Exclusive interview with Ayiesha Woods
by Alicia Carson
In 1966, my grandfather’s small congregation moved from a rented storefront to its own church property, which included a sanctuary, a parsonage and a multi-purpose building equipped with a full kitchen and an above the floor baptismal pool. To Bethany Deliverance Temple, this was a miraculous accomplishment, especially considering demographics of the congregation and the $10,000 deposit needed to finalize the sale.
You can imagine then, everyone’s enthusiasm on the day of the Grand Opening. Church members – young and old – marched together from the old storefront to their new church home on Webster Avenue. My mother was a young teenager then, and she tells me that as they marched, they joyfully clapped their hands and sang about the goodness of Jesus.
Years later, after I was born, the congregants were still singing joyfully about God’s miraculous ways and His willingness to answer our prayers; I sang along with them. “Call him up, call him up; tell him what you want. Jesus is on the main line now.” In nearly every song, we testified about Jesus, the heavy load-bearer, the burden-sharer, our doctor, our lawyer, our bill-payer. We were convinced, from our own experiences, that God is a reliable deliverer, and we wanted the entire world to know what we had discovered.
In 1986, my grandfather died, and my father became the new pastor. With this change came another one: Dad traded the songs we sang all our saved lives for new ones. He introduced us to worships songs with lyrics that were to God instead of about Him. “Lord, you are more precious than silver. Nothing I desire compares with you.” And the more we sang, I believe, the more curious we became about a relationship with God that extends beyond His ability to provide for us. We wanted to know Him intimately. You might even say we experienced a new dimension of conversion.
In this week’s High Notes, GRAMMY-nominated Christian artist Ayiesha Woods shares a similar story. Although Ayiesha accepted Christ into her life at a very young age, she developed a desire to know Him more intimately after she was introduced to a different dimension of worship. She begins our interview by discussing one of her favorite Bible passages, one that mirrors her transformation.
Ayiesha Woods: There’s a story in John 4 that I’m always reminded of; it’s the story about the woman at the well. As Jesus was talking to her, He addressed various issues in her life, and then He told her, “You worship what you don’t know and what you don’t understand. But the time is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship, and will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” And that’s the scripture for me. It really brings everything home.
A. Carson: Was there a time when … well, can you remember transitioning from worshiping what you didn’t know to worshiping the God you know now?
Ayiesha Woods: Oh absolutely. That’s probably one of the main reasons I gave my life to Christ; I came to know Him in a new way. You know, I came up in a very conventional, religious church setting, but when I was twelve years old, I had an opportunity to go and be a part of a service that was quite free in worship, and I saw people raising banners and flags, and I saw folks crying, and some were kneeling down at pews, and others were just dancing before the lord. This was something I’d never ever seen before, and I watched them in awe, and I just remember saying, “God, these people look like they know you.”
A. Carson: What type of church service were you accustomed to attending?
Ayiesha Woods: I was just used to going to church every week because it was the right thing to do, and we’d sing a few songs out of a hymnal. That was the extent of my knowledge. But when I saw those people worshiping God, it was something I’d never seen before, and I was amazed.
A. Carson: How were you introduced to the other church?
Ayiesha Woods: I was about 12 years old, and we had family visiting from Bermuda. They wanted to visit the church, and their understanding was there was a special move of God happening -- there was a revival taking place; so they flew all the way out to Orlando where we were living to be a part of it. We knew about the church, but we had never gone and had never experienced it. Still, when our family came into town, my mother was just like, “Yeah, we know where that is. We’ll take you guys over there.” And we all went, not even realizing it would be the beginning of my intimate relationship with Christ Jesus.
A. Carson: But you were a Christian before, right?
Ayiesha Woods: Yeah, but I was a child, for one, and two, I was raised in a setting where we didn’t have people playing instruments or carrying banners, or dancing or even clapping their hands, let alone waving flags around in a church (laugh).
A. Carson: At what point did you go from being an observer to a participant? Did it happen that evening?
Ayiesha Woods: It did. As a matter of fact, it was toward the end of the night. My cousin and I, we were very, very curious and we walked down toward the front of the sanctuary and we kind of stood off to the side, and the man of God said, “Get these children up here. God wants to do something special with these kids.” And they gathered us up and pulled us right there on the platform toward the side of the stage and he prayed for us. It was pretty amazing. It was not anything I had expected. And that night, I told God that I wanted to have what it was every one else had and what seemed to be an experience of being in a loving relationship with Christ Jesus. I gave my heart to Christ because of that. So since then, worship has been a part of everything I do. God took what I didn’t know and what I didn’t fully understand and gave me understanding and made something really special out of it.
A. Carson: How has that experience shaped you as a Christian music artist?
Ayiesha Woods: There are times when we have shows and we plan on doing a certain song and we might get into it, and the Spirit of God will just move us and prompt us to move into worship, and if He takes us there, then that’s where we’ll stay until He says otherwise, you know. But yeah, it’s very important to me because being able to worship God sets the atmosphere for visitation, and if He’s given me that responsibility as an artist, I don’t take that responsibility lightly at all.
When I asked Ayiesha to sing the song that best describes how she feels about God today, she sang the words to a Chris Tomlin song, and they poured from her heart: “Indescribable, uncontainable, you placed the stars in the sky and you know them by name. You are amazing, God. All powerful, untamable, awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim you are amazing, God.”
Ayiesha’s testimony demonstrates the power of worship to change our lives. Yes, worship is for the Father, but it impacts us too, and in ways we’d likely never imagine.
Ayiesha’s debut CD is Introducing Ayiesha Woods. Her sophomore project will be released on May 25, 2008. Visit www.ayieshawoods.com or www.myspace.com/ayieshawoods for more information.
