BK: My name’s Bob Kauflin. It’s almost Christmas.
DZ: It’s almost Christmas.
BK: Should you say Merry Christmas like anytime if you hear Christmas?
DZ: Yeah, you could. That might be weird though.
BK: It might be. We should do a study sometime of where that phrase comes from. I’m sure someone knows.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Merry Christmas.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Anyway, it is a merry Christmas.
DZ: It is very merry. Hey, Bob. So we have decided to do this podcast on Prepare Him Room.
BK: Yes.
DZ: The album, it’s the 10th anniversary…
BK: This year.
DZ: Of Prepare Him Room. So…
BK: Hard to believe.
DZ: It is very hard to believe. So that album is what really brought life to the Christmas concerts that we do.
BK: Yes, yes, yes.
DZ: We name them Prepare Him Room.
BK: Yes.
DZ: Which is a combination of this record and Heaven has Come, which came after it.
BK: Which I think when we recorded the album, we had no idea that we would ever even do concerts with the songs.
DZ: Right, right.
BK: But it was kind of we had one album before this that was, I like to call it, incarnation album Savior, and that was done in 2006.
DZ: Okay.
BK: We don’t sing any of those songs. [laughter]
DZ: It’s good to be…
BK: There were some good songs on it.
DZ: It’s good to be writing songs and singing songs that we’re proud of singing.
BK: Absolutely.
DZ: Yeah.
DZ: But I wanted to ask, yeah, how did this project even come about? What was the birth of this project and then how was it recorded? It’s just such a great album.
BK: Well, it turned out to be. You never know when you’re working on an album. Like I said, we had done this album Savior in 2006, and I think we’ve been feeling over time, yeah, there’s always a need for songs at Christmas time, and we have some great carols, some not so great carols, but songs at Christmas time that talk about what this really means, why Jesus was born, who he is, what it meant… to explore the deeper theological foundations of what we’re singing. Christmas isn’t a sentimental holiday. It’s celebrating really the greatest miracle in history that God took on human flesh. It’s just unbelievable. Packer says that “the birth of Christ is where the profoundest and most unfathomable depth of the Christian revelation lie. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.” He says that in Knowing God. Yeah, so we felt the need to have those songs And yet you don’t… You’re only very slow to try and replace the Christmas repertoire. [laughter]
DZ: Oh, totally. Yeah, and I think to what you said, I think what I love so much about this record, Prepare Him Room and also Heaven Has Come, is that you’re not only talking about the incarnation of like, Jesus came as a baby, which is mind blowing.
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: But I also love that you get into the implications for our lives.
BK: Yes.
DZ: What does the incarnation mean today?
BK: Yeah, what it means.
DZ: As opposed to what it meant all those years ago. And so…
BK: Yeah, what did it lead to? Why did God send Jesus to Earth as a baby?
DZ: Yes.
BK: What did that lead to?
DZ: Yes.
BK: Yeah, we love writing songs about them.
DZ: Yeah, so you had a songwriter retreat dedicated to some sort of Christmas album.
BK: Yes.
DZ: Some sort of incarnation album.
BK: Yes, yeah. We said, hey, we’re writing a Christmas album and/or you could call it an advent album, I’m not sure. But it was a unique time. We had just moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and so everything was new. A guy named Neil Degrade was a part of the church who happened to be a producer.
DZ: A great producer.
BK: And a writer, and his dear wife Kate, is a vocalist and a songwriter, and he’s a songwriter as well. But anyway, they were in our church and we thought maybe we should do this together, and maybe you could produce it. And Neil had connections in Louisville. Another guy who was here was David LaChance and just wonderful keyboardist arranger.
DZ: The brilliant arranger.
BK: Yes, arranger. And we are thinking, wow, what’s this gonna look like? And we didn’t know. We had no idea, but I do remember gathering at Neil’s house, where a lot of the writing took place, and just meditating on the truths of the incarnation and asking the Lord, how can we make this fresh? How can we make this different? How can we make not just different, but how can we make these things stand out in a way that it is clearly about the truths we’re singing, but it’s also about the affections that stir us up? And one of the things about Neil was he’s just a wonderful arranger along with David. And so there’s a kind of cinematic feel to the album that I just love.
DZ: Yeah, and I think what’s cool about Christmas albums, advent albums is that you can get away with some more creative arrangements because these are songs that are typically sung once a year.
