What this song does in a room
There is a tell. Watch the back row of any room where this song lands. The arms go up before the chorus does. Most worship songs need to earn the response. This one shows up with the response already attached, because three decades of summer camps and Vacation Bible Schools have wired the chorus into the muscle memory of anyone who grew up in the church.
That is the trap. The song arrives as nostalgia and gets sung as nostalgia, and the word it is trying to recover (awesome) slides back into the very meaning Rich Mullins was trying to push against. He wrote it as a corrective. Most rooms sing it as a slogan.
The song wants to do something different. Sung the way Mullins wrote it, with the verses intact and the chorus carrying their weight, the room remembers that the God being praised is not safe. The chorus stops being a chant. It becomes the only honest response to a God who shapes mountains and shatters empires.
What this song is saying about God
The chorus stands on Deuteronomy 10:17. Moses calls God "the great, the mighty, and the awesome," and the Hebrew word there (nora) is the participle of yare, the verb for trembling fear. This is not the modern aesthetic adjective. It is the word used when human beings encounter something so large and so other that the body responds before the mind catches up. Mullins knew exactly what he was reaching for.
The verses (often skipped in worship sets) walk the congregation through salvation history. They start in Eden, move through the cross, and land at coming judgment. That sweep echoes the prophets. Nahum 1:3 sits right under the lyric about wrath and judgment: "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished." Mullins did not flinch from that line, and the verse-bridge in the original recording does not either.
Psalm 147:5 sits under the cosmic claims: "Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure." Isaiah 40:28 carries the same weight. "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary." The song stacks these claims on top of each other and dares the congregation to sing them.
Psalm 66:3 gives the chorus its grammar. "Say to God, how awesome are your deeds." The Psalmist is teaching Israel a posture of speech. The song is teaching your congregation the same one. When the chorus lands honestly, it is not a slogan about how cool God is. It is the prayer of a finite creature acknowledging that they are addressing the One who made galaxies.
Where to place this song in your set
In the Gospel Ark model, this is a recognition song. It belongs early in a set, in the moment where the congregation is being oriented to who they are addressing. It does not work as a confession song (the chorus is too declarative for that), and it does not really work as a response song (it does not lean toward consecration). It works as a re-grounding of the room in the size and otherness of God.
In the Isaiah 6 frame, it lives in the holiness section. Sung with the verses, it does the same work Isaiah's vision does in the temple. The seraphim cover their faces. The doorposts shake. The chorus is the congregation's seraphim moment.
When not to use it. Do not place it in a quiet, contemplative set where the rest of the songs are sitting in vertical intimacy. The energy will read as a tonal whiplash. Also avoid using it as a closer unless you want the room to leave on adrenaline, which is sometimes the right call (Easter morning, baptism Sunday) and sometimes not.
Practical notes for leading this song
The original is in G (default male key here). The female-friendly key is E. The 100 BPM marking is honest. Most teams play it faster, which is a mistake. The synth pulse Mullins built into the original was deliberately steady, almost military. Speed it up and it becomes a pep rally. Hold the tempo and it stays a declaration.
The 4/4 feel rewards a strong backbeat. Drums on 2 and 4 with a confident kick under the chorus. Bass should lock to the kick, not the guitar. If your bassist is improvising, the chorus will lose its anchor.
Lead the verses. This is the single biggest decision your team can make with this song. Most worship sets skip them. Do not. They carry the theology. If your congregation does not know them, sing them anyway as a solo vocal moment and let the band drop down. Then bring the band back for the chorus and watch the room respond.
For the production side. Lighting: the chorus wants a wash, not a moving-light spectacle. The song is too iconic to need theatrical underlining. Keep the wash warm (amber, not white). Audio: the chorus is going to be louder than your soundcheck expected because the congregation knows it. Push the vocal mix back two dB on the chorus and let the room carry it. ProPresenter: the verses change quickly. Print a hard copy for the operator and walk through it before service.
Songs that pair well
Into this song. "How Great Is Our God" (Tomlin) hands off the same theological category but in softer language, so the Mullins chorus arrives as the more direct version of what was just sung. "This Is Amazing Grace" (Wickham) sets up a celebration register that this song completes. "Ancient of Days" (CityAlight) lays the throne-room imagery that the verses then narrate.
Out of this song. "Holy Holy Holy" lets the room sit with the awe that the chorus stirred up. "Be Thou My Vision" pivots from declaration to consecration. "Spirit of the Living God" turns the room toward response after the cosmic claims have landed.
Before you lead this song
You are leading a room full of people who already know the chorus. That is not the obstacle. The obstacle is that they think they know what the chorus means. Sing the verses. Hold the tempo. Let the word "awesome" recover its weight.