Back in February of 2015, I shared the song “Good Good Father” by Pat Barrett and Tony Brown (Housefires). Since then I’ve shared interviews and other renditions of the song, including one with Chris Tomlin. It is, by far, the most popular worship song I’ve ever posted, with over 30, 000 views and growing. Why has this song resonated so with the body of Christ?
Here’s what I’m seeing. I’m seeing a generation, much of it fatherless, finally finding answers that only a Good Father can provide. We’re finding our true identity in the love of our heavenly Papa. We’re finally finding out, despite all the stories told about what He’s like, that He’s not angry or disappointed with us, nor is He so transcendent and distant that we can’t be embraced by Him.
We’re finding out He’s perfect in all of His ways…to us.
And we’re finally finding out that this Father is just like Jesus. He’s a “friend of sinners,” who loved us before we loved Him…that He has always been this way. He didn’t have to have His mind changed in order to love us, and He didn’t have to kill His Son in order to forgive us. He’s not a legalistic judge who demands retribution, or a Potentate who needs His pound of flesh; He’s a good, good Father.
This Father sent Jesus because He wants all seven billion of us to know that He loves all of us exactly like He loves His Son (emphasis added):
23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:23 NKJV)
Jesus’ desire was that every person on the planet know this through the love shared among His followers (John 13:35). Unfortunately, the world has traditionally been told another story about Him through us. But that’s changing…
It’s changing because we’re finally finding out what Jesus wanted us to know, that His Father sent Him to rescue us, to make us His, in order to bring us into the same circle of mutual love and fellowship He and His Father have known since before the foundation of the world!
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24 NKJV)
We’re finally finding out who we are in the Father’s embrace. This is what this song is about. And when we finally see Him as He really is, we find out that we’re not “dirty sinners” anymore, nor are we “snow-covered dung,” as Luther stated long ago. We’re a New Creation, old things have passed away….We’re His beloved sons and daughters, His pearl of great price, the apple of His eye, Jesus’ gloriously adorned bride. And we’re learning how to dance in the open fields of His transforming grace and redeeming love!
Here’s a spontaneous version of “Good Good Father” performed by WorshipMob. I hope you enjoy this latest rendition of what is arguably the most important worship song of our time.
Take some time and let this Prodigal Father sing over you, embrace you, restore you. He calls you deeper still, reaffirming you, shaping and reshaping how you see yourself in Him.
There’s nothing you can do to change His mind about you, for He always was, and always will be, a good, good Father.
In My Father's House 
That’s the true original message of Eastern Orthodox Christianity 😉
I’ve studied most of the patristic fathers, and you’re right, it is the same core message. In fact, this was the core message of the entire church, East and West, in the first few centuries, especially the ante-Nicene fathers. Although it may not look or be practiced like the Eastern Orthodox, what is happening has the same heart and message of sonship in the Father’s embrace.
God loves diversity but not divisiveness. This message will be lived out in multi-faceted ways in the body of Christ, yet we’ll all see one another in Christ in God (John 14:20).