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Artist Description | FFH
"The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
Lamentations 3:25-26
Like precious metal refined through fire, Worship In The Waiting is a collection of songs that reflect the profoundly personal two year journey of music and ministry that God has laid before the four dedicated worshippers within the long standing friendship banding of FFH.
Together as FFH, since it’s founding in 1991 as the band childhood friends Jeromy Deibler and Brian Smith had dreamed of forming, Jeremy and Brian along with Jeromy’s wife, Jennifer, and close friend to all Michael Boggs, saw their collective influence in Contemporary Christian Music rise to include record sales of over a million units, seven #1 radio singles, a catalogue of best selling album releases, successful national headlining tours, and multiple Dove Award nominations.
Then in 2005 the music was replaced by silence. “Jennifer and I really had been feeling the Lord was doing something new with us; as a family, as a couple and also with FFH. Brian and Michael were individually feeling the same message,” notes Jeremy. “We decided FFH should take a sabbatical to re-focus on what God had in the mix for us individually. It was actually a time of waiting, there was a lot of uncertainty involved so a lot of the inspiration for the new album came out of this time of really intensely seeking to hear God. When we began work on the worship album, the message that was rolling in my head was ‘in the waiting, in the waiting’.”
We were waiting on wisdom on the band’s future, Jennifer and I were waiting on a leading we were feeling to go to Africa, in the midst of all, we were undergoing some relationships that were really out of sync in our church where we were leading worship. I remember thinking, ‘God, are you saying you’re finished with us?”
Rather than ‘finished,’ Jeremy and Jennifer found their lives dramatically being stretched as an outgrowth of their passion for worship. “Time off the road meant we could be dedicated to our commitment to lead worship regularly in our church, notes Jennifer. “As a function of leadership, Jeromy initially went on a ten day music conference to mentor worship leaders in Capetown, South Africa.” Adds Jeremy “It affected me so deeply, I came back and told Jennifer, ‘I feel like God is calling us to Africa to lead worship.’
He adds, “The album was still unfinished when we left for Africa to lead worship for six months at a little church with 200 people. Those six months forever changed our perception of what worship is about. It’s not about wanting to be an amazingly great worship band, it’s totally in reaching the heart of everyone within listening distance with the message of the greatness of God. It’s in humility.”
“While in Africa, Jennifer and I lived about two miles from the little church we served. On three separate occasions we stood horrified watching from our window as the village in the valley down the hill burned totally down! The landscape was so dry that literally 300 shacks would be instantly ablaze at one time. I remember later driving down through the ruins, over and over we’d see people picking through what was left of their homes. From what had been a 12’x12’ shack you would see them already in the process of re-building in the very ashes where their home had been, beginning again with what was left of the meagre possessions they had been able to salvage. In the midst of it all of this tragedy and loss, they were happy. They had God, and they truly and genuinely worshipped Him in spirit and truth.”
That message is alive in the tracks of Worship In The Waiting.
Notes Jeremy, “Hopefully these are songs people can use in the own worship experience with God. The Bible talks repeatedly about ‘waiting on the Lord.’ I just read the verse in Lamentations 3:25-26 that says ‘The Lord is good to those who wait on Him, and to the soul that seeks Him.’ The word ‘wait’ is defined as ‘gather, expect, and bind together.’ The verse is talking about coming together and waiting as a community to seek God and worship Him, and then it says to ‘sit alone in silence.’ Our hope is that the album will offer a genuine worship experience in God that will bring His presence, both in community and for those who worship individually.”
With the new album releasing, FFH is on hiatus from the rigours of the road. “One of the things the four of us agree on is what we are not breaking up. We want to leave open the possibility of what God has in the future. In the meantime, Jennifer and I are doing some things on our own. Brian Smith is busy and very successful doing music industry consulting on the business side. Michael Boggs is a gifted songwriter with a full career that keeps him on the road a lot with his own music. Everyone at the moment is enjoying where God has them. Hopefully that will add something to each of us personally and if God says ‘do the band thing together again’, whenever and whatever that looks like, we’ll all be better for having had this time and individual experience.”
FFH’s latest project has been, after all, worth the “wait.”
Jeremy sums up the group’s collective heart on Worship In The Waiting with a final thought.
“A friend of mine in Africa recently e-mailed a beautiful analogy of the refining process silver goes through. A silversmith held a piece of silver over the fire and explained to onlookers that in refining silver the element has to be held in the very centre of the fire where the flames are hottest in order to burn away all the impurities. It brings to mind the scripture about how God sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. When asked why the silversmith has to sit there during the entire process, and not just leave the silver and come back to it, he explained he had to not only sit there the entire time in front of the fire holding the silver but he had to hold the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If it were left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be utterly destroyed. When asked how he knew the moment when the silver if totally refined he answered, ‘When I can see my image in it.’”
“That’s the whole point of waiting for God’s promise. The fire and the waiting are worth every moment when His image appears in us.”
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