Prior to attending the 43rd Annual GMA Dove Awards in Atlanta, GA last week, Krissy Nordhoff would have said it was an honor to be nominated. She was already grateful and thankful that the song Your Great Name, which she co-wrote with worship leader and author Michael Neale. It had already received nominations for 3 Dove Awards – Song of the Year, Worship Song of the Year and Pop Contemporary Song of the Year. But, when they called her name as the winner for Worship Song Of The Year she was stunned.
“I am completely blown away by the way God has taken this song and breathed His life and favor over it to encourage other believers and glorify the great name of Jesus – our Healer, Redeemer and King!”, says Nordhoff, “I am humbled to be a part of it.”
Krissy Nordhoff began writing Your Great Name as a testimony to God’s faithfulness in her own personal healing story. In 2003, the Christian music singer, songwriter, wife and mom was diagnosed with advanced stage Lyme Disease after getting bitten by a tick 3 and half years prior. After 18 months of treatment and many doctor’s visits 7 hours away from her home in Nashville, TN, Krissy wasn’t seeing much progress, so she decided to visit a healing service being held at her sister’s church near Grand Rapids, MI –Resurrection Life Church – Grandville.
“I literally felt the Lord touch my physical being. And, I know that it was only a taste of His power. From that point forward, over the course of about 2 months, the Lord healed me completely!!”
Fast-forward a few years. Her church in Franklin, TN began having Wednesday night worship services. One evening during one of these services, a call for prayer went out to pray for a little boy who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and only had a few days left to live. Everyone in the sanctuary that night prayed earnestly to see this boy healed of his sickness. It wasn’t to be, however, and the boy did not live much longer. Krissy says this was a critical event in the formation of the song Your Great Name.
“I remember being overwhelmed with emotion when I heard the news. It was a major leap of faith for our church to pray for the life of this little baby boy. I didn’t want our church to be discouraged from praying and believing God for healing again. Even though, this time, we didn’t see this boy healed, it doesn’t change the truth of God’s word in scripture. The same is true as it has been for over 2000 years. Jesus rose from the dead and He is still alive today. He still does miracles today. He is still our Savior, Redeemer and King today! When I started writing the verses to this song – each one ending with ‘at the sound of your great name’ – that’s what I wanted to proclaim to our church: with faith and prayer in the great name of Jesus, fear leaves, children are fed, the sick are healed, the dead are raised and we are overcomers as God’s children.”
Despite trying to write a chorus to the song herself and even asking others to help her finish the song, nothing seemed to fit until she brought the song to her Worship Pastor, Michael Neale at her church and out came this simple, yet powerful chorus “Jesus, worthy is the Lamb, that was slain for us, Son of God and Man, You are high and lifted up and all the world will praise Your Great Name!”
The song eventually was recorded at a live recording at The People’s Church and would eventually be featured on the church’s worship album called Shine Out.
“I knew there was something special about that song that night,” says Krissy’s husband Eric, who runs TwoNords Music, the publishing company the two Nordhoffs started many years ago for their songwriting. “As soon as I received a copy of the recording of the song, I shared it with the artist manager of Natalie Grant, who is an associate of mine at the Gospel Music Association. Soon after, he sent it to Natalie and her husband, producer Bernie Herms. They took this song to a whole new level of production and passion and just made it something even more special.”
The song eventually became a Top 5 Christian radio single from Natalie’s album Love Revolution and remained on Billboard’s Christian radio chart for over 47 weeks in 2011. It has become a powerful worship anthem in the church today – encouraging countless believers every Sunday proclaiming the great name of Jesus.
The award for Worship Song of the Year is given out during the Dove Awards Pre-Show, which will be streamed live on the HearItFirst.com’s live video stream at 5:30pm Eastern/4:30pm Central on Tuesday, April 24th at exactly this link:http://live.hearitfirst.com/. You can view Krissy and Michael’s acceptance speech there as well as watch behind the scenes interviews and red carpet footage from the Dove Awards at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
To view Krissy’s Healing Story video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyrxlS7S2Rc
To view the song story of Your Great Name, click here to see an interview with Krissy, Michael and Natalie Grant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6LW7yz-1wU