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: But especially with a studio album, that is a fun element of that. I remember I didn’t record on Prepare Him Room, but I remember recording on Heaven Has Come and…
BK: Sorry about that.
DZ: Yeah, I’m still sad about that. But being able to bring in string parts, new fresh piano ideas and percussive ideas that we wouldn’t necessarily do on a congregational album.
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: Yeah, so I think that’s also what makes it so artistically rich too musically.
BK: And there was some tension on that because I’m thinking I want these songs to be sung in churches.
DZ: Yeah, definitely.
BK: And Neil is thinking, how can these be really creative?
DZ: And so finding that middle ground.
BK: Yes. And I remember the track they did for what child is this, I think my daughter Brittany was working for me as my admin at that time, and she texted me and said… I wasn’t there when they were recording and said, “Dad, you should listen to this.” [laughter] And she sent me, I think, a little clip of it. And so I came over. I said, guys, it sounded… Without being denigrating, it sounded like it had been recorded for like a saloon or something, just a real swing. I said, “Guys, I so appreciate your work you put on this, but that’s not going on the record.” [laughter] And so we recorded another version. It was very gracious and they recorded another… Everybody’s gracious, which is beautiful, just beautiful. So…
DZ: So being artistic, but not like pushing that boundary where it’s not accessible.
BK: Yeah, yeah, where people…
DZ: Yeah, that’s great. And focusing on the lyrics or really driving the arrangements.
BK: Totally. And a big emphasis of the album was to take some old stuff and new stuff and put it together. And so we can talk about that when we get into some of the songs.
DZ: Yeah, what has been the specific effect that do you think of this record?
BK: That’s a great question. One of the things it’s done is because of the response to it, it has made Sovereign Grace music, at least in terms of numbers. It’s become kind of a trademark of what we do. Like our Christmas stuff does really well.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Like Prepare Him Room has just done really well.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Heaven Has Come has just done really well.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: And at some point, probably the next few years, we’ll do another Christmas album, which we hope will do really well.
DZ: That’d be a blast.
BK: But only because we can never… Just like we can… Well, we can never stop writing songs to talk about and seek to move people by what Jesus has done. So yeah, it is just interesting. Integrity, when they talk to us about our songs and say, “Yeah, your Christmas stuff does really well.” [laughter]
DZ: It’s so funny. Yeah, and I think the effect for me that I have experienced through the Christmas albums has been just a deepening of my understanding of what God has done for us in Christ. There are so many rich songs and I know we’ll get into some of them, but one I just wanted to mention off the bat was, “Oh, Holy Night.” I just…
BK: That’s one of those songs that I’m not crazy about the arrangement but I wanted it on there for… And it’s a great arrangement, but not so congregational, but I wanted it on there for the lyrics.
DZ: Yes. I mean, my whole life I’ve sung, “Oh, Holy Night”, and I think it’s a staple, right, for our Christmas gatherings, pageants, concerts, whatever you have that we sing this song together. Sometimes like holding a candle or… But when I started… When I heard the verses where you go into the gospel implications of this night, of this incarnation, I remember that moment of hearing those lyrics and being so affected. And so I think that is an effect of getting people in a room who are not just trying to write a Christmas hit or a Christmas album that is sentimental.
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: You already mentioned that. But to labor over lyrics that are gospel centered, and I think that’s what makes these albums so affecting, and I think that’s what makes the Prepare Him Room concerts we do affecting people because some outside guests will come and think, well, this is just a Christmas…
BK: Yeah, a Christmas concert.
DZ: But then we go into what does this mean for our lives?
BK: Yeah.
DZ: And you get the gospel.
BK: Well, and that’s been another effect of the album, is that each Christmas, I guess for the last five or six years, we’ve been doing like four concerts pretty much at Sovereign Grace churches ’cause we wanna partner with them, and anyone’s invited to them. But we just did some here, Louisville and Knoxville, New Orleans, and Franklin, Tennessee, and we change the places up sometimes. Always do one in Louisville and probably always do one in Knoxville.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: But yeah, it’s become, for some people, like a kickoff for their Christmas season on a much lesser scale. I mean, Andrew Peterson’s got, “Behold Lamb of God”, which I think is in its 25th year. 20, 25th year which is just beautiful. If you haven’t seen it, you should go see it. But it’s that tradition where these songs we’re just gonna celebrate this truth again. But, “Oh, Holy Night”, I wanted to share that the origin of that song is so fascinating. It didn’t get written on one of our retreats. It was written…
DZ: Oh, wow.
