Inside North Point

Eddie Kirkland is the Music Director and frequent worship leader at North Point Community Church. His new album, Here & Now, debuted at Catalyst earlier this month. Below Eddie explains the inspiration behind this new release.

Every once in a while I’ll hear a song and it really captivates me. There’s no logic to it, no formula or predictable pattern, but every once in a while something about a song - the melody, the musicality… something grabs my heart. Although I’ve never heard anything like it, I feel like it’s strangely familiar. It feels like someone expressed something that’s been inside me for a long time, but until then I never had the voice to say it.

In a way, that’s why I wanted to make this record. That’s why I want to make music, period. But it is specifically why I wanted to record the six songs on Here & Now. There’s always an artist part of me that wants to push the envelope a little bit and do things a little differently. I don’t want to just record another batch of worship songs that sound just like every other worship record out there, or that say the same things in the same way as every other worship song. I want to try and add something to the conversation - add something to the dialogue the church is having each week. I want to try and say something that’s been in my heart for a while, but to give it a voice for the first time.

This is a huge task, and if I’m not careful I get caught up in this and end up not writing “worship music” at all. I end up with a collection of artsy songs that most people don’t like or don’t listen to and no one can worship to but me. Instead, I wanted to take the music that we’ve been singing every week at North Point and take it one step further. My hope is that people will be able to relate to it, but also be challenged in a new way. That’s why you’ll hear songs that have different metaphors and even different instruments. I hope it can be a fresh collection of songs that express something people have wanted to express for a while.

For me, a lot of the ideas for this EP came together when I started reading a few books by NT Wright, specifically Simply Christian. I’m late to the NT Wright party, and the ideas he presents are not new at all, but for some reason they gripped me and I felt like my world began making sense. My view of God and the church suddenly became much clearer, and Scripture became much more invigorating. Over time, these ideas began to influence a few of the ideas in these songs. They became a way for me to express this newfound hope in the kingdom of God, a kingdom that is here, now, living and active in the world. A kingdom that will one day make everything new again.

I feel like these thoughts have been inside me all along. God sets eternity in the human heart (Ecc 3:11), and I think music specifically helps us tap into that. Music helps us realize tiny bits of what eternity truly means. These songs have done that for me, and hopefully they’ll do that for someone else as well.

Here & Now is available via iTunes and Eddie is available via Twitter (@EddieKirkland) or Facebook (/EddieKMusic).