Tim Hughes & Cody Carnes Release 'Here I Am To Worship' For Upcoming 'House of Worship' Project

Dove Award-winning songwriter and worship leader Tim Hughes is joined by four-time GRAMMY®-nominated Cody Carnes to record a new expression of “Here I Am To Worship.” Available now at streaming and digital outlets worldwide from The Fuel Music, the song is the second single from the full-length, Billboard-featured House of Worship album that is slated to be released in January 2026.

Ranked as the No. 1 most popular song sung in churches for two consecutive years (2003 and 2004) by CCLI, “Here I Am To Worship” continues to be a top 50 song on the CCLI Top 100 chart week after week. Written by Hughes, who received both Inspirational (2003) and Worship (2004) Song of the Year Dove Awards for the worship favorite, “Here I Am To Worship” carries a simple, yet profound message that centers on the wonder of Christ’s sacrifice and our response of worship.

Beginning the song in 1999 while he was attending The University of Sheffield in England, Hughes was inspired by Scripture. “I remember I was reading Philippians 2, which talked about imitating Christ’s humility and his obedience to death, even death on the cross,” he shares. “And off the back of that I found myself in my room at the university picking up the guitar and this melody flowed out: Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness. And then I have this bridge section: I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross. But then I could never finish the chorus. To be honest, I gave up on the song and forgot about it. But then six months later, during a devotion time, I started singing that bridge again. The lyrics stumbled out in response to Jesus's amazing sacrificial love: Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that You’re my God.

“The interesting thing about the song was that I initially didn’t think it was particularly good,” continues Hughes, who decided to sing the song for the first time at an event, but had low expectations for the response. “We sung it and it just kicked off, totally surprising me. And then, probably a month or so later, on my first time in America, I was invited to this conference, and I was asked to sing this song. I sang it, then tried to get off the stage and everyone kept singing for like 15 minutes. I was like, ‘what’s happening?’”

As “Here I Am To Worship” began to travel the world, soon to be the most widely sung modern worship song across denominations, Carnes was one of the thousands of worship leaders to lead the song. “I started leading worship when I was around 13 or 14, and it was one of the first songs that I led in my church,” recalls Carnes. “And I remember getting emotional when we sang the bridge. … I know that's the presence of God, that's God moving the room, but back then, I was just being overwhelmed with emotion from the lyric. That lyric captures the gratitude of what Jesus did. It's just such a simple one line, but it captures so much.”

One life-changing testimony of the song’s impact is the story of how it inspired a 20-year veteran in leadership at The Procter & Gamble Company to change his career path, moving him into the non-profit sector to lead World Vision. “God-inspired music has the power to change our lives. It happened to me when I heard Tim Hughes’ song ‘Here I Am to Worship’ for the first time,” confirms Edgar Sandoval Sr., President / CEO of World Vision. “In that moment, the Holy Spirit humbled me and led me to fully surrender my heart to Jesus. The impact of that song changed my trajectory, leading me to where I am today: serving the Lord through World Vision.”