Wonderstruck, I squeezed my friend's hand three times while our childhood hero performed the three-hour concert of our dreams. Yet, what stayed with me was the realisation that thousands within the crowd had never met Jesus.

The Eras Tour immersed people in Swift's glittering world of artistry, inspiring women across every generation. A liberating, playful and above all safe environment for women to express their emotions. Picture Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Land, but in real life.

Expressing it all

Swift’s popularity thrives on the fact that her songs resonate with our emotions. An exceptional storyteller, she touches on many aspects of life in authentic, honest and sensitive ways. Do you desire a secure, empowering outlet? Swift is your woman. Are you feeling anxious? Try listening to The Archer. Heartbroken? All Too Well. Madly in love? Wildest Dreams. The list goes on.

One example of Swift’s lyrics perfectly connecting with my circumstances was when I was about to lose my wonderful Gran to cancer. It had been a long battle – one that my Papa was also facing. In Soon You’ll Get Better, Swift expressed everything I felt but could not say. The line ‘Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too’ hit me like a truck. I had been wrestling with God, questioning why he wouldn’t heal those I love. While depressed and praying, Jesus gently promised me, ‘Your Gran has eternal life in me, I have saved her from death’. The cross became tangible as gratitude took the place of bitterness, and my heart grew soft. God’s promise gave me the strength to hope, fully trusting my life verse: ‘I am convinced that neither death nor life … will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:38-39).

Identifying with a movement

Five years on, the grief in my chest swelled in a stadium full of lights, swaying and singing: ‘I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me… What died didn't stay dead. You’re alive, so alive.’ Swift wrote Marjorie about her late grandmother – including Marjorie’s vocals as a beautiful memoir. Swift and her gran singing together with thousands of others was one of the best therapeutic outlets I’ve experienced because we were together in it.

It’s why Swift’s Eras Tour is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. Her music invites us to share in an identity, to belong to a community, with friendship bracelets! So, what does this mean for making disciples?

Longing to share

There is a global movement of people using Swift’s music to process and express their experiences of the world. She vocalises our longing to be known and loved. As alongsiders, we can speak into that.

Many of the next generation are trying to fit Swift into a God-shaped gap.

While singing Marjorie, I was so thankful for my living hope in Jesus, yet heartbroken for others keeping those they love alive solely in their memories. We have an eternal love that needs to be passed on.

Artists like Swift give us a common and beautiful language with which to draw alongside someone. We can talk openly about our hopes, fears and struggles, notice our desperate need for faith, and invite each other to find the fulfilment we long for in Jesus.