This is our 2nd interview at Elim worship. This one is with Claire Hamilton, - Claire is involved in worship in Ireland
Kingsway music have recently released her debut EP "Lend Me Your Heart"
How did you start getting involved in musical worship?
I first got involved in musical worship as part of a discipleship training organization called ‘Exodus’ when I was in my late teens having already been taking piano and singing lessons since the age of 6. In 1999 I got involved in Causeway Coast Vineyard Church and started playing as a second keyboard player for Kathryn Scott. This was a fantastic opportunity where I was able to learn how to lead worship. I realized that my heart was bursting to worship and continued to expand in love for God and my community as I took part in musical worship. I then began leading worship at this Vineyard Church where I remained for 5 years before moving to Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast.
Tell us about your EP, “Lend Me Your Heart” the heartbeat behind it and what you hope it will achieve?
I hope that ‘Lend Me Your Heart’ will be a collection of songs that help connect us with God and His mission for us on earth. I hope the songs offer words that help people connect in the tougher times of life and I trust that they will urge us further on in our relationship with God in terms of turning the words of Isaiah 61 into our life goals.
It’s a privilege to think that people will meet with God as a result of the things He has put on my heart.
Your song “Breathe On Me” is a beautiful song. Can you tell us how you wrote this song and the inspiration behind it?
‘Breathe on me’ was written in June 2009. I was sitting at the piano one day and praying for a friend who was very ill. A number of months later, at the age of 29, my friend lost his life. I knew the family well and grieved with them 10 years before when my friend and their other son lost his life in a car accident. My friend’s experience was traumatic but I watched the real beauty of relationship with God unfold as he came to terms with, and joyfully expected, meeting Jesus long before he imagined he would.
In journeying this and previous painful experiences I wanted to express my commitment to God. I want to be the kind of person who has His praise on my lips no matter what I face; even in writing this I sense the incredible power in those words. I’ve always wanted to write songs that help give words of worship to those who are broken. I guess I was simply asking God to come in, dig around and draw out the praise that He is worthy of
What new songs apart from your own are you using at the moment?
At the moment I have been using ‘Our God’ and ‘Awakening’ from the latest Passion Album. I’ve been using these songs mainly in personal times of worship and slowly introducing my own songs to my local church. I’ve also been listening to a song called ‘Like Incense’ from the Hillsong Live album ‘A Beautiful Exchange’.
How do you approach putting together a Song List for an event or on a sunday morning?
Normally I contact the speaker for that morning and ask them what they will be focusing their sermon on and then I just let that sit with me for a few days. I may read the particular passage of scripture the sermon is based on or just sit down to worship and see what bubbles up. Once I have a few ideas for songs then I begin to rehearse them myself and more times than not I find myself moving into different songs and a sense of direction emerges. I then take it to the rehearsal and see how it works when I have a full band.
Can you give us one piece of advice for our worship leaders within the Elim movement?
One of the most helpful things that I have done in the past few years is work out what my values are. This might sound simple and obvious but knowing who I am and what I stand for has really helped me remain aligned to what I am best at and ultimately called to do.
And if I could offer a second, it would be to remember our place in the grand scheme of things; that our call is much greater than what we do in our church services but that we live lives worthy of that title i.e. lives that spill mercy on the poor and that treat the least as the most important.
Lend Me Your Heart
On Monday 16th August we are excited to release the highly anticipated digital EP from Claire Hamilton titled ‘Lend Me You Heart’. With her pop/rock worship style you are sure to see her strong desire for intimate worship through these
exceptional songs.
Claire Hamilton has been heavily involved in music for more than 11 years, beginning her musical journey under the
tutelage of Alan and Kathryn Scott (author of the songs ‘Hungry’ and ‘At the Foot of the Cross’). Following this time Claire joined the Johnny Parks Band (where she co-wrote a number of songs including ‘All is Well’ recently recorded by Robin Mark on his album ‘Year of Grace’). While with the Johnny Parks Band, Claire toured extensively, including a tour across Canada with Starfield and speaker Will Graham (Grandson of Billy Graham). In between these musical ventures, this Queens University (Belfast) music graduate has been teaching music at Grammar school and even married her guitar player! Claire has also shared the stage with the likes of Robin Mark, Bluetree, Rend Collective Experiment, Brian Houston and so many more.
Below Claire shares the story behind the songs from her debut release. ‘Lend Me Your Heart’ will be available from iTunes on Monday 16th August.
We Will Look to the Cross
In August of 2009 I turned up at church one morning carrying a feeling that I had much too much ‘stuff’ that I wasn’t
willing to let go of in order to worship freely. I think the Holy Spirit acts as a seal, to identify us as His and to protect us; if this seal is broken we become vulnerable to all sorts of things. I felt like I had grieved the Holy Spirit and felt as though He was grieving for me. He knows and feels the cost and pain that sin can cause and how we lose out on perfect
communion with God.
God spoke to me that Sunday morning and said, “don’t let anything obscure your view of the cross!” In view of God’s mercy I needed to get some things in order. I started to pen the words of this song as a way of re-focusing my heart and head on Jesus and the cross. Jesus has completely won my heart yet there are times in life when it seems that other people and other things have too much of my heart and attention. I need to keep coming back to the cross over and over again. In sacrificing for Jesus I know the freedom, power and acceptance that He gives. That is worth sacrificing for.
Lend Me Your Heart
There are times in my life where I reflect on the words in Amos: “Away with the noise of your songs!” and I feel led to ask God for mercy as I begin again to walk the road of bringing healing to the broken, and freedom to the captive.
This was the first song I had ever used in worship that I had written on my own. I was supporting Brenton Brown one evening in N.Ireland and thought I’d give it a go. The response and the intensity of God’s presence in the room blew me away. This song continues to stir and challenge people as they sing it and I hope the result is a deeper experience of God’s mercy and a compelling desire to spill that mercy on the poor. It is a request for God to lend us His heart and so transform us.
Breathe on Me
‘Breathe on me’ was written in June 2009. I was sitting at the piano one day and praying for a friend who was very ill. A number of months later, at the age of 29, my friend lost his life. I knew the family well and grieved with them 10 years
before when my friend and their other son lost his life in a car accident. My friend’s experience was traumatic but I watched the real beauty of relationship with God unfold as he came to terms with, and joyfully expected, meeting Jesus long before he imagined he would. In journeying this and previous painful experiences I wanted to express my
commitment to God. I want to be the kind of person who has His praise on my lips no matter what I face; even in writing this I sense the incredible power in those words. I’ve always wanted to write songs that help give words of worship to those who are broken. I guess I was simply asking God to come in, dig around and draw out the praise that He is worthy of.
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