Declaration (Compact Disc)

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When Steven Curtis Chapman makes an album, it’s not just a random selection of songs. It is a collection of stories, of chapters from his life. The past few years have brought joy and sorrow. Many times there have been more questions than answers. Chapman has captured these tears and triumphs on Declaration.

The songs chronicle Chapman’s journey in pursuit of a deeper walk with God. He celebrates the joy of life in Christ in “Declaration of Dependence,” “Jesus Is Life” and “Live Out Loud.” He welcomes the trials of life in “Bring It On” and yearns for more faith in “God Follower” and “Magnificent Obsession.”

The difficult days have drawn Chapman closer to his Creator. Chapman says, “The last couple of years the one prayer I’ve prayed more than any is ‘Lord I believe, help my unbelief.’ Even kind of harkening back to the words of Job saying, even if he slays me I’m still going to trust Him. In the last season of life I’ve watched friends and people I love and really care about walk through some painful things and those things have really marked me. They’ve really challenged my faith. Some of these things have left me without responses other than saying I need to go back and just really make this declaration of my faith, of what my faith is in. Is my faith in my faith or is it really in the person of Jesus Christ, in his truth and in His Word.”

Musically, Declaration builds on the signature Chapman sound that is so evident with his Grammy Award-winning, million-selling album Speechless. “It continues some of what I did with that recording in terms of using some electronic elements, using some programming, using some drum loops and samples.” Chapman also plays lots of guitars on the album. “Actually walls of guitars, guitars upon guitars, this is definitely a guitar record.” Steven recorded the basic tracks live in the studio with his own band; Will Denton on drums, Randy Pearce on electric guitar and Chris Mosher on keyboards. Chapman and award winning producer Brown Bannister also enlisted the help of legendary Los Angeles musician Leland Sklar on bass.

Bannister describes the musical direction as “real modern rock, very pop in song form as Steven’s songs always are, uniquely him but a very modern rock kind of approach to pop songs.” The musical influences on Declaration range from current hit makers Creed and Train to the classic styling of The Beatles. The fab four influence on Chapman can be heard on “This Day.” “We kind of did a little return to Abbey Road as it were with some of the string parts and visited some new territory a little bit for me.”

Much of the recording took place at Chapman’s home studio, The Laundry Room. Previously a demo studio, a remodeling project to give his wife a bigger laundry room led to a state of the art studio above the garage. Steven took advantage of working at home. “You’ll hear a lot of involvement from my family on this record. One day we were doing gang vocals on ‘Live Out Loud’ and I ran over to the house and got Emily and the boys to join us.” Even some of the wildlife makes an appearance on the album. “We set up a mic outside of my garage for the parade mix of ‘Live Out Loud’ (found on the pre-sell CD single) and you actually hear one of my pet mockingbirds who live in the tree just outside the garage room singing his song.”

One of the most emotional moments on Declaration comes in the sensitive ballad written for Steven’s adopted daughter. “Probably one of the greatest things that has ever happened in my life of faith and journey has been when my daughter Emily came up with this idea that she needed a little sister.” This desire became a reality when Steven and his family traveled to China in March 2000 to bring home 7-month old Shaohannah. The song “When Loves Takes You In” is a pouring out of Chapman’s heart about this life-changing experience. “I can honestly say I wept as I wrote it.”

“Shaohannah has just done such amazing things to this family. We named her laughter. ‘Shao’ means laughter and ‘Hannah,’ God’s gift of grace. It has been an enormous lesson in faith to see God change even the hearts of my own family, and see us enter into this incredible mystery of what does it mean to embrace a child who didn’t have a family and now we are her family. Now we are a part of her and she’s part of us and that’s what God has done with us and that’s what the Gospel is.”

Another powerful moment comes in “No Greater Love.” The song was inspired by the book Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot. The well-known story of the martyrdom of five American missionaries in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956 deeply impacted Chapman. He turned to the internet to find out what has happened since missionaries Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, Roger Youderian and Nate Saint lost their lives. He remembered that pilot Nate Saint had a little boy, named Steve Saint, and Steven found him carrying on the work of his late father. “I found Steve on the internet and began to talk back and forth with him and found out that he was currently traveling in America with Mincay (pronounced men-kai), one of the six men who killed his father. And now Mincay was here in America speaking in his native tongue about the redeeming power of forgiveness and God’s love and God’s grace.”

