{"id":3115,"date":"2008-06-11T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-11T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/2008\/06\/interview-nathan-fellingham-on-the-theology-of-worship-songs\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T11:59:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T11:59:38","slug":"interview-nathan-fellingham-on-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/06\/interview-nathan-fellingham-on-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW – Nathan Fellingham on the Theology of Worship Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday in my interview with Nathan we spoke about writing songs for worship<\/a>. Today we will move on to talk about the theological thinking behind the songs.<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
It\u2019s actually quite interesting, because already from talking to you, it\u2019s like your songs are so obviously full of theology\u2014I mean, that\u2019s coming across just in talking to you\u2014and I\u2019ve always felt like that in listening to them. They\u2019re also full of passion and kind of \u201creal life\u201d situations, I guess. And that combination, together with modern music, is actually quite rare. Where is that coming from? How do you have the sort of richness to be able to do that and still also be kind of \u201ccool\u201d?<\/p>\n

Actually, by the way, I must just say [this]\u2014I met some students last night (and actually you can listen on the blog<\/a>), and just at the end of our chat (we were talking about the Piper talk last night), right at the end I said, \u201cOh, and by the way, I was in the Phatfish gig!\u201d And they said, \u201cHey, that makes you really hip and young and with it,\u201d and I was thinking \u201cGreat! That\u2019s really cool!\u201d So you\u2019re still hip . . .<\/p>\n

Nathan
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>Yeah, that does surprise me. I had no idea we were still hip. I thought we were old and \u201chas been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Clearly you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
That\u2019s good, that\u2019s good!<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Anyway, I forgot what I wanted to ask you now. Do you remember?<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
It was kind of to do with how the richness of theology in songs and . . .<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Not with being hip . . .<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Yeah, and how we can still be hip . . . yeah!<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
. . . and still be theological . . .<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
I have no idea. No, I think we\u2019ve just always been encouraged by the sort of church that we\u2019re in, with guys like Terry Virgo, and my dad, and John Hosier<\/a>\u2014we\u2019ve always been encouraged to put good theology into songs. It\u2019s where my roots are; the sort of songs my dad used to write \u2013 such as putting Ephesians 1 to music. It\u2019s just what I\u2019ve grown up with. Just the thought of writing\u2014I mean, occasionally songs don\u2019t have to be as weighty, it\u2019s not like they all have to be really weighty, but to not write any songs like that\u2014it never even has come into my consciousness that that should be done. It\u2019s just always been drummed into us that it\u2019s important what we\u2019re saying. Just the realization that people do go away singing songs, and therefore if we can put good truth into songs, then it\u2019s only going to help the body of Christ, really.<\/p>\n

As far as that marriage with being hip, I guess the thing is\u2014just to clarify that I don\u2019t particularly think I\u2019m hip\u2014I do have a desire to write good music as well. I don\u2019t think great songs come about by just finding great theology and trying to put it to \u201cany old tune will do.\u201d Even if it\u2019s a singable tune, I think I\u2019m a believer in the marriage of truth and beauty. I think when you marry great truth with something that is beautiful in terms of music, that\u2019s really when stuff can come alive and people can latch onto it, and the music actually serves as an extra thing to help get the truth home\u2014that\u2019s really my desire. So, in terms of the music, I am dedicated to learning my craft as a musician as well, so in terms of listening to bands, listening to good music that\u2019s out there\u2014that\u2019s the quest for me. It\u2019s also a quest to get my theology as great as possible, as well, to obviously say it all in the context of trying to love God more. It\u2019s all part of what my life is, so when the two things can marry together and people can be, in some way, blessed by it, then, you know, I\u2019m just thrilled as anything.<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Is there any specific way that you try and make sure that your theology is right in the songs. Is there anyone that you ask to help you who will check things out, or have you got degrees in theology, or what?<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
(Laughter) No. Yes. I\u2019d certainly, well yes . . .<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Yes to the degrees?<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Yeah, I have about three degrees! (Laughter) No, I have no degrees at all! Certainly I often run stuff off my dad. When I was first writing songs, I was in his house, so I would just run stuff by him and he would comment on stuff. I\u2019ve sent, I\u2019ve kind of run things past all sorts of people at different times, oddly enough. I think John Hosier, I\u2019ve put stuff past before, and Joel Virgo<\/a>. I even sent something to you once, didn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
You didn\u2019t have to say that! (Laughter)<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
No, I know, . . . I think over time you get a bit more confident in terms of what you\u2019re saying, obviously, but I still feel like I\u2019m drinking milk really when it comes to this\u2014I feel like I\u2019m just at the beginnings of a journey. I mean, sometimes I read through some of my songs and think, \u201cWow! God was really gracious to me in terms of being able to pen something almost beyond where my understanding is in some songs. I\u2019m catching up still\u2014you know, we\u2019re all on that journey. If I\u2019m unsure about something, then I definitely try to find somebody and just kick it past them. It\u2019s an interesting thing for me. It\u2019s not something that I take lightly.<\/p>\n

Adrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
I guess what I\u2019m hearing from that is that you\u2019re very much a part of a theological family almost. Is that a good way of putting it? Within the church and all the people you know?<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Absolutely! Absolutely our church holds to teaching the Bible systemically and having good theology, holding it in very high esteem. So, yeah, it\u2019s just part of the very fabric of who we are. So, yeah, for sure.<\/p>\n

Continued in part 4<\/a> . . .<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday in my interview with Nathan we spoke about writing songs for worship. Today we will move on to talk about the theological thinking behind the songs. AdrianIt\u2019s actually quite interesting, because already from talking to you, it\u2019s like your songs are so obviously full of theology\u2014I mean, that\u2019s coming across just in talking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,98,191],"tags":[595,598,413],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ephesians","category-nwa08","category-worship","tag-newfrontiers","tag-terry-virgo","tag-worship-2"],"yoast_head":"\nINTERVIEW - Nathan Fellingham on the Theology of Worship Songs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday in my interview with Nathan we spoke about writing songs for worship. 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My qualifications and training reflect this integrated background: \u2192 British MB BS medical degree (equivalent to an MD in the USA) \u2192 Postgraduate qualifications in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFFM, DipPharmMed) \u2192 Theological training courses run by Newfrontiers","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/adrianwarnock"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/author\/awarnock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}