BK: The lyrics were written by Kevin Hartnett, who I think used to work for NASA. I’m not sure he still does, but a great poet and he wrote it because that’s a translated song. Timothy Dwight translated it from the French and the way we typically sing it, if you go on YouTube and type in, “Oh, Holy Night”, you’ll get plethora of versions that all sing about just different things. You think, wow, that’s beautiful, but it was written by a… The melody was written by a Jewish man in the mid 19th century and then someone in France wanted to put words to it. Here’s the literal translation of how the song began. Midnight Christians, it is the solemn hour when God as man descended unto us to erase the stain of original sin and to end the wrath of his father.
DZ: Wow.
BK: Isn’t that powerful?
DZ: Wow.
BK: I mean, it’s just like that’s not what I’m singing normally about. So that’s why…
DZ: That’s not what I’m thinking about when I’m rapping presents and…
[laughter]
BK: Well, what Kevin sought to do was to bring that gospel clarity to the song. So one of his verses writes, “True son of God yet bearing human feature. He entered earth to reverse Adams fall and towering grace. He laid aside his glory, and in our place was sacrifice for sin. Fall on your knees. So hear the gospel story.”
DZ: Oh, I love that. That’s like the response, fall on your knees.
BK: It’s powerful.
DZ: It is powerful.
BK: So that was, yeah, one of the songs that really for me has stood out. And just overall, you asked about the effect. I think it is that deepening awareness that there is nothing more amazing than God becoming a baby to save us. And when we think of Christmas, we’re drawn to Santa Claus and Elf, and which every year grinches, sugar plum fairies, and it’s all fine, it’s all great, it’s enjoyable, the traditions, gift wrapping presents, seeing lights, all this stuff, but nothing will satisfy our thirst for awe and wonder like the miracle of God taking on an infant’s flesh.
BK: I mean, I recently had a grandson, and every time a baby’s born, it’s a miracle, and I think that it’s a miracle, but nothing’s like the miracle of God taking on flesh to save us. So I think that’s been one of the effects. When you work on a Christmas advent incarnation album, you spend a lot of time thinking about that. And John writes it in his chapter one of his gospel verse 14. He says, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth.” And then he goes on to say, verse 16, “For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side has made him know.”
DZ: Yeah, yeah.
BK: It’s just… You…
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Every Christmas season, and it doesn’t have to be just Christmas, it can be any time of the year to ponder what it means that God will come for us. That’s been one of the effects of the album. Sorry, I’m just.
DZ: That’s so wonderful. I…
BK: So we tried to do that in different songs.
DZ: Yeah, and I think another effect of this album has been just a diversity of themes. When you’re thinking about an incarnation album, sometimes you feel like you’re maybe too pigeonholed. It just needs to be…
BK: Yes, good point.
DZ: It was a starry night, the Savior came.
BK: We know the story.
DZ: Yeah, and so I do think it really takes a lot of just the mental slog of just trying to be disciplined to think, hey, how can we see this from every different angle?
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: And so even a song like, “Oh, Holy Night” that we were talking about, it’s glorious in its realities, but it’s different than like, “He Who Is Mighty”. Like, “He Who Is Mighty”…
BK: Yeah, that’s the song I wanna talk about.
DZ: Comes from a different passage of the scripture. So it’s like when you get together with a writer’s retreat, are you saying intentionally, hey guys, we need to have… We need to look at this at all different facets.
BK: Yeah, I think there is an emphasis on that that we just don’t want all the songs sounding the same and we wanna look at it from different perspectives. Just what might it mean… So that particular song, “He Who Is Mighty”, Kate and Rebecca Elliot wrote that, and I remember they were both pregnant at the time.
DZ: Oh, cool.
BK: And they both were…
DZ: That is awesome.
BK: Sitting in the bedroom thinking about what would it… What kind of song would Mary have written? Well, we don’t have to wonder that ’cause it’s in the Bible. It’s the Magnificat and of Luke one, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. He’s raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days to give know. And you child will be… ” I just gotta go on, “And you child will be called the prophet of the most high for you’ll go before the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God.” And that’s where the song starts, “Oh, the mercy our God has shown to those who sit in death’s shadow.” The scripture goes on whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: So that’s what they tried to capture. That’s the sun on high.
DZ: Beautifully they captured it.
BK: Here’s the night. Born was the cornerstone. Unto us, a son is given, unto us a child is born. He who is mighty has done a great thing. Yes, he has taken on…
DZ: Yes.
