{"id":35677,"date":"2023-06-29T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T14:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oceans-singer-steps-out-by-faith\/"},"modified":"2023-06-29T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T14:16:00","slug":"oceans-singer-steps-out-by-faith","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oceans-singer-steps-out-by-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Oceans\u2019 Singer Steps Out by Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although she served faithfully in the youth ministry of her church, Taya Smith&#39;s singing talent was largely unknown among her church congregation. Having been forced to take time off from her job during the holiday season, she delayed too long to buy a plane ticket to visit her family. Since flights had become too expensive by then, Taya was stuck in Sydney for the holiday week. After attending a church recording that Sunday night, she sang her heart out with the youth band on stage and was noticed by the producers for Hillsong music.<\/p>\n\n<p>Two mornings later Taya received a message from producer, Mike Chislett, requesting her to come over to the studio to do some backing vocals for a new music project. Since she didn&rsquo;t have a driver&#39;s license, she traveled on multiple buses and trains over two days, and then rode her skateboard from the train station to the recording studio (about one and a half hours each way).<\/p>\n\n<p>While at the studio, she was asked to record a song titled &ldquo;Oceans.&rdquo; It was the fulfillment of a prayer she had prayed two weeks earlier, asking God for help to step out into the unknown.<\/p>\n\n<p>When released, the song &ldquo;Oceans (Where feet may fail),&rdquo; spent 61 weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs Chart. Billboard termed it the #1 Christian song of the 2010&#39;s. The song talks about stepping out into the unknown and was based on the moment the Apostle Peter walked on water.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3933,3934,3935,3938,3943,4167,4506,4901,4903,5196,5204,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[394,404],"class_list":["post-35677","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-faith-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-faith-feelings","tax_ctp_tags-faith-in-christ","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-music","tax_ctp_tags-security","tax_ctp_tags-security-in-god","tax_ctp_tags-trusting-god","tax_ctp_tags-uncertainty","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Oceans\u2019 Singer Steps Out by Faith - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oceans-singer-steps-out-by-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Oceans\u2019 Singer Steps Out by Faith - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although she served faithfully in the youth ministry of her church, Taya Smith&#039;s singing talent was largely unknown among her church congregation. 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