In August 2000 at a Christian conference I was deeply challenged about my relationship with God as my heavenly Father. The song "You are my Father" was written in response to this.
Following this I read Henri Nouwen's inspiring book "The Return of the Prodigal Son", a meditation on Rembrandt's painting of the same name. This caused me to think and pray further about my attitude to the Father, both as the younger and particularly the elder son. The idea of a larger-scale piece was slowly taking shape, and gradually more songs resulted during 2001.
I wanted to write something that would demonstrate the Father's amazing love to His children. The purpose was twofold. First, to encourage those that had turned away from God to return to His outstretched arms. Second, to challenge those within the church whose hearts have grown cold and bitter like the elder son, to respond to the Father's invitation to join the party. Thus there is a slot near the end for a short talk; this would be a challenge to all of us at whatever stage of our spiritual journey to return to the Father's love.
I also wanted to ensure that the musical was accessible to both small and large churches, and so The Return is designed in a flexible way. It can be performed with just two soloists, Father and younger daughter. The elder daughter's solo is optional. The words could also be adapted for the daughters to be sons. In addition to this a narrator is needed, and a choir which can be small or large, preferably in four parts. Instrumentally a keyboard player is essential - thereafter drums, guitar, bass guitar, violin, saxophone, trumpet, cello, oboe and flute are all desirable but not essential. Other instruments could also be included.
Drama, dance and visual images are all possible ways of enhancing the music and the message. This will depend on the expertise available - it will be better to focus on one or two of these areas and do them well than attempt all three and end up with something distracting.
My hope is that as you sing these songs you too will experience something of the incredible love of our wonderful Father.