Steven learned that one of his early songs had been an inspiration to Mincay and the believers in Ecuador. “I actually heard a recording of him singing, chanting along with the man who is singing this song of mine, ‘My Redeemer Is Faithful and True.’ I was so impacted by the book and now I’m finding out I have a tiny part in this story and I’m getting to have a front row seat on what God’s doing in all this.” Steve Saint and Mincay came to Nashville and Steven spent some time with them. “I had this idea and dream of actually having Mincay sing with me on the album. That dream became reality. God let that happen.” The sound of Mincay chanting at the end of “No Greater Love” is bound to impact many listeners.

Declaration is Steven Curtis Chapman’s 12th album for Sparrow Records. Since his debut release, First Hand in 1987, Chapman has sold 6 million albums including five gold and two platinum discs. He has received 4 NARAS Grammy Awards in the Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album category. He is the most honored artist in the history of the Gospel Music Association with 44 Dove Awards, including his 7th Male Vocalist of the Year award in 2001. His 1999 Grammy Award winning Speechless album made radio history with 7 singles going to number 1. That brings his total number of chart toppers to 36. Declaration is sure to add to the count.

Steven’s ultimate goal with the album is that it will bring the listeners closer to Christ. “This is my declaration, I’m staking all on this, that Jesus, You are my life and I just need to see Your face. And to say with Paul, I want to know Christ. I want to know Christ in the midst of all this; I really want to know Jesus.” Chapman continues, “I hope that when people have heard all of these songs and danced at the appropriate moments and cried at the appropriate moments and all of those things, they can really walk away saying, ‘you know, I have a clearer picture of the face of Christ.’ Then, it’s been worth every bit of the work that’s gone into it.”

About The Songs

“Live Out Loud”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman and Geoff Moore)

It’s kind of weird the different ways that songs are conceived and the whole birth process, if you will, of a song. This one was strange in the sense that I actually saw this little phrase engraved in a piece of jewelry. I was with my wife celebrating our 16th anniversary in Charleston, South Carolina. I saw that phrase and in my mind bells and whistles and sirens were going off and fireworks. It just kind of exploded in my creative mind and I said ‘I gotta write a song, I gotta write this song.’ That moment was the inspiration and then the work began. I wrote about 14 different versions of it trying to find the right one.

“This Day”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

This album is full of 12 or 13 declarations of me saying this is what I know to be true, this is what I believe to be true. This is what I pray to be true of my life and my heart so I make this declaration again. ‘This Day’ probably illustrates that point better than any because I really wanted to talk about in a song how quickly I find myself and my emotions changing. One declaration I really wanted to make is, I know that scripture tells me Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And that means that today, this day, just like that day two or three days ago when I was just on top of the world and really feeling all of the emotion that goes with it, God is just as faithful and just as true and His word and His promises are just as true. I wanted a song that really celebrated that and was kind of an anthem.

“See The Glory”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman and Caleb Chapman)

Part of the inspiration for this song came from a story my pastor and friend Scotty Smith told. He was talking about a train ride he had taken while on a fishing trip in Alaska. He said it was some of the most incredible scenery he had seen in his life. He was looking out the window of the train just trying to take it all in, the glaciers and the mountains and the sunset and the caribou. Scotty looked beside him and saw a kid playing Game Boy with the tiny one-inch screen held up to his eyes and that is what he was engrossed in in the midst of that incredible display of God’s glory. Scotty said part of him wanted to knock the Game Boy out of the kid’s hand and say look around you, see what’s going on! But he was immediately struck with, that’s what I do with the glory of God and the grace of God so often in my life and experience. I thought sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon or standing in the middle of the Grand Canyon and playing Game Boy would be the most ridiculous thing I could imagine. This song also marks my 11-year-old son Caleb’s debut as a co-writer.

“No Greater Love”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot is a book that really impacted me and challenges me in many ways. It’s the story of Jim Elliott and Nate Saint and the five missionaries who went to Ecuador in the fifties and were martyred by the tribe known at the time as the Aucas. In the process of writing ‘No Greater Love’ some things happened that resurfaced this story again in my life. I found Steve Saint on the internet. He is the son of slain missionary Nate Saint. I found that he was writing some stories about working with the Waodanis (pronounced woo-donnie), the people who were formerly known as the Aucas. I discovered he was in America with a member of the Waodani tribe named Mincay (pronounced men-kai). Mincay is one of the six men who killed his father, Nate Saint. He was here in America speaking in his native tongue about the redeeming power of forgiveness and God’s love and God’s grace. I thought this is too good to be true. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. Steve Saint and Mincay came to my studio and he sang for me of God’s forgiveness and God’s mercy and God’s grace and of his journey of coming to know the maker and becoming a God follower. I had this idea and dream of actually having Mincay sing with me on this album. That dream became a reality. God let that happen. It’s an amazing thing. You hear him chanting at the end of ‘No Greater Love.’

