MercyMe Singer Bart Millard Talks New Song, ‘To Not Worship You’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian group MercyMe recently spoke about the inspiration behind their latest single, “To Not Worship You.”
“It all came about when we were hearing friends of ours and people going through this whole ‘deconstructing their faith’ [process] and it got us talking,” vocalist Bart Millard said.
He explained that it was something he hadn’t personally experienced, saying, “I’ve definitely kicked the tires of my faith and asked hard questions, but Truth remained Truth through all of that.”
Millard shared that the moments when he did struggle with his faith came when he was “so busy that I don’t slow down long enough to remember who God is and what He’s done and who I am because of that.”
The single “To Not Worship You” came out of conversations the band had about those moments of doubt and how they push through them.
“I think with this song, I better realize what being still and knowing that He is God means,” Millard told the Gospel Music Association. “A lot of times when we have doubt or we’re questioning stuff, I think ultimately it’s because we’re not stopping and remembering who God really is. When you take the time to remember who God is, then it’s easy to ask, ‘who are we to not worship him?’”
That theme of focusing on Jesus carries out throughout their 11th studio album, Always Only Jesus.
“This record is the songs that are hopefully pointing directly at Jesus and saying, this is the one thing that matters,” guitarist Michael John Scheuchzer told The Christian Post. “We can disagree about everything else in the world, but as believers, if we can come together and point to Him and agree on Him, then we can really see some change in the world.”
Movieguide® previously reported on MercyMe’s thoughts on the future of Christian music:
Having made Christian music for nearly thirty years, MercyMe has seen many changes in the industry. The type of music that Christian artists are making has also expanded and changed in a way that allows many people to worship who may have struggled to connect with Christian music in the past.
“[We’re] optimistic, that’s a good way to put it,” MercyMe’s Bassist, Nathan Cochran said when asked about the current state of the Christian music industry. “We have been doing this long enough to see some ups and downs, I guess, with how things have changed. For us, the greatest thing about it is the message is the same, of course, we have all sorts of different styles of music, but we’re all talking about Jesus. And that hasn’t changed; it’s what we need to keep doing.”
