My roots are Mennonite; one of the Anabaptist movements birthed in Europe in the 1500’s. (By the way, when you hear the word ‘Mennonite’ don’t think black clothing and horse & buggy like the Amish; the Mennonite Brethren I was raised among on the West Coast of Canada looked just like other evangelicals.)

The Mennonite Brethren denomination began in Ukraine in the southern part of the Russian Empire in the late 1800’s. They formed because they felt that the Mennonites had grown cold and formal, and as the Holy Spirit began to move, a renewal movement was formed. All of my grandparents were born and raised in this environment in the early 1900s.

I wrote ‘Light the fire again’ as I prepared for a ‘Mennonite renewal’ conference in Ontario , Canada in 1993. I was led to meditate on Rev 3; the letter to the Laodicean church, and I prayed for God to return us to our first love . . . . just like the MB’s 100 years earlier, I was asking God to not let our love grow cold. I expected the song to be sung that weekend . . . and then forgotten, but the following year I was invited to record that song in L.A. for Vineyard Music (on a recording that was called “Light the fire again”) and the song caught on.

Recently this song has come alive again for me . . . and I am sensing the connection to the husband heart of God . . . and His call to return to Him with our whole hearts!