The GBG Story: The Story So Far

The phrase ‘Great Big God’ started as part of a song idea which Nigel Hemming had one afternoon during the summer of 2000 while walking home from work.  Thinking this idea was worth saving, Nigel and his wife Jo worked through a number of rewrites until the song ‘Our God is a Great Big God’ was born.  They taught it to the children in their church, and also in the family service, and soon realised that both children and adults were catching hold of the words and melody unusually fast.

Around the same time, Nigel was approached by Vineyard Records UK (known then simply as ‘Vineyard Music’) to co-produce their first ever UK children’s worship album.  The song was recorded and became title track of the album (Great Big God - released in September 2001).  The following Easter, the song was chosen for use in the all age worship slot at Spring Harvest – a national worship and teaching event in UK, and it was from here that the song began to spread.

In order to launch the first album, the wider team (which involved a number of creative and talented children’s workers) got together to organise a couple live events with a funky band, games, stories and ministry.  For part of the afternoon the children broke down into creative workshops including drumming, dance, songwriting and craft, and having had an opportunity to explore their own talents, they were able to bring everything back together in a big celebration.

Reaction to the first album was so positive that the team was soon reconvened to produce a follow up album (Great Big God 2: Tiny Little Me - released April 2003).  The team approached the second album with exactly the same aims in mind - to produce quality songs which would help children & adults connect with God, and which would equip those who work with children. (Read the review here)

As reaction to the albums grew the team were invited to put on more live events at churches across the UK as well as undertaking a mini tour of South Africa.  It seemed that many children and families were enjoying listening to the CD’s and many children’s workers were finding ‘fresh’ songs for use in churches, children’s clubs and schools.  The team were invited host events at the New Wine summer conferences in 2004 with over 2000 in attendance.

In 2005, with GBG songs and events more popular than ever, the team undertook a new recording project, producing 2 separate albums. Great Big God 3: God’s Love is Big was a definite attempt to modernise the sound and very definitely cranked up the guitars and the vibe while Great Big God for Pre-Schoolers went the other way with songs that specifically aimed at the younger children and finishing with the 8 minute epic “It’s Time To Sleep”. Both albums were again, very well received (read reviews here)

The GBG story has continued through 2006, with the team taking part in a number of live events (including New Wine for the third year running).  In 2007 the team visited the USA for the first time where they ran training events for kids workers and some huge Great Big God Praise Party Extravaganzas!

We hope that you have enjoyed reading ‘the story so far’ and will continue to click around the site for any more information you may require.

Nigel Hemming (the one with the guitar!)