b. 1949 Person Name: Bob Cull Hymnal Number: 2086 Author of "Open Our Eyes" in The Faith We Sing Rv Robert Marcus Cull USA 1949-present, Born at Los Angeles, CA, he was musically inclined. At age six he played piano in his parents’ church, and over the next few years learned to play more than a dozen different instruments. He attended Southern CA College (now Vanguard U), Costa Mesa, CA, an Assembly of God institution. He also attended Calvary Chapel, a nearby church, that featured a similar type of music worship. He became a part of the 1960s-70s ‘Jesus Movement’ in CA. That movement was a response to two groups, hippies and evangelicals, who did not feel included in the mainline Christian community. He married Joy Strange, a singer with Maranatha. In 1971 Maranatha began publishing its music as a non-profit outreach media. It eventually morphed into a media outlet association of nondenominational groups. Cull joined one of its singing groups, ‘The Accents’, dedicated to performing new Christian songs published by Maranatha. He published two albums of music with the group. After marrying, he and his wife sang together and published four more albums (1979-1984), but later divorced. In 1975, in Hawaii, Cull was invited to give a one-hour midday solo concert at a parochial school. He arrived early and tried to speak with some of the faculty members. None of them wanted to talk about Jesus. He sat down at the piano before concert time and thought, all I am going to do is sing about Jesus, so I will likely bore them to death. He prayed, “Lord, we need to see the real Jesus, and no one here seems to know you”. About that time, his song came to mind, and he quickly wrote it down, finishing it in about 10 minutes. He then sang it to the school gathering for the first time. When Cull later returned to his church in CA, someone had already brought his song back and taught it to the congregation. Maranatha asked him to prepare orchestrations for the song and record it. It has since become his most well-known song, sung throughout the Christian world. Cull later became the pastor of Midcoast Country Chapel, Wiscasset, ME. He retired in 2014. The congregation has since disbanded. Cull moved to Friday Harbor, WA, and now lives at Eastsound, WA. Other details regarding his life were not found.
John Perry
Robert Cull