Worship artist Brooke Ligertwood has spent more days than she can count in the studio, but there’s one particular session that stands out the most.
While filming an acoustic set for her worship album Eight, Ligertwood had almost started recording when the studio’s owner approached her with an old microphone in hand.
The crew had already set the stage, and the sound was exactly what everyone wanted, so she was confused about what he intended to do with the vintage mic. Little did she know, it wasn’t just any microphone.
“He walked right up and asked if I’d be willing to switch the microphone out for ‘I Do,’” she said. “He told me, ‘My grandfather was Billy Graham’s right-hand man. This microphone was Billy Graham’s microphone and it still has the original ribbon. I’ve had it at my house, and I’ve been saving it for when it felt like the right thing to have somebody record it on. And I felt like this shoot today, and you were the right person to use this microphone.’”
Ligertwood and her crew agreed. The artists gathered around the mic in the middle of the room, focusing not just on the moment, but the weight of what it represented.
“We just talked for a moment about what that microphone represented—about the voice, the life of obedience that voice had spoken into, and also the words that had been spoken into that microphone, which is of course the Gospel,” she said.
“It caused us all to pause for a minute and think about the heritage that we are all standing in. Truthfully, none of us would be standing here if it wasn’t for people like Billy Graham and the generations who have gone before us who were faithful with the Gospel and their generation.”
Ligertwood has been thinking a lot about legacy and obedience lately. The idea that faithfulness to God isn’t always loud or immediate—it’s often quiet, steady, and full of unanswered questions.
“I think I’m naturally a reflective person,” she said. “I think a lot about what it means to live in obedience and the consequences of that.”
She’s been especially struck by a quote from Dr. Charles Stanley, a spiritual mentor from afar whose passing in 2023 caused her to revisit some of his teachings.
“One of my favorite things he said was, ‘Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him,’” she shared. “An obedience of consequence happens when you obey God without regard for the consequence, which I think is a pretty countercultural way to live. We’re often a real results-driven culture, but what a beautiful and freeing thing it is to live a life of faith that really trusts God with the results and leaves the consequences to Him.”
It’s not always easy. Ligertwood admitted that she’s still learning how to follow God without needing to understand the outcome.
“I really wanted to wait to put Eight out until I was on the other side of this incredibly difficult season where I could go, ‘I’m through it and this is how I got through it,’” she said. “Because that’s not my story right now. This is a record from right in the middle.”
She was navigating grief, processing loss, and stepping into a new rhythm of life and ministry. But even in the middle of uncertainty, she kept showing up.
“It’s vulnerable to talk about because I’m still going through this season, but what I can testify to is that even in the darkness and the grief of the last couple of years for us, Jesus has been the sweetness and the sustenance and deep goodness,” she explained. “His mercy has bathed everything and detoxified the poison.”
She’s honest about the fact that much of what she’s created wasn’t for the stage or the platform—it was for her own healing. And even now, some of the transformation she’s walking through is too raw to fully articulate.
“Eight brings with it a lot of my own grief, but an equal amount of surrender and gratitude,” she said. “It’s been healing to make, but sometimes it’s a bit traumatic to talk about. Still, it has been a really beautiful process and a redemptive process.”
These days, she finds herself leaning even more heavily on God and her community, especially when clarity feels far off.
“When I’ve tried to figure everything out on my own, I’ve just caused myself more wounding,” she said. “But when I’ve brought it to Him and let Him into these places of tumult in my soul, I have found His healing to be unutterably profound and sufficient.”
Ligertwood never expected to be making worship records on her own. After years as part of Hillsong UNITED and a mainstream music career as Brooke Fraser, she resisted the idea of stepping out solo in this way.
“I think it’s so important that I’m always part of something that’s bigger than me and not just about me,” she says. “I love being part of a team. That is my happiest spot.”
Still, she recognized when God was leading her into a new assignment, even if she didn’t fully understand it at the time.
“The Lord brought all of these songs into my life in a very short period of time,” she said. “But I definitely was not trying to make an album. In many ways, it was my worst nightmare, but when the Lord asks you to do something, He prepares you for it.”
That surrender has become a daily rhythm now. Ligertwood says she no longer measures her calling by what she creates or releases. Her only goal is to remain available.
“I’m not trying to build anything,” she said. “I’m not trying to build up a legacy as Brooke Ligertwood. At this point, it’s just obedience and surrender, obedience and surrender on repeat every day of my life.”
She still writes and reads constantly, filling her home with books and questions and conversation. She’s fascinated by the life of David in the Psalms—a man who, despite his failures, constantly returned to the same posture: inquiry.
“David was absolutely a person of inquiry,” she explained. “He was not a perfect man, but he had a heart after God. One of the beautiful ways we can see that throughout his life is that he never stopped inquiring of the Lord.”
She wants that to be true of her too. To never stop asking. To never assume she knows what God wants.
“I never want to assume what the Lord wants. I always want to ask Him, ‘What do you think about this, Lord? What do You want?’ He’s really faithful in the way that He leads us.”
She’s convinced there’s one question believers never have to ask, though.
“One thing I don’t think we ever have to question is are we called,” she said. “Because the answer is emphatically, ‘Yes!’ If God has saved you, He has called you.”
The shape of that calling may shift. It may surprise her. It may come in the form of worship records or quiet conversations or something entirely unexpected. But Ligertwood is OK with that.
“One day, I’m going to be the old weird lady in church going up to the young people asking if they need prayer,” she laughed. “And I cannot wait. Because that will be my assignment in that season.”
Until then, she’s committed to asking, obeying, and trusting. Whatever comes next, she’s ready.
