God is up to something
Bryan Moyer Suderman releases his fifth SmallTall album
Just over 10 years ago, a Winnipeg youth pastor named Bryan Moyer Suderman sat down on his living room floor with his then three-year-old son and sang, for the first time, a simple song he had written. The refrain says: "God's love is for everybody, everybody around the world / Me and you and all God's children / From across the street to around the world."
Little did he know that a new vocation was being born.
The following year, Moyer Suderman released his debut album, titled God's Love is For Everybody. In the nine years since, he's left his youth pastor job, moved to Ontario, established a music ministry called SmallTall Music and released three more albums.
His fifth, Detectives of Divinity, will be released this month.
"It feels pretty amazing," the 42-year-old says by phone from his home in Stouffville, Ontario, just north of Toronto. "When I started 10 years ago, it's not like I started with thinking about a career path in ministry. That wasn't the goal or intention - it hadn't occurred to me. And certainly, 10 years on, it's kind of amazing to think that it's been that long and that there's no sign of it stopping."
The mission of SmallTall Music is "to build up the body of Christ by creating and sharing songs of faith for small and tall."
While Moyer Suderman was initially billed as a children's entertainer, he says it's always been his goal to write songs that appeal to everyone, regardless of their age.
"For me, the songs I'm writing and the way I understand myself to be functioning really is [to write] songs for the community of faith, which is an intergenerational community that includes the small and the tall," he says. "It saddens me if I feel I'm being restricted to only kids' stuff or only adults' stuff."
So consider Moyer Suderman a mix between Fred Penner and Steve Bell. The music is melodious, guitar-driven folk with simple lyrics that tell important biblical stories and theological truths.
"Beloved Child" from his 2005 album Can't Keep Quiet, for example, is based on passages from Mark, and "For Just Such a Time" from 2009's A New Heart is based on the story of Esther.
Conveying the idea that God's work in the world is ongoing is key.
"[I want] to really express that this is our story - this isn't just some ancient story that is interesting for historical reasons," Moyer Suderman says of the Scriptures. "This a story we continue to live all the time."
That idea is reflected on Detectives of Divinity, a 12-song collection Moyer Suderman recorded earlier this year.
"We are detectives of divinity, we're looking all around / For signs of God's activity wherever they are found / God is up to something, of that you can be sure / So start the investigation, the clues are everywhere," he sings on the title track.
Moyer Suderman often begins his songwriting process by asking himself and other people, "What do we need to sing?" He keeps a running list of scriptural texts and themes to draw from.
His work has resonated with listeners in Mennonite church circles and beyond. Moyer Suderman regularly performs 70 concerts a year across Canada and the United States, typically travelling by train.
He says a big highlight of the past 10 years has been hearing stories of how his songs have been useful to church communities and individual families.
"That's almost a shockingly intimate thing - that something you've written or a song that you've done has become a part of someone's life that way," he says.
"That's one of the mysterious things about songs," he adds. "They go where they will and they do their work in the world, and sometimes you can find out a little bit about what the work has been."
Detectives of Divinity will be in stores in September, and Moyer Suderman has performances booked in southern Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec for the next three months. Visit www.smalltallmusic.com for details.
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
About the author