Although he’s always loved music, becoming a worship leader was never on Brenton Brown’s proverbial to-do list. But when the church he attended a couple of months after dedicating his life to Christ didn’t have anyone for the job, Brenton stepped in to fill a need in the congregation—even if he barely made it through the chord changes.
    Now, several years after his crash course in worship leading, Brenton’s songs are being sung by millions in congregations all around the world.  With five of his songs on CCLI’s Top 100 chart, his music is also being played in concert venues and spinned on albums by a diverse and acclaimed group of recordings artists, such as Chris Tomlin, Rebecca St. James, Lincoln Brewster and Flyleaf’s Lacey Mosely.
    And really, no one is more surprised about his music’s connection with the masses than Brenton himself. Growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, pursuing music wasn’t exactly the obvious choice. In fact, Brenton says his parents were thrilled when he got accepted at a local university, where he studied politics and law.
“My dad and mom grew up reasonably poor, so they were happy when I got in,” Brenton says. “Certainly in the world we lived in, kids wanted to have a successful profession, and there were basically three options—accounting, medicine and the law. But to quote Michael W. Smith, my secret ambition was somehow to become a musician. In Cape Town, that seemed so far-fetched, so I didn’t harbor enormous hope that it would happen.”
Putting his musical thoughts on the backburner, Brenton pursued academia and his new faith, which began during a Bible study where he was “confronted by the power of the Gospel,” with fervor. In the end, Brenton’s studies went so well that he was offered an opportunity to attend Oxford University in England as a Rhodes scholar.
    In yet another instance of God working in mysterious ways, there was definitely more than studying on the horizon for Brenton in England. While working on his political, philosophical and theological coursework, Brenton was introduced to a new style of worship spearheaded by the Vineyard Church and eventually participated in the movement’s first recordings, led by worship leader Brian Doerksen. During that time is when he first came to the attention of the wider church as one of the young worship leaders on the first Vineyard UK recordings, Come Now Is The Time and Hungry, which launched such well-known Brenton Brown anthems as  “Lord Reign In Me,” “Those Who Are Thirsty” and “Humble King.”
    “It was an incredible privilege to worship and record with such an amazing and large group of not only talented, but also wonderfully inspiring followers of Jesus.”
    Proving more than just a passing interest, worship continued to permeate Brenton’s life and work, even after wrapping up his academic career in Oxford and recording sessions with Brian. After graduation, Brenton began working as a worship pastor in Oxford and later, accepted a leadership role within the Vineyard movement in the United Kingdom.
    A natural storyteller, something Brenton found that worked well when simply reading scripture didn’t at the Sunday night nightclub outreach he led in Oxford, Brenton discovered that for better or worse, the tough academic regimen really helped shape his songwriting and ministry.
“I learned how to simplify an argument. The nature of a song, just because of its form, doesn’t leave a lot of room to make an argument,” Brenton shares. “You basically have just over a hundred words to make a point or pray a prayer. That’s what you’re doing. So it seemed like the best way to do it is to make one point instead of three. Obviously Jesus does this all the time in the Gospels, while using very simple words, and we got it. So that’s the standard you shoot for.”
    However, just as Brenton was finding his rhythm while working within the Vineyard movement, his life took a dramatic turn when he was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In order to regain his health, Brenton was forced to take a sabbatical from his worship pastor position and eventually returned to Cape Town, where he married his wife of six years, Jude, who was also suffering from CFS.
With limited resources health-wise, he didn’t have the energy for much career-wise. But Brenton still continued to put pen to paper and wrote praise songs including “Hosanna (Praise is Rising)” and “Everlasting God,” an anthem that was a particularly meaningful reminder of God’s faithfulness during the struggle with CFS.
Interestingly enough, the first lines to “Everlasting God” came together two years before on a rather late Friday night of worship and prayer. Exhausted after a long week and a really long drive to a weekend retreat center, Brenton couldn’t get these simple words out of his head as the team played rhythms on a hand drum and offered prayers to God: “Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.”
