Song
I Came to Worship You
© New Glory International
Behind the song
The story behind I Came to Worship You
Written by
Terry MacAlmon
Terry MacAlmon context
Title song of I Came to Worship You, recorded with worshippers at the World Prayer Center
I Came to Worship You is almost a statement of purpose set to music. Terry MacAlmon wrote it with the kind of direct language that has become one of the hallmarks of his ministry. There is no long introduction explaining why the worshipper has come. The song simply makes the decision: I came to worship, to sing praise, to love the Lord and to lift His name.
That simplicity mattered in the World Prayer Center setting where the song was recorded with hundreds of worshippers. Terry has often challenged worship leaders not to make songs so complicated that the people in the room are left watching the musicians perform them. Worship belongs to the people of God. A song should help them participate. I Came to Worship You does exactly that. Its words can be understood immediately, which means the heart can move beyond learning the song and begin doing what the song says.
Making it the title track of the 2001 album was fitting. The album was not designed merely to document a concert. It captured worship happening in a room where people had gathered for the Lord. The title therefore describes both the song and the posture behind the recording.
For Terry, this song remains important because it clears away secondary motives. Worship is not first about receiving an answer, a blessing or even a feeling of God's presence. It begins with a decision to come for Him. The song gives that decision a voice, and then leaves enough room for the worshipper to mean it.
Watch
I Came to Worship You
Official Terry MacAlmon YouTube channel
The Glory of His Presence gathers some of the strongest worship moments from Terry MacAlmon's first major live-recording years into one collection. Rather than documenting a new concert or worship night, the album tells the story of a season through songs that had already become closely connected with Terry's ministry around the world.
You Deserve the Glory opens the collection with one of the most recognized moments from the World Prayer Center recordings. I Came to Worship You follows with the simple declaration that became the center of another album. Captivate My Heart, Holy Are You Lord and We Glorify the Lamb bring together prayer, holiness and adoration. You're My Glory and How Long add the personal language of dependence and hunger, while I Surrender All, Lord moves into complete surrender. How We Need the River and O the Glory bring the collection to a close in the same atmosphere that runs through the entire project: longing for God's presence.
For listeners discovering Terry's music for the first time, The Glory of His Presence became a natural doorway into the earlier albums. It brings together the songs without losing the spiritual flow that made the original recordings distinctive. This is not simply a greatest-hits collection built around popularity. The songs were chosen because together they reveal the heart of the worship ministry: exalt Jesus, welcome the Holy Spirit and make room for people to respond to God.
The title says it plainly. Across different recordings, different gatherings and different songs, one theme kept returning - the glory of His presence. This collection brings those moments together in one journey of worship.
