling while I putter along and forget about it,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “All of my old religious ideas started re organizing themselves, if I squinted it seemed as though I could see tiny logs in the tiny flames of the tea lights, gently burning up and clearing the way for the presence of God to speak. I started thinking things like, oh, wow, oh, thank you, oh wow this changes everything, oh wow I feel free.”