Two years later, that short but powerful refrain came back to Brenton as he wrote songs with a friend in London. “It was a few months and a lot of time spent thinking on Isaiah before we were satisfied with the chorus,” he recalls. “Isaiah 40 basically says: ‘Don't think that God has forgotten you, or that he is unable to save you. Flowers fade, and grass withers —and we fade and wither with them. But God does not grow faint. He won't grow weary. He is everlasting. And He is watching us, giving strength to the weary and the weak. Those who wait on this God will not be disappointed.’”
A change of pace and lifestyle was also considered to further assist their recovery.     Reluctantly leaving London and their beloved home church, Holy Trinity Brompton, The Brown family made their way to Malibu, California, a place Brenton had visited many times after the Malibu Vineyard team stopped by Cape Town many years before.
    Continuing to make his home in California with Jude and his one-year-old daughter Bella and leading worship in churches worldwide, fans of worship music will have the opportunity to get acquainted with Brenton’s best work of past and present on Introducing Brenton Brown.
Featuring four familiar tracks (“Everlasting God,” “Lord Reign in Me,” “Your Love is Amazing” and “Hosanna (Praise is Rising)” and two brand new tracks (“Adoration” and “Amazing God,” the album was born out of Benton’s heart of worship in the midst of his colorful life experiences—the good, the heart-wrenching and everything in between.
    Falling under that heart-wrenching category is “Adoration,” the album’s first radio single. While reading Eugene Peterson’s book Reversed Thunder, an exposition on the book of Revelation, Brenton was inspired by what Peterson shared about worship vis-a-vie the text in Revelation.
    “Eugene talked about how Revelation is basically the last words, certainly in the canon of the Scripture on so many topics,” Brenton says. “It’s the last word on community. The last word on mission. And the last word on worship in a chapter that really impacted me. There’s not a lot of New Testament scriptures on the kind of worship that we’re doing in a large part of our Sunday morning services these days. So this was encouraging.”
    In the middle of this theological examination, Brenton’s family was going through a very difficult time, causing those reflections to take on an even heavier meaning for Brenton.
    A few years before, Brenton’s wife was pregnant with the couple’s first daughter. It had been a healthy, normal pregnancy up until a couple of days before Jude’s due date. But one afternoon, Jude hadn’t felt Grace, the name they’d already chosen for their daughter, move and began to worry.
    After having a sonogram at a nearby hospital, the couple’s worst fears were confirmed. When no heartbeat was found, tests revealed that their beloved baby had passed away the night before. “It wasn’t even sadness, it was absolute horror,” Brenton shares. “And my heart was just breaking for Jude because she was going to have to go through a natural delivery anyway. But she did really amazing, and we got to see little Gracie. She was healthy in every other way, but her heart had just stopped beating.”
    Brenton says the support of his home church was a tremendous blessing in this dark time. “Our friends were amazing, and they were there waiting for us,” Brenton remembers. “We all held her and got a good look at her, then offered up a doxology, said a prayer of thanks for her and committed her to the Lord. And then we said goodbye.”
    Describing the pain as “impossible to navigate” the couple was surprised to discover that Jude was expecting again not long after Gracie’s death.
    “The next nine months were really filled with a lot of terror for us. But I can’t believe how my wife handled it,” Brenton says. “She’s exceptionally strong, and just amazing.” And when Bella eventually arrived, safe and sound, Brenton couldn’t have been happier. “We made it through that pregnancy and the delivery without falling apart,” he continues. “The Lord carried us.”
    The idea of keeping your eyes on the Lord and setting our sights on the hope we have in Him, no matter the circumstance, is what ultimately inspired “Adoration.”
    “Just being able to sing this song was an act of faith. We felt incredibly empty and in so much pain, but we recognize 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.”
    That theme of total surrender to God, and His hope-giving power also resonates in the moving strains of “Amazing God.”
    “I remember thinking ‘This is too much’ and wondering if we'd ever recover as a family. It felt like the weight of this was too heavy. Oftentimes I thought this was too heavy for God—that we were not going to heal from this,” Brenton shares. “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 I don’t know how He does what He does, but it's extraordinary. He does it for people all over the world. He carries the weight of this life and brings us through these difficulties somehow. And that’s a reason to worship with full abandon.”