Brenton Brown: A new story

|PIC1|There’s a long list of reasons why Brenton Brown’s latest album – the staggeringly good ‘Adoration’ – will capture hearts and minds.

Momentum is somewhere up there: with an ASCAP for his song writing, as well as numerous other awards and songs riding high in the CCLI (five of them in the top 100, including Lord Reign In Me, (Hosanna) Praise Is Rising, Your Love Is Amazing and Everlasting God), Brenton’s songs are touching the church the world over these days.

And then there’s the back story. Struck down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Brenton – as well as his wife – felt that their life was at an end. Both exhausted, their dreams all but evaporated, yet God was true, God was constant.

Out of the torpor came those words and that soaring melody that have kept the faith of millions from growingpale:

‘You are the everlasting God,
The everlasting God,
You do not faint
You won’t grow weary.
You're the defender of the weak, you comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles...’

The Brenton Brown story does not end there. A couple of years later, Brenton and his wife Jude were anticipating the birth of Grace, their first daughter. Yet at nine months she died in the womb, leaving Jude to go through the horror of delivering her naturally.

Out of the grief and the pain came a new song - ‘Adoration’ - one soaked in what can only be described as God’s eternal truth.

“I remember thinking ‘This is too much’ and wondering if we'd ever recover as a family. Oftentimes I thought this was too heavy for God—that we were not going to heal from this,” Brenton says. “But He managed to carry the weight. He can bear the weight of every heavy heart. He can turn our tears into songs of praise. And that’s a reason to worship with full abandon.”

But it’s not the bio any more than it is the buzz that will see Brenton’s album connect with Christians the world over. What will do it will be the simplest of things: truth.

At the core of all he does – touring and song writing, battling still with CFS and living with the grief of a daughter whose life was stopped before it could fully begin - Brenton holds fast to the truth of who God is. ‘Adoration’ expresses that with undeniable clarity:

“Just singing this song was an act of faith. Jude and I felt incredibly empty and in so much pain, but we recognise that everything we need—and all that we love — is found in God, even our little girl that we lost,” Brenton says. “We get to sense some of that in worship when we experience His presence and the hope and joy of what’s to come. We taste a little bit of the kingdom of God.”

Survivor Records will release 'Adoration' all across Europe as well as North America – a first for them. Full of songs that harness the integrity of personal struggles with the insight of a profoundly inspirational relationship with God, this album is, quite simply, true.

This album will be released 18 January.