Following four critically acclaimed projects, the Franklin, Tenn.-based worship duo All Sons & Daughters released its first live, full-length recording, LIVE, April 23 from Integrity Music. Recorded in the chapel at Oceanway Studios in Nashville, LIVE features members Leslie Jordan and David Leonard sharing their best-loved songs, such as "All The Poor and Powerless" and "Reason to Sing," as well as new songs, all delivered in a congregationally-friendly, organic worship setting. Their songs focus squarely on Jesus while embracing the tension of the Christian walk.

 

As worship leaders at Franklin's The Journey Church, All Sons & Daughters see their music as an extension of their church. They are known for writing songs that focus squarely on Jesus while embracing the tension of the Christian walk. Leslie shares that on LIVE, like at their events, the duo strives to balance corporate and very personal, intimate moments of worship: "Our main goal is to create this space where people can come and engage with God, and we kind of get out of the way. There's a level of intentionality to everything we do. We really strive to make things as beautiful and appealing as we would want them to be."

 

I had the great opportunity to interview David Leonard and Leslie Jordan about "Called Me Higher" from The Longing and LIVE.

 

Leslie: It's actually kind of crazy. We were talking through it today, and the song has really taken on an even deeper meaning for us. When I wrote the song a few years ago, I had just come out of a really dry season spiritually. I wasn't digging in and I wasn't experiencing God on a level of what I knew of Him. "Called Me Higher" came out of a place of feeling stuck spiritually and wanting to move closer to God. I knew that was what needed to happen, but I was having difficulty taking those steps. In that season when I wrote the song, I was just coming out of that "stuck" season, and realizing that there will always be a desire to dig deeper and to know more. We were talking with our creative arts pastor about the intentionality of writing music that is deep-seated in Scripture and in Truth. This song is more of a longing for that, rather than a proclamation of that Truth, if that makes sense. I'm saying, "God I know this is what You want, and You've called me to it, and I'm going to do what You want me to do, and go where You want me to go."

 

Leslie: It's been really interesting, and it's even challenging me now. I think it could be easy to get comfortable. I could say this is what I know, but not challenge myself or be challenged by the Spirit of God to go deeper. It has taken on a different life, and when we play it during our nights of worship, it's in the middle section where we sing about being OK with questioning God. It's this really sweet moment where we say, I could just sit, I can be completely safe to just wait for what I know about God. Actually we know that God's called us to a greater purpose and a greater knowledge of Him and a deeper Truth. It's been really sweet the nights that we've led the song.

 

Psalm 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path."
 

...Isaiah 6:8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said 'Here am I. Send me!'"

 

...and Hebrews 11:8: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going."

 

David: We're not trying to sway emotions. We are really trying to tell a story and move people through a progression from brokenness to grace, to finding freedom. Leslie and I have found true life in community and being able to ask these questions about our faith. A lot of times in worship music, we try to limit our distractions and rather than tell people where they need to go, allow them to feel the freedom to dig in with God the way that He's calling them, and He's leading. We're trying to really be careful with what we're putting out there and what we're saying and not trying to create a hype or a feeling, but really basing our songs on biblical truth. In life, that's where we have to be.

We can't be swayed by feelings, like a camp experience. Not that those are wrong, but we need to take those experiences and ground them in Truth and in who God is. Then we can sustain those moments. Being swayed by our emotions won't last long, because there will be things in our lives that will cause us to come off those high moments. God calls us to and designed us to have those moments and those feelings. At the same time, we have to stay grounded and rooted in what we know is true—God and His Word.

 

 

"Called Me Higher" connects to my favorite passage of the Bible and my life verse, Isaiah 6:8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said "Here am I. Send me!" which stirs me to answer my calling as a Christian to do God's will. 

 

To me one of the beautiful things about the Gospel of Christ is that we come with nothing to offer. I take a lesson from Moses' pride, when God asked him to speak for the Israelites he doubted God's choice. He believed that his effectiveness in his calling was directly proportional to his skills and qualification.

 

But God has never asked anything more of anybody than to have faith, to walk through the doors that are open. In a word, to trust. To trust that He's got it under control. What an amazing God we serve who would reverse the most shameful and tragic things in our lives for the purpose of joy. The kind of joy that only comes in following the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I want the kind of faith which calls out through the darkness of our times, here's my life, here's my story, Here I am send me!

 

I am so moved by this idea of God asking me directly, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" and I consistently pray that I have the courage to say "Here I am, Lord send me" when God calls me. This song is a great prayer and answer to that calling from God: "You have called me higher / You have called me deeper / And I'll go where You will lead me Lord."

 

What is one area in your life you feel that God may be calling you to exercise faith even though you doubt your strength?

 

(You can listen to the song here.)