East meets West in Heart of God Church as we’re led in worship by Matt Redman and Stream of Praise (讚美之泉) – Worship truly transcends language and culture!
By: Sabrina C.
East meets West in Heart of God Church as we’re led in worship by Matt Redman and Stream of Praise – Worship truly transcends language and culture!
Both Matt Redman and Stream of Praise are household names to Christians. Matt Redman is a two-time Grammy award winner while Stream of Praise is a renowned worship ministry in the Mandarin-speaking world. More than their accolades, both carry the heart to lead people closer to God through worship music.
Matt Redman visited Heart Of God Church for the second time during our 20th Anniversary. We also had a sneak preview to “The Same Jesus” from his latest album. A music video was also filmed in our Church – his first time recording in Asia!
What was special about this visit by Matt Redman was the additional Q&A segment he had with our Senior Pastors, Pastor How Tan Seow How and Pastor Cecilia Chan, where we heard Matt Redman’s raw and candid thoughts from songwriting to Christian-living.
Now, time for our members to code-switch!
In Singapore, most of us learnt to converse in at least 2 languages – English and our Mother Tongue, one of which is Mandarin. As Stream of Praise (讚美之泉) led worship and sang classic Mandarin worship songs, many family zones in our Church, who have grown up in predominantly Mandarin-speaking households, felt like fish back in water.
“So glad that we get to grow up in a bilingual society in Singapore. It’s one of the times I’m grateful I learnt both English and Mandarin so that I could worship in both languages!”
Not only does Stream of Praise’s (讚美之泉) worship impact the family zones, they also impacted many of our young people! A youth shared, “Even though I don’t fully understand the Mandarin words, somehow I could still feel the strong Presence of God!”
The same thick Presence of God we experienced while Matt Redman led us in worship in English, was also felt as strongly when Stream of Praise (讚美之泉) led us in Mandarin too!
All in all, we’re so thankful to have had both Matt Redman & Stream of Praise with us! Can’t wait to have more of them in the future in HOGC!