Welcome Home
#1027 Hymns—For Home and ChurchLyrics
The Story Behind “Welcome Home”
A greeter standing in the snow with open arms gave this hymn its title — and its tune is named for him, and for the author's father.
A Snowy Sunday in Spokane
In early 2017, Andrea Christensen Brett visited her son's college songwriting class on a day the students shared original hymns — and challenged herself to try writing one, something she hadn't attempted since her own student days at BYU decades earlier.
Days later, on a snowy Sunday, she visited her in-laws' ward in Spokane, Washington. Outside the meetinghouse stood Demetrius O'Neal, a recent convert serving as ward greeter, arms outstretched in the snow: 'Welcome! Welcome to the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Welcome home!' Brett never forgot it. 'That's how I would love everyone to feel,' she said, 'when they come to our houses of worship.' The greeting became the hymn.
The Tune with Two Names in It
Look at the hymn's tune name: DEMETRIUS WADE. It honors two men. Demetrius is the greeter Brett met only once. Wade is Wade Christensen — her father, who died in December 2017, the same year the hymn was born. Brett felt a prompting she didn't understand to finish a five-part arrangement of the song; she completed it just in time to sing 'Welcome Home' as the closing number at her father's funeral.
The hymn had grown to hold both meanings: the welcome at the chapel door, and the welcome waiting on the other side. Of the reunion to come, Brett says simply: 'They will be there with open arms to greet me.'
From 17,000 Submissions
Brett had dreamed since childhood of writing a hymn for the Church's hymnal — 'Welcome Home' was the only one of her roughly ten submissions written before the hymnbook project was even announced. Chosen from more than 17,000 submissions, it was released February 13, 2025, as hymn #1027, and the Tabernacle Choir sang it in general conference that April.
'My hope and dream for Welcome Home,' Brett says, 'is to send the message that every single person in the Church would be a welcome home person.'
Did You Know?
- The tune name DEMETRIUS WADE honors two people: Demetrius O'Neal, the ward greeter whose welcome inspired the hymn, and Wade Christensen — the author's father.
- Brett sang the finished arrangement for the first time at her father's funeral, months after writing the song.
- It was the only one of her ~10 hymnbook submissions written before the Church even announced the new hymnal.
- The greeting that started it all came from a recent convert standing in the snow with his arms outstretched.
- The Tabernacle Choir sang it in general conference in April 2025, two months after its release.
Scripture Connections
- Matthew 22:1–10 — The wedding feast where everyone ends up invited — the hymn's open-armed theology.
- Luke 15:20 — The father who runs to welcome his child home — the embrace the hymn promises.
- Ephesians 2:19 — 'No more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.'
Talk About It
Questions to spark a conversation with your family or Primary class:
- One greeter's welcome became a hymn for the whole Church. How could the way you greet someone on Sunday change their day — or their life?
- The hymn is about being welcomed at church and being welcomed home to God. How are those two welcomes alike?
- Andrea Brett sang this at her father's funeral. Why do you think music helps us at the hardest goodbyes?
- Who at church might be hoping someone will say 'welcome home' to them this week? Could it be you who says it?
Teaching Resources
Attribution
Music by: Andrea Christensen Brett, 2017 | DEMETRIUS WADE
Text by: Andrea Christensen Brett, 2017 | DEMETRIUS WADE
Audio files from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints