29th March, 2005

DAVID ADAMS and JUSTIN MICHAEL

His songs have been sung by tens of thousands in church congregations across the globe and recorded by artists such as Michael W. Smith and Robin Mark. But 29-year-old songwriter and performer Reuben Morgan sometimes still gets nervous before getting out on stage.

“(E)specially if you haven’t been to the church before,” he says.

“I had this pile of ideas that weren’t for congregations…and I knew that one day I would have to do something with them. The aim was to create a worship experience that is not only geared towards congregations singing. I guess this is just slightly different and allows for different kind of creative license. It was a fun thing to do, and I do feel like I kinda got something off my chest you know?” - Reuben Morgan on the release of his debut solo album, 'World Through Your Eyes'

Referring to a recent worship night in Victoria he says: “I was kinda, all nervous the two hours beforehand, but once it all gets going, you click into the music and the atmosphere and everyone’s singing and it all changes and it’s like, ‘this is it’.”

Now in his 11th year with Hillsong Church in Sydney where, as a pastor, he has played a key role in the world-renowned worship team, Morgan is one of the most prominent Christian song-writers on the face of the earth today, having written a swag of songs including My Redeemer Lives, I Give You My Heart, You Said and Touching Heaven, Changing Earth.

Yet change is in the air for Morgan. He’s recently been travelling to churches around the country and performing at worship nights with a stripped-down four piece band. While he’s been performing at conferences and other events for some years now, Morgan says that this time it’s a slightly different approach.

“We’re saying we want to partner with churches and do an event in your region...rather than coming to an event somebody else is putting on,” he says.

“Probably the only difference is that we’ve been more proactive in it. It’s just something that’s been on my heart for a while. We just want to bring people together and worship, you know?”

The move comes in the wake of the release of his debut solo album last year. Titled World Through Your Eyes, the rock-based album has been well-received since its release last November.

“The whole deal behind (the solo album was that) for the last seven, eight years I’ve been writing songs for congregations and stuff,” says Morgan.

“I had this pile of ideas that weren’t for congregations…and I knew that one day I would have to do something with them. The aim was to create a worship experience that is not only geared towards congregations singing. I guess this is just slightly different and allows for different kind of creative license. It was a fun thing to do, and I do feel like I kinda got something off my chest you know?”

Born in Australia in 1975, until the age of 10 Morgan lived in Papua New Guinea where his father ran a business in the town of Madang and his mother taught in a teacher’s college (his parents are now back there as missionaries).

He has no doubt his time in New Guinea helped to shape the rest of his life.

“The time when we were there, New Guinea - evangelical-wise - was just exploding,” he recalls. “Amazing things were happening.”

Morgan says that the experience of living in New Guinea - away from Western culture - helped to shape his view on life and helped to spark his interest in music.

“New Guineans just love to sing. They love worship and so I think that heritage is really rich in me. We used to have these massive long services and they’d be no accompaniment or anything - just New Guinean voices in three or four part harmonies just belting out these old hymns. I guess that stuff just sticks with you - The Power in the Blood, songs like that.”

Morgan started writing songs while he was still in primary school but it was the guitar that initially became a “consuming passion”.

Finishing highschool in Melbourne in 1994 (after first taking a year off before Year 11 during which he would practice his guitar up to 15 hours a day) he went to Sydney to study jazz guitar at the Australian Institute of Music.

“I didn’t know where I would take it but I just wanted to be a really good guitarist and that’s pretty well where it ended for me as far as what I wanted to do,” he says.

Reuben Morgan, his wife Sarah and two-year-old son Jones. "I feel like it’s been a real training time. I feel like I’m just kind of starting really now. As a songwriter, I’m learning and there’s just so much more to do, so much more to write about and so many songs to be sung. It’s just the beginning.” - Reuben Morgan on his 10 year season at Hillsong.

It was while studying that Hillsong became his home church. Morgan says he never thought he would end up writing Christian worship songs and certainly never imagined himself becoming a pastor at the church.

“I saw myself as a bit more of a guitarist than a writer. But when I came to Hillsong Church I was going to meetings and experienced the presence of God and the songs, the new songs coming out - I was just so inspired by that environment. I just remember walking out of church with melodies in my head...I just thought ‘Man, it would be really cool to write some worship songs. And I just started doing it, never really thinking what would follow...”

While he’s been with Hillsong for 10 years now, Morgan says he still feels like he’s just starting out.

“I know it has been quite a long season - a 10 year season - but I feel like it’s been a real training time. I’ve really been under Darlene and...helping with the team and doing (youth praise and worship band Hillsong) United which was something she wanted me to do. So I feel like it’s been a real training time. I feel like I’m just kind of starting really now. As a songwriter, I’m learning and there’s just so much more to do, so much more to write about and so many songs to be sung. It’s just the beginning.”

Morgan says he and his wife of four years Sarah (who now have a two-year-old son Jones) also have a “real heart for missions” - something he is hoping to explore further along with his singing and song-writing.

To that end, they recently starting sponsoring an orphanage for infants in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“It’s basically an orphanage for HIV (positive) babies and abandoned babies and they really work at getting them adopted out,” he says.

Morgan says that while much is changing in his life, he remains “more submitted” to the leadership at Hillsong Church than ever.

“I’m such a believer in being under an eldership, being under authority, being under a pastor who you’re submitted to and from out of that place, there’s full-on fruitfulness. I think that’s the only place really where people should do their ministering from.”

~ Reuben Morgan's official website - www.fivelines.com