Dove Award-winning artist Matthew West spoke with ChurchLeaders during a recent Winter Jam tour stop.
West shared what inspired his new 40-day devotional, “Don’t Stop Praying,” and described what he sees as a spiritual stirring among younger audiences. He also talked about the message behind his new song, “Good,” which centers on grace.
West joins Chris Tomlin, Katy Nichole, Hulvey, Disciple, NewSong, Emerson Day, Heath Brothers, Jeremy Rosado, Cliff Preston, and Zane Black on this year’s Winter Jam lineup.
With three weekends of shows completed, the “Unashamed” singer said the experience has been “incredible.”
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“It’s cool to start the year off with a tour like this and the crowd is just filled with people who are ready to start their year off worshiping,” West said. “So the energy level in every arena has just been off the charts.”
West said his new “Don’t Stop Praying” devotional was inspired by a desire to go deeper in his own prayer life.
“When you’re writing a song, you’re telling a story, you got to do it in three minutes,” West explained, speaking about the song he named the devotional after. “You got to make it rhyme, but there might be more you want to say to unpack that. And so ‘Don’t Stop Praying,’ there was a lot I wanted to unpack and really just out of a desire to go deeper in my own prayer life.”
The 40-day devotional features short chapters aimed at pointing people to Scripture and reminding them of the importance of prayer, West said.
“I’m really excited to share it with the world,” he added.
Over the past year, West said he has watched the younger generation seek out authentic faith—something he said he is seeing on display at Winter Jam.
“I feel like there’s a younger generation having a desire to seek out something real and authentic and finding their faith in that,” West said. “Chris Tomlin and I were talking about how we feel like we’re getting to kind of have a front row seat to really experience that with each community that we’re traveling to.”
“These are crazy times and when Charlie [Kirk’s] life was taken away, I think that stirred in a lot of people just kind of going ‘Whoa, like sometimes standing up for what you believe in might actually come at a cost,’” West continued. “So I think that’s something that I’ve thought a lot about since then of like what does it look like? It stirred in me to be more bold than ever before about standing up for what is good and right and true and most importantly not to try to be a divisive.”
