Ok. So I’m going to tell you about the worship CD you haven’t heard of that you need to, k?
For the first five [and sometimes very awkward] years of my life as a church communications guy, I was priviledged to serve at Riverside Community Church in Peoria, Illinois. Riverside was planted in out of a church I grew up in back in August of 2000. It was an amazing opportunity to serve on staff there during some of the formative years of the church and to see it grow to expand its ministry through Dream Center Peoria. Riverside is truly a church that is making a difference and an impact in its community.
Leaving was definitely bittersweet… the opportunity to live in Chicago and work at Park was amazing, but leaving a place that had been home and had given me the opportunity and experience to grow in my gifts and talents was definitely not easy.
One of the things I loved [and miss] about Riverside was their worship. People worshipped God passionately there. And, in December, Riverside released their first worship CD, Worship//Service.
To be honest when first heard about the recording I was kind of unsure of what to think… I mean, it seems like everyone these days is recording something… but when I listened I was completely blown away. The music, the lyrics, the passion and heart behind this project shine through and it is honestly one of the best live worship recordings I’ve heard lately [besides Hillsong of course!].
Worship//Service was recorded live at Riverside and a majority of the tracks are originals, written by worship leader [and one of my best friends from back in Kindergarten] Austin Luhring.
I had the chance to ask Austin a bit about the project and am excited to share one of the tracks from Worship//Service with you!
Austin, before we get into the CD, share a little bit about your background and how you got involved leading worship…
Well, I got into the actual leading of worship when I was 17, close to 10 years ago now. I just started to play guitar, learning chords as best I could from who ever as well as watching the worship leaders in church, where they put their hands etc. My youth pastor began to pour into me, giving me different opportunities to lead and play back up guitar. Singing was never really strong or comfortable from what I can remember. I went on to serve at a church in Chicago for 5 years where God really allowed me to walk through the most trying years of my life as of yet. It was in this time as a musician I developed loads but more importantly He was developing my Spirit to hear His voice, to be sensitive to His spirit and He REALLY removed the scales from eyes as to what “worship” really is.
He eventually pulled me back to Peoria where I’m from to lead our church, Riverside.
In hindsight, it’s so interesting to remember the hard stuff and realize that it was all preparation. It was the Refiner doing His work. He’s so good, so faithful.
Explain the title Worship//Service … what’s the story behind that?
Worship//Service really came out of a realization of how far the church’s perspective of true worship had gone from God’s desire. We recently had a spiritual breakthrough in our church. It’s not inner, it’s outer. It’s not about us, it’s about Him. It has everything to do with not us. Through this whole process of our first recording He kept saying, “Serve!” ”What you have done for the least of these, You have also done for Me” We really want God’s heart. There is no performance, there is only Presence. That is the goal, the aim, the heart of worship!
The Dream Center is one of the biggest areas of serving and worshiping God that has been raised up out of the church. It exists to meet the needs of the people of Peoria, there is housing, after school programs, food organizations, outreach. You can find out more about what we do at www.dreamcenterpeoria.org
Worship is service. Serving God, loving people, meeting needs.
What was the whole recording experience like? From the sound of the crowd on the CD, it seemed like it was epic.
We began planning about a year ago. One night our pastor announced to the church we would be recording our first album, which took all of us by surprise. So we had just a few months to write a few more songs and work on arrangements. So after many different variations of a set list and the band finalized we began rehearsals about 3 months out.
We had the team lead worship for the 3 weekends of the whole “worship” series doing only the songs that were going to be recorded that way we had tons of time to work with each other, for the church to learn it all and to be getting excited about it all.
You could really sense the anticipation on the weekends leading up to the day of the recording.
The morning of, it was an amazing feeling to walk out in front of our entire church in the auditorium for the first time together. One service, one body, ready and excited to sing and praise God.
We really have God to thank for the whole thing. We did corrections on one bass line, one electric guitar lead, and one vocal. Other than that, it is as it was! That is our church, that is their voice. It was such a privilege to lead it. Oh and it was loud:)
For being a debut CD this is pretty incredible… what is your hope and prayer for this and what’s the possibility of future recordings?
My hope is just to really develop a culture here in Peoria. I want to see Peoria, America, the world be won in the name of Jesus, for the sake of Jesus. I hope that what the Spirit did in me will go out and do in others. I believe other people will now write and go deeper in their relationship with Christ and as one voice we will lift up His praises.
As far as other recordings, absolutely. I’m busy now writing and trying to write differently and deeply. Just trying to please Him and allow the Spirit through us to draw God’s people unto Himself.
Well, thanks to the people at Riverside, I’m excited to share a track from Worship//Service with you, one of my favorites from the project called I Am Nothing.
If you like what you hear, which I know you will!, then consider downloading the CD from iTunes!
The saying goes “if it plays in Peoria it will play anywhere…” and from the sound of it, what’s playing in Peoria is a new sound the Church needs to hear.
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