Geoff Bullock – The Great Southland

Geoff Bullock is a retired Australian singer and songwriter. He was a Hillsong worship pastor at their Sydney location from 1987 to 1995. he left due to burnout. He co-authored several Hillsong songs during his tenure, including The Power of Your Love, Have Faith in God, and I Will Never Be the Same Again.

He released five albums under his name, including:

• You Rescued Me: The First Ten Years Anthology 1987-1997 (1997)
• A Symphony of Hope (1999)
• Deeper and Deeper (2001)
• Geoff Bullock (2007)
• The Power of Your Love – The Songs of Geoff Bullock (2011)

He also authored two books:

• Hands of Grace: Jesus, God’s Symphony of Hope (1998)
• Power of your love: Jesus: the unexpected God (2000)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Geoff-bullock-the-great-southland-lyrics.

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1. What message does the song communicate?

This song is about Christians following Jesus’ command to reap and harvest, that is, to fulfill the Great Commission. Through this, the Holy Spirit will bring revival to our land.

Score: 10/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

This song is Scriptural.

This song does not contain a Verse/Chorus/Bridge structure.  Therefore, I assigned stanzas to each paragraph.

[Stanza 1]

Lines 1-4. Reaping and harvesting have different contexts in the Bible. However, these opening lines speak of a future and hope, which points us directly to Matthew 9:35-38. It is here that Jesus speaks of the harvest in the context of proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to distressed and downcast people. The specific land in question is Australia; However, this concept could apply to any land that contains lost people. We do this by spreading the good news about Jesus to those who don’t know (Matthew 28:18-20).

[Stanza 2]

Lines 1-4: In short, Holy Spirit-led revival (Isaiah 57:15).  He will convict the world (John 16:7-11).

[Stanza 3]

Lines 1-4: This explicitly confirms my interpretation of Stanza 2 as revival.

[Stanza 4]

Lines 1-4: Rewording of previously mentioned concepts of reaping/harvesting, more details about this land, and the Spirit coming.

[Stanza 5]

Repeats Stanza 4.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

They will probably conclude that this is a land where the Holy Spirit will bring about revival, and that Christians will prosper within it.  They probably won’t think that the reaping/harvesting is souls for Christ.

Score: 8/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies the Holy Spirit as the One ultimately responsible for revival. We cooperate with the Spirit by telling others about Jesus.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Geoff Bullock’s The Great Southland is warm. It draws Christians to treat our homeland as the mission field, harvesting souls for Jesus by spreading the Gospel. Through this, the Holy Spirit can do His work, reviving the sick and dying world. This brings Him glory. Aside from winning people for Jesus, unbelievers should easily interpret similarly.

This song is inspirational, but not suitable for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: The Great Southland (listen to the song)

Artist: Geoff Bullock

Album: N/A

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 1992

Duration: 3:55

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