‘I want people to forget me, but see Jesus'

Australian singer-songwriter Darlene Zschech was the worship pastor of Hillsong Church in Sydney from 1996 to 2007, producing more than 20 albums under the Hillsong Music label and writing more than 80 published worship songs, as well as six books. She speaks with Jemimah Wright about her achievements and meeting God while battling cancer

JW: Your song ‘Shout to the Lord’ is 30 years old. Can you tell us what life was like for you when you wrote it?

DZ: I was 28. I had two little girls, who now have their own families. And I was singing at church, learning how to worship lead. I was quite nervous about stepping into that role. One day I was very frustrated. I think Mark and I both had such a desire to be in church ministry full time, and there was just no way that that was ever going to happen as far as we could see. We had a business and I was singing jingles. We got this horrendous bill in one day, and I just remember sitting down at the piano and literally just started singing it. You’ll find “Shout to the Lord” between Psalm 95 and Psalm 100. It just kind of weaves in and out of those scriptures. I didn’t even write it. I didn’t even play it to anybody for a while as I was not a very confident songwriter (I would probably still say the same thing now). I just held on to it. And then I said to our worship pastor and our music pastor: “I think I might have a song.” I made them stand with their backs to me. I apologised the whole way through, and by the end, Jeff Bullock, who was our worship pastor, turned around and said: “We’re doing that this weekend.”