“Jesus Is Life”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman and James Isaac Elliott)

This is a phrase that I first heard several years ago from a producer [Sandi Patti, Larnell Harris, Steve Green] and good friend Greg Nelson. He said often that Jesus is not a part of life, not an addition to my life, not even a way of life but Jesus is life itself. There has been a lot of debate recently about who Jesus is. We’ve seen cover stories in Newsweek and Time magazine. They have done stories about who the real historic Jesus was. As much as anything this song is a response to all the debates that I’ve seen and heard about who Jesus is. It’s a declaration. As a Christian I need to hear myself say it - Jesus is life - to remind myself it’s one of the reasons why I think the declarations that I’m making on this record are important. Musically, this has the feel of classic rock with it still being current and feeling modern. This track was all cut live in the studio and we did a little keyboard overdubbing.

“God Is God”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

The song sums up best what I’ve been going through the last few years. ‘God is God and I am not.’ That says where I’ve been. That’s the declaration that I’ve come away with having to make about some of the pain as well as the great incredible things I’ve experienced. God is the one in control of all of this, it’s not me. It’s like a curtain falls over everything that I once felt I knew for sure. Pain has a way of doing that in our lives. Especially when we walk through seasons when we don’t understand what’s going on. It’s like this big covering falls over everything we know. When that’s gone what do I have to hold on to? I say in the lyric, ‘I have to say the words I fear the most - I just don’t know.’ It’s not something I like to say. With this song I felt like that’s what I had to say and acknowledge. In doing so there is a real freedom that comes in that to say ‘I don’t have to know.’ The reality is I’m a lot worse off than I think anyway. I need a Savior. I need a God who can rescue me so I don’t have to know.

“Bring It On”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

I got the music idea at my kid’s homecoming football game. They played my song ‘The Great Adventure’ over the PA before the game. And then the football team came out and ran through the victory line and all the kids were cheering. I thought I need to write a song for them, a new ‘Great Adventure’ kind of thing where it’s got that sense of I’m ready to take it on. So I started humming ‘Bring It On’ and I actually wrote part of the music in my head. I called my cell phone and left it on my voice mail so I wouldn’t forget it. Several months later I was starting to work on the record and was working on the lyric. The day I was working on one of the verses my mom called me and told me she had been diagnosed with cancer. I really debated at that point whether to finish the song. I thought that’s a bold statement. I thought it might even be stupid to make that statement. I knew what I meant by it but was that just asking for trouble? I wondered if it would offend somebody. Like, you don’t know the pain I’ve been through. I didn’t want it to be a flippant thing. I really wrestled with this song. I decided to finish it and put it on the record. Ultimately I know in my heart what I mean by this and I can honestly say that I think it’s something that is truth. I need to be able to say it and need to say ‘God, if it’s gonna bring me closer to you and be a part of Your hand at work in my life then let it come, bring it on.

“When Love Takes You In”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

I knew the experience with Shaohannah was going to weave in and out of all the songs I write from now on until I don’t write anymore. But I didn’t know if I wanted to tread on that ground with trying to capture that in a four-minute song. So I decided maybe I won’t. That’s when the song ‘When Love Takes You In’ just kind of happened. It’s probably one of the two songs that I can honestly say I wept as I wrote it. And that doesn’t always happen. Madeleine L’Engle talks about how the art that we create is always so much bigger than we are and when we really realize that, we see that this is a ‘God Thing’ and we just get to participate in it. This song was very emotional as I wrote it and really imagined what may have gone in Shoey’s heart and mind even at seven months old not able to even process it all. The song just kind of came out of all that. I think my greatest hope with this song is not that people will be grabbing Kleenex as they listen but that maybe in the process there will be one or two hundred or thousand, who know? God knows how many might hear that and be encouraged and impacted to say you know we’ve thought about that process of adoption and there’s something haunting here I can’t get away from.

