Musician using haunting song to represent division in the church

While the term 'haunted' doesn't sound like a Christian term, one songwriter is sharing a deeper meaning for her latest video and song.

Heidi Korte teaches singers and songwriters across Canada. She also teaches young worship leaders and Christian musicians up in the Interlake in person once a week. 

She's originally from Northeastern Ontario but has lived in Winnipeg for the past 15 years. She goes to her home in Ontario every summer. It was there that the inspiration for her latest song came to her.

"I spend the summer with my parents in Northeastern Ontario and I bike every day. That's often when I have my chats with God about life. That's often when I get my creative ideas."

She heard Patric Scott's song, "Haunted" and had a flood of ideas come to mind about a remixed version of it. 

The song originally is about a man who loses his wife, and now his house is haunted by her memory. 

Initially, Korte was unsure if this idea to put out a song and video about a place being haunted was from God, as she shares that she doesn't believe in ghosts. After the song was done, she found a deeper meaning behind it all. 

"What God said to me about this video is that I in the video represent the church, and those spirits represent division in the church. What I am seeing in this season is that there is a lot of division between ourselves."

She shot the video in a ruined theatre in Northern Ontario. From the conception of the idea until the video was shot, including a choreographer dance with dancers, was only one week. 

Korte felt directed towards specific Bible verses as well as she prayed about the deeper meaning behind the song. One is from John 17 and the other from Ephesians 4, both verses are centred around unity. 

"The question I'm asking myself is, how can I live sacrificially in my life to love those I disagree with politically and socially."

Korte shares that this is something she wrestles with in her own life.

"I have been in prayer about it because I feel so inadequate in that area," says Korte. "Those emotions and judgements are in my heart so I have been praying for people in my circle on my bike rides, asking 'God, help me love like you'."

While the project came together very quickly, Korte believes there may have been divine intervention because within a week she was able to speak with Scott, the songwriter out in Switzerland, about doing this rendition and changing lyrics. 

"You need express copyright permission to change lyrics. In those seven days, he emailed me directly and said yes, and since then he has promoted it."