Over the past 25 years, singer/songwriter/worship leader Jenn Johnson has helped shape modern worship through songs sung worldwide. She co-wrote Chris Tomlinson’s hit, “Holy Forever.” For six weeks, it was #1 on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart. “Holy Forever” also won the GMA Dove Awards’ Song of the Year, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Performance/Song, and received a nomination at the Billboard Music Awards.
Notably, Johnson’s co-write of CeCe Winans’ “Goodness of God” was awarded the Top Gospel Song at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards and earned another “Song of the Year” at the GMA Dove Awards. She also co-wrote the popular worship song “The Blood,” which is about personal redemption and the power of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Johnson and her husband Brian have served and regularly lead worship at Bethel Church in Redding, California.
Johnson, who is co-founder of Bethel Music has appeared on 18 Bethel Music albums, and now she is excited to introduce her first solo album, Happy. The 12-track debut provides a mosaic of Johnson’s life from joy and heartbreak to seasons of growth and seasons of healing. “This album is both a testimony and a promise that no matter what we walk through, God is always putting the pieces together and making something beautiful,” said Johnson.
We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Jenn Johnson. She talks about how her new album demonstrates the different parts of her personality, and she tells the story behind the worship anthems “Holy Forever” and “Goodness of God.”
BC: You must be happy to be releasing your Happy album. Why does this project mean so much to you?
Jenn Johnson: I’ve been really happy to write for the other projects we’ve had for global music and collaborate with so many artists. I never felt like I was supposed to make my own project until a couple of years ago, so I was really open to what it would be like, and I just felt like it was supposed to be a mosaic of my life. There is just about everything on this album. I have my favorite hymn growing up [“Walk With Me”] is precious to me, and that’s how I start the whole project. Then, I have a country love song to my husband of 26 years, and the title track “Happy” is a love song to my kids. I have five kids, and I just am obsessed with them. Then, of course, there’s some corporate worship songs on here because that’s just who I am.
Here’s the video of Jenn Johnson’s song, “Happy.”
There’s a lot of other wild songs on here as well—an African choir and a Portuguese artist and I did a collab on a song called “Mourning to Dancing” that’s so fun and crazy. One of the tracks is just my son Malachi, who was 4 at the time, singing “I’ve Got The Joy.” It was just an iPhone recording of that moment. One of the tracks I got the entire Johnson family together to sing our family song that we sing before Thanksgiving and Christmas, before we eat, and they all gathered in my living room, and we sang the song and recorded that.
It’s got everything in this journey of faith that we walk from doubt and fear to faith and joy. There’s a song right in the middle called “Mad At God” that I wrote after we lost my husband’s mom to cancer. It’s a really honest emotional song to God, and it’s a really precious one as well.
BC: Why was now the time to put out a solo project?
Johnson: I honestly did it because I felt like I was supposed to do it. The Lord made it really clear a couple of years ago. I was prayerful about which songs and what to do, and to the best of my ability recorded each one that I felt like I was supposed to. I’ve been putting out music for 26 years. It was fun to do my own solo project for the first time because I could do whatever I wanted, and I did! (she laughs).
BC: What came into play that shaped the songwriting process as you were putting this album together?
Johnson: I’m just a local church girl. I love church, and I love gatherings of people to pursue God, and that’s where most of my writing has led me, is for the corporate church (like worship anthems) “Goodness of God,” and “Holy Forever.” I love hearing the body of Christ sing. I love the melting pot of the body of Christ around the world, and I love the global church. That’s kind of where my aim has been and is for our local church, and then for the global church as well. But for this project, it was really a collection of different writing than I do normally. I have a few songs that I put out that are older, like one called “You’re Gonna Be Okay.” It doesn’t even have the name of Jesus in it at all, but it’s gotten to some really beautiful places, where people are sending me DMs that they heard it on the internet and didn’t even believe in God, and got saved, or it saved them from committing suicide, or incredible testimonies. I’ve been more prayerful, like, God, what’s on your heart? What do you want me to say in song?
Here’s the video of Jenn Johnson’s song, “Mad At God.”