“Magnificent Obsession”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

This idea came during a sermon I heard my pastor Scotty Smith preaching. He was using Paul’s words that ‘I will boast in the cross of Christ.’ The cross represents God’s expression of love and it represented life for Paul. The cross and Jesus giving his life for him led to Paul becoming obsessed with the cross. Scotty said it became Paul’s magnificent obsession. It’s the best use of that word. Obsession is usually a negative thing. You don’t want to be obsessed by anything unless it is the one thing that we were created for and that is our relationship with God. Scripture talks about losing your first love. When we first really discover the grace of God and a life of faith there’s a passion. And then we become familiar and trivialize it. This song talks about wanting God to recapture my heart with that again. To say to Him you’re everything I need, I depend totally on you; you’re all I want. I want you to be the one thing that consumes me and my passion and my desire. I want you to be my magnificent obsession.

“Declaration of Dependence”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

I got the idea when I was running on the treadmill one day. I was watching music videos and I saw Bon Jovi sing ‘It’s My Life.’ I was listening to that and thought that’s the anthem of our culture. What I believe is the total opposite. It’s not my life. I’ve been bought with a price; I’m not my own. This thing that I call my life is God’s life and I’m totally the opposite, ‘cause that’s a song of real independence. I wanted to make the opposite statement. Instead of a declaration of independence I’m making a declaration of dependence. After I finished running I got my guitar and put a chorus down on tape.

“God Follower”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

This is another song with a connection to the book Through Gates of Splendor. In the dense jungle the natives must follow trails to reach any destination. There are many trails and specific markings guide the way to keep the travelers on the right course. If the markings are not followed you simply get lost. The missionaries explained that God has left markings on His trail that He wants you to follow and it’s marked in the blood of His Son. And they invited the natives to be a God follower and walk His trail. When I heard them use that phrase ‘God Follower’ I thought I want to be identified that way along with them. I tried to use this song as a way to tell the story of the Waodani as they came to hear and respond to the Gospel. As I was writing the song it was a great experience to try and communicate on several different levels that story and try to tie it to the story of Christ dying and marking the trail for all of us.

“Carry You To Jesus”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

This was written out of praying many many prayers for some friends of mine as they passed through some real dark times. These are friends who have carried me so many ways to Jesus in my times of need. I wondered what is the very best thing I can do for them. When I see them hurting I want to fix it. I want to get them the right book or get them the right counsel or get them something to fix their problem. I realized the best thing I can do is to say I will carry you to Jesus and pray for you.

“Savior”
(written by Steven Curtis Chapman)

I cried as I wrote this song. That’s not something that happens very often. ‘Who is this angry man I see in the mirror looking back at me? It’s a man who’s tired it’s a man who’s weak, it’s a man who needs a Savior.’ This is the story of my life. This is me. This is as honest as I’ve ever been. One of the things that I’ve seen in my life the last couple years with all of the pain that has gone on around me and being in a place where I’m not in control I’ve found myself becoming very angry. I found myself becoming furious because I can’t control this. This song just undoes me every time I hear it. ‘I’m a man who’s tired, a man who’s weak, and I’m a man who just simply needs a Savior.’ The bridge talks about not just needing a little help. A guy who’s drowning doesn’t ask for a little help, he cries out save me! I’m dying! When the plane’s going down you don’t just need a little help. You need someone to save you, you need a Savior.

Declaration is Steven Curtis Chapman’s 12th album for Sparrow Records. Since his debut release, First Hand in 1987, Chapman has sold 6 million albums including five gold and two platinum discs. He has received 4 NARAS Grammy Awards in the Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album category. He is the most honored artist in the history of the Gospel Music Association with 44 Dove Awards, including his 7th Male Vocalist of the Year award in 2001. His 1999 Grammy Award winning Speechless album made radio history with 7 singles going to number 1. That brings his total number of chart toppers to 36. Declaration is sure to add to the count.

Steven’s ultimate goal with the album is that it will bring the listeners closer to Christ. “This is my declaration, I’m staking all on this, that Jesus, You are my life and I just need to see Your face. And to say with Paul, I want to know Christ. I want to know Christ in the midst of all this; I really want to know Jesus.” Chapman continues, “I hope that when people have heard all of these songs and danced at the appropriate moments and cried at the appropriate moments and all of those things, they can really walk away saying, ‘you know, I have a clearer picture of the face of Christ.’ Then, it’s been worth every bit of the work that’s gone into it.”