Graham Kendrick connects between the old and new

Graham Kendrick has created a new video sharing with fans his passion for the creative process behind his music and the thinking behind his latest album, Worship Duets.

The album is out from Integrity on Tuesday and features collaborations with Paul Baloche and Stuart Townend.

Townend and Baloche feature in the video, as do Michael W Smith, Martin Smith, Rend Collective and Jon Egan.

Fans hear from them as they credit Kendrick for his influence on them as artists and his part in the wider development of worship music.

Graham Kendrick has been "a serious influence on our lives, the way we craft our worship songs", says Rend Collective's Chris Llewellyn.

"Graham's been a real father figure in our world for years and years," shares Martin Smith.  "He's kind of the granddaddy of worship songwriters."

Kendrick also explains in his own words the reason for worship and doing an album of duets.

"Generally when people are being creative in various ways, it's a sign that there's an overflow, that there's a stirring, that people are thinking, that people are using their gifts to express something is stirring within them," he says. 

"You could fill library shelves with theology of worship, but we love Him because He first loved us. We're just saying thank you in a thousand different ways."

On collaborating with others, not only does he see real benefit for his own writing development, but the building of a special bridge between younger and older generations of worship leaders.

"You always learn something when you write with somebody else ... and what I think we've got is a really interesting coalition between the old and the new."

Baloche talks about his collaboration with Kendrick, "He Is Risen", describing it as the kind of song he looks for as a worship pastor and "where they teach without sounding like they're teaching" and the congregation get an image of God "locked into their minds and locked into their hearts".

Watch the video here: