Five-time Grammy nominee Matthew West says he didn’t intend for his latest hit song to address the hot-button cultural topic of identity, but that God had other plans.
The song, You Changed My Name, entered Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart this month and is included on West’s upcoming double album My Story Your Glory, which releases Feb. 17 and includes 22 tracks. West will preview the songs on that album in a TBN special concert airing Friday, Feb. 10, My Story, Your Glory with Matthew West at the Ryman, which was filmed at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.
“Are we not in a world right now that is completely obsessed with identity – and, moreover, with taking the power into our own hands to create and recreate our identity? And this song is just a powerful truth that you are who God says you are,” West told Christian Headlines.
The song references the spiritual transformation that the Christian life brings (“You changed my name, from too far gone to saved by grace”) and tells the believer, “I don’t have to answer to any name but chosen child of God.”
Although the song does not directly address the modern-day debate over gender and names, it does remind the believer that their identity is in Christ, not the world.
The topic of identity is far-reaching, West said.
“There’s something about the false promise of social media that people can create this whole identity that’s not even them,” West said. “…We’re catfishing ourselves.”
West encourages Christians to stand on God’s Word, no matter the cost.
“In today’s world, you will not be a follower of Christ and get very far before being confronted with the contradiction of the way of the world and the Jesus way,” West said. “And identity is the topic right there. If you’re not celebrating people taking and redefining their own identity, then you are at odds with the world. … As a believer and a follower of Christ, we have to be willing to stand up for what our belief is.”
You Changed My Name, West said, is a “commentary on the power of God’s grace to change us from who we were, to who He’s made us to be.”
Playing in the Ryman Auditorium, West said, was an “answer to prayer.”
The TBN audience, he said, will “hear songs they know of mine for the radio, they’re going to hear some of the new songs from the new double album [and] they’re also going to hear me perform songs that were hits for other artists, with those artists joining me on stage.” The TBN special also will include Carly Pearce, Lainey Wilson, Pastor Allen Jackson, Tasha Layton, Lathan Warlick and Jordan St. Cyr.
Photo credit: Dove Awards/Terry Wyatt
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.