BK: And so then they fill it out, taken on flesh, conquered death’s sting, shattered the darkness, lifted our shame. Holy is his name. So that’s been one of the songs that has done well, that has gone out and affected people and can be done in all kinds of different contexts. It can be done soft, can be done orchestral, and we’ve seen it done different ways, but we end up singing it all year round.
DZ: Yeah, I know. Yeah.
BK: Oh, the mercy our God has shown.
DZ: Yes.
BK: Because again, the incarnation is just something we celebrate in December.
DZ: Right, right, right. Which is a great point. Yeah, definitely. You should be considering these songs throughout the year, not in a way that feels awkward.
BK: Well, some of them.
DZ: Yeah, that’s what I mean. Not in a way that feels awkward, but thematically in a way that we can say, yes, these are the impli… Speaking of the implications of our lives, one song that jumps out to me is Prepare Him Room. It’s just like…
BK: Good, let’s talk about that.
DZ: I love the perspective in Prepare Him Room that’s this has happened. What does it mean to you?
BK: Yeah, that was another Rebecca Elliott and Dave Fournier song. Yeah, and there we have that verse from Joy To The World, Prepare Him Room, every heart prepare him room.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Well, what does that mean exactly?
DZ: Yeah.
BK: And so they did a wonderful job of capturing how our hearts can be so busy. And verse three is, “Oh, our hearts as busy as Bethlehem, hear him knock. Don’t say there’s no room in the inn. Through the cradle, cross and grave, see… ” Which is just great. I remember them working on that line, “Through the cradle, cross and grave, see the love of God displayed. Now he’s risen and he reigns. Praise the name above all names. Prepare him room that the King of Glory enter in.” It’s just a wonderful song to sing in the midst of the bustle and just the busyness and the distractions, the chaos, the bedlam of the Christmas season that can sometimes be there and just say, you know what, don’t forget this. This is what our hearts are meant to be preparing for, the entrance of Christ into the world and for Christians now, the return of Christ to the world.
DZ: Yeah. And just to pause there for a second, I think to encourage pastors or worship leaders who are listening to this podcast, you got to understand your Christmas in your church isn’t… We’ve mentioned this. It’s not a sentimental time only. It’s not a time to just dust off those old songs, bring them in. We have to sing ’em. We sing ’em.
BK: Get the five regulars Christmas… Everybody, Silent Night, go and do Silent Night again. Come all ye faithful.
DZ: You just sort of just dust those off, sing them and then move on. It is a moment to pause.
BK: Yeah.
DZ: It is a moment to rest, it is a moment to just say, this is an incredible reality, and it has implications for our lives. And that’s what I want to encourage guys who are planning to think about. This isn’t just what we do. Our hearts are engaged. So we’ve mentioned songs like, “Oh, Holy Night”, and, “Hark! The Herald Angels”, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. Those…
BK: We haven’t really talked about that one.
DZ: We haven’t, but in those, I’m saying those are classic Christmas songs.
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: Christmas carols. Now, I would imagine that you’ve gotten crazy pushback on, hey, stop it.
BK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DZ: Don’t change the classics.
BK: Yeah.
DZ: And so how have you processed that? What’s your thought of going… Yeah, how do you respond?
BK: I say mind your own business. That’s pretty much…
DZ: That is the humble response.
BK: Yeah. Well, I did a blog post on for, “O Come, All Ye Unfaithful”, because there were a lot of questions about that song.
DZ: Right. How dare you change that classic carol? Yeah.
BK: One of the points I made in it was just to create a new version of something doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t like the first version, or that you should stop singing the first version. Keep singing it.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: It’s just acknowledging that there might be a new generation that wants to hear this or needs to hear this in a different way that may not be affected by it the way other generations were.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: For me, a lot of times, there may be aspects to either its clarity or the gospel itself that we think could be present in the song that isn’t.
DZ: Yes.
BK: So I think, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, which is a beautiful hymn, it’s been around for centuries. And so when we worked on that, one of the things we wanted to do was make the gospel clearer and then maybe use some inner images that were a little more present for people, accessible for people. I mean, the song is built on Old Testament references.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: But if you don’t know the Old Testament, and that’s good. It’s great to keep singing that song.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: But we thought, wow, this might be an opportunity to start with the original, but then develop it.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: So we start Dayspring from on high, then true prophet of the Lord, turn the key to heaven’s door. Be thou our comforting guide. Lead us to the father’s side. Come our great high priest. So this is the gospel. Come our great high priest and intercede, thy sacrifice, our only plea. The judgement, we no longer fear. Thy precious blood has brought us near. Rejoice, rejoice. Emmanuel has banished every fear of hell. We think those are good words to say.