I have a song I wrote years ago called, “Come to Me,” and it was a time where there was so much going on in the world, and natural disasters, and people were so afraid, and I felt like the Lord wanted me to tell people that they had nothing to worry about, that He had this in His hands. I’ve spent my life as a songwriter to try to be faithful to what I feel like the Lord is saying, even to do this country love song to my husband. There’s often arguments of Christian versus secular music, and I think that the Lord has on his heart that he wants to display the beauty in a love for a husband and wife who have been committed to each other in a loving relationship, and that’s just as kingdom and as holy as a worship song sung in church because it’s all kingdom, and it’s either kingdom or not. I love these songs because you can hear me singing it to my children, but you can also hear God singing it over you to make you happy.
BC: With this album, you blended country, pop, worship, and a lot of different music influences.
Johnson: I grew up loving country music, my dad listened to country music, and my grandpa listened to country music, and I just love country, and so I had that in my bones. It just feels very organic and natural to have this different mosaic of songs. It feels like different parts of my life. Definitely, anyone who knows me the biggest compliment has been, this is such a you project, because it’s unexpected, it’s wild, but yet it’s completely me, even though it’s multifaceted.
BC: How did your collaboration with Abbie Gamboa take place for the title track, “Happy”?
Johnson: I love that girl. She’s very special to me, and we were writing together. It was her brother-in-law who played this little line on the piano, and we were like, “Oh my God! This is so fun.” One of our friends’ little boys came in the room. So the track opens with me saying, “Hi, you’re just what we need!” because our friend’s little boy came in the room. His name is Milo, whom we adore. I think she has two kids and loves being a mom. I have five kids and have raised half of our church worship team’s babies as well. This song showcases how different all our kids are and how God loves us for our uniqueness, and knows every little thing about us, and how we love our kids for their uniqueness. Holidays make us so happy. Kids are such a gift. One of the biggest joys of my life has been just having kids around me for all these years.
Here’s the video of “Thank You Lord” by Jenn Johnson
& Brooke Ligertwood.
BC: How did the worship anthem, “Holy Forever” develop?
Johnson: Chris Tomlin, Phil Wickham, and my husband Brian play a lot together, and they’re always working on something. They had gotten to a certain point in the song, and they showed me some of the song and said, “What do you think would be a good chorus here?” I sat down at that piano and (she sings) and the angels cry, holy. They had parts, and I had a part, and then they kept working it until it was finished. I feel like that melody and that chord progression came down from heaven. That is one of my favorite songs. I’m thankful that I got to be a part of it, because it takes your focus away from this world, and magnifies and glorifies God.
BC: How did you co-write your song, “Goodness of God”?
Johnson: I wrote 60 or 70% of the song in my car, and it was after our fourth little boy, who was our first adopted. We have three biological and two adopted little boys. Our fourth son’s adoption was finalized, and they call you and they say, “He’s yours!” It’s this epic moment after a really long journey. Adoption is a big journey that is well worth it.
I was crying in my car, driving, and I started singing to the Lord, this song of, like, all my life’s been faithful, and I love you, Lord. I’d always wanted to write a song that carried the spirit of that old chorus, I love you, Lord. It was a different piece of my heart, and I felt like I was supposed to pick up my phone and start recording. Then I took what I had written to a songwriting session with Ed Cash of We the Kingdom, Ben Fielding, Jason Ingram, and Brian, and they helped me finish it. It’s a special song because every word is true of my life, how the Lord has walked with me through it all, highs and lows, and even beyond my wildest dreams, you know, exceedingly, abundantly more than you could ever ask or imagine. That is my life. That song just resonates with every fiber of my being because it’s true.
BC: What do you hope fans take away when they listen to your new album?
Johnson: My biggest hope is that people will listen to the project all the way through. We live in a weird world. Back in the old days, you had to listen to the whole project all the way through, and I really miss that about projects. It’s so important to get the full perspective of what the artist was saying in the project. I think that the biggest takeaway that I hope people have is a hunger to know the Lord more, and the awareness that He is with you through everything. He is speaking to you at all times, in different ways. He’s there for you, and he is obsessed with you, he loves you, and he loves everything about you, and he craves everything about you.
Bill Conger has been a freelance music journalist for more than 30 years, writing feature segments for shows on the former TNN and Country Music Television. He has written for various publications including Bluegrass Unlimited, Bluegrass Today, Fiddler, American Songwriter, CMT.com, GACTV.com. He can be reached at billofwrites2@yahoo.com.
