About Me
For someone who now considers himself a worship leader above all else,nine years ago Bryan Brown sure didn’t want anyone telling him that waswhat he’d end up doing.
Bryan grew up just going through the motions in church.“Nothing that was said or done on Sunday ever connected with my heart,”he remembers. “But one day this woman approached me out of nowhere andsaid, ‘I want to tell you I think you’re going to be a worship leadersome day,’” recalls the 27-year old Missouri-born, Nashville, Tenn.transplant. “For some reason it really bothered me when she said that.I remember thinking, ‘That woman is out of her mind. I’ll never dothat. I don’t even like worship music.”
In his teenage years, playing guitar—especially songs from theBeatles’ White Album—became a favorite pastime, but Bryan had alreadydecided on what to do after graduating high school. With a plan to stayin his current record store job, the store suddenly shut down withoutwarning. Plan B was to move to Chicago where his friends were, but thatwasn’t meant to be either. That was because he had a powerful dreamabout Christ’s return to the earth – and it shook him to the core andchanged everything.
“I felt as if my heart was turned inside out,” he marvels. “Before thatnight, all I ever wanted to do was drink, mess around with drugs, wastetime with my friends and basically live an existence seeminglyindependent from God. After that dream, all I wanted was Jesus. Iwanted to talk about Him, read about Him, and live everyday with Him.”
Bryan dove into serving in a church, working with the worshipleader and absorbing everything he could, all the while feeling agrowing desire to lead worship himself.
“I remember sitting in the church office and getting this incrediblevision of this sea of people worshiping God together,” he says. “Thecrazy part was that I was leading the song. You have to understand, atthis point in my life I had barely even sung in front of anyone, muchless led worship. In that moment I thought, ‘I don’t know how, but I’mgoing to be worship leader.’” Two years later, he led for the veryfirst time at a college group.
Over the past seven years, Bryan has served three churches asworship leader, previously Christian Fellowship and The Crossing—bothin Columbia, Missouri—and now West End Community Church in Nashville.He’s also come into his own as a songwriter and recorded two albums.His 2004 debut, Sing, (released by Integrity Europe) has an affectingrawness and immediacy, because he recorded it with his brotherChristopher in their parents’ basement. Stephen Gause (Downhere, NathanAngelo, Laura Story) produced Bryan’s new album, Shine, an epic ebb andflow laced with regally ringing guitars and anthemic choruses.
Bryan has a clear vision for his songwriting. “I want to writeand sing these songs in a way that others can sing along,” he explains.“Through that, I want people’s emotions to be raised by the melody andby the truth they are singing. My job at that point is to direct thosefeelings and affections to where they belong. Not to me, or a band, ora stage, but to God.”
Renowned UK-based worship leader, songwriter and author MattRedman profoundly shaped Bryan’s God-centered perspective on worshipleading. “More than anything, I’m just in awe of his humility,” saysBryan. “He’s probably written some of the most recognizable andpowerful songs the church has ever sung [“Heart of Worship,” “OnceAgain” and “Blessed Be Your Name,” just to name a few], yet he remainscompletely humble in what he is doing.”
Bryan’s vision for elevating people’s hearts and guiding theireyes upward is at the core of Shine. The eleven songs are a worshipexperience from start to finish, with accessible lyrics andexhilarating, ascending melodies, leading from the opening invitationto a deeply intimate moment before God. “Even the opening line of thealbum [‘As we worship you today’] is a call to worship,” says Bryan. “Ithought about it a lot, because I want it to be an experience all theway through.”
The title track—inspired by Numbers 6:24-26—opens the albumwith an earnest prayer set to steadily pulsing piano and a swoopingbass line and overlaid with shimmering guitars. Three tracks latercomes the reflective “It’s Your Love,” which draws from a scriptureBryan finds particularly captivating: Psalm 63:3. “‘Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise you’—that’s the gistof it,” he says. “David was fleeing for his life in that moment. Hisdesire to live was less than his desire for the love of God. One daywhen I was reading that I was just stuck there. That is a hugestatement.”
The journey through the second half of Shine arrives atBryan’s meditations on his humble position in relation to God. “Anytime I’m able to put those things back to back, I connect with it whenI’m singing it, because I see my nothingness in the light of God’sglory and how because of Christ I am not nothing anymore.” That idea isat the heart of both the gliding, melodically rich “Great I Am” and thealbum closer, “Nothing,” a reverent track that slowly builds to anurgent pitch. By the time the final note fades, the listener isenveloped in a feeling of deep need for God.
Considering that Bryan Brown once thought it was impossiblethat he’d ever devote himself to merging uplifting melodies andGod-centered truths—and that that’s exactly what he’s done on Shine—having to “eat his words” wasn’t a bad thing at all.
www.bryanbrownmusic.com