DZ: Yes.
BK: And there’s a legitimate complaint about people who redo hymns and add like a simple little course and then start collecting royalties from it. And it’s true that happens, but we don’t do that lightly or flippantly or in a non-substantive way.
DZ: Yes.
BK: There’s always an intentionality to changing the substance of a song benefiting from the familiar melody, but bringing truth, the truth of the gospel to bear. And so I think the other thing we wanted to do with it was talk about Jesus returning again.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: So O come King of nations, bring an end to all our suffering, bid every pain and sorrow cease, reign now as our prince of peace. Rejoice Emmanuel shall come again with us to dwell.
DZ: Yes.
BK: So that’s why we do those kinds of things and…
DZ: Well, yeah.
BK: That may not satisfy you, but that’s okay. Keep singing the old one.
DZ: No, I love that response, Bob. I think…
BK: Well, of course you do. You work for me, so.
DZ: No, I think it’s a beautiful way. Here’s what I love, though, that you’re holding the tension between creatively this… There’s a new generation that might sing that song with a clearer gospel truth.
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: They might come, they might grow up in that, in the faith and that’s a beautiful thing, that creativity and artistry you can bring to the table, but not ever for the sacrifice of theological death.
BK: Yes.
DZ: So you’re…
BK: Amen.
DZ: What we’re fighting for is we’re fighting for clarity specificity in the gospel, which will inflame our affections for Christ…
BK: Yes, amen, amen.
DZ: In the holiday season, in the hustle and bustle of what this Christmas season is about. It’s like that clarity is always beneficial.
BK: Yes, yeah. And I would say we’re not seeking to replace tradition. We’re seeking to build on it and to root ourselves in it. It’s the tension between rooted and relevant. We wanna be both. Just because something’s old doesn’t mean it’s good.
DZ: Right.
BK: Just because something’s new doesn’t mean it’s good.
DZ: Right.
BK: It’s always about what are these songs saying and what is the impact they have on people. So I wanna talk about one more song, and that’s maybe we can talk about all of ’em, but then this podcast would be really long. We think you should listen to the whole thing, if you haven’t, but, “Who Would Have Dreamed”, which I mean, I helped write with Jason Hansen and I think we had like a 20-page Google Doc…
DZ: Wow.
BK: That we worked on for that that was just an example of how we could spend a lot of time trying to get to the right place.
DZ: Yes.
BK: I’m looking at it now. It’s 13 pages, not 20 pages.
DZ: Still.
BK: An early chorus was for the glorious Christ had come in the night to brighten this dark world of sin. The Savior appeared to vanquish our fears and bring hope and forgiveness to men.
DZ: Wow.
BK: That was an early rendition.
DZ: Vanquish.
BK: So that was our attempt to capture the wonder of what it must have been like for Mary and another song that does this extremely well is, “Mary, Did You Know”, and other songs, I’m Holding a Baby I just birthed. And we don’t know exactly how much Mary understood of this.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: But why the song says Mary did you know? But he’s the incarnate God, he’s God in the flesh. And certainly if she didn’t know it then, she knew it later.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: And I love the way the chorus lands on, “Who Would Have Dreamed”, who would have dreamed that this would be what the way God would choose to save us?
DZ: Yeah.
BK: You just think of God. He could have… He planned all this.
DZ: Yes.
BK: And the way he planned to save us was through the second person, the Trinity, the Son of God taking in our flesh. And yeah, it’s just my thoughts.
DZ: It’s glorious, it is glorious, and that’s why you guys wrote this record, that’s why we gathered again and wrote, Heaven Has Come.
BK: Yeah.
DZ: And that’s why we will keep writing songs about the incarnation because it’s an inexhaustible glory.
BK: Yes, ’cause this baby who was born will carry our curse and death he’ll reverse. So we can be daughters and sons.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: But let me put it how Paul puts it. Galatians 4:4, and we’ll close here. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.” May that miracle, may that wonder, may that awesome good news fill your heart and your mind and your actions as you go through the activities of this Christmas season and actually all your days.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: That’s our prayer.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: We pray this has been an encouragement to you towards that end.
DZ: Yeah. Thank you, Bob. Thank you for listening.
