Hillsong Church released their nineteenth live album today, A Beautiful Exchange, and I’m giving three copies away!
Hillsong isn’t a band, it’s a church… and their music is just a simple expression of what’s happening inside their House, which now spans the globe with their home base in Sydney and extension campuses in London, Cape Town, Stockholm, Moscow, Paris, and soon-to-be New York City.
If you ever get the chance to be a part of one of their worship nights when they tour, or if you ever get the chance to meet them, they will be the first to tell you from the outset that they are group of people who love Jesus and are faithfully committed to the music ministry of their local church.
For nearly twenty years Hillsong has given the Church a new song to sing, from Shout to the Lord, to Mighty to Save [which is currently one of the most-sung songs in churches in the United States], From the Inside Out, and Hosanna.
Each year, the church piles into a large venue to do a live recording of some of the best songs they’ve written and sung throughout the year to share them with the rest of the world.
This project lives up to its name, A Beautiful Exchange, both in the title track, talking about the exchange that look place when Jesus took our place, but additionally highlights an exchange that’s taken place over the past year or so within the leadership of Hillsong’s worship and creative arts ministry.
Last year Darlene Zschech and Joel Houston spoke at the Willow Creek Arts Conference sharing how Darlene, who for years has been the face of Hillsong music, has taken a step back in leadership over Hillsong’s worship and creative arts and transitioned leadership to Joel Houston and the younger generation of leaders at the church. It’s a beautiful picture of what the church should be doing: raising up, investing and empowering, and releasing the next generation church leaders. It was inspiring to hear… you can read my notes here, or check out Darlene’s book, The Great Generational Transition where she speaks more about this.
But back to the album… I had the chance to listen to it and check out the DVD last week, and while it’s hard to critique or review worship CDs, I’ll say this much: it’s fantastic and while it has the classic trappings of a Hillsong project, you can begin to hear the new song emerging from new songwriters and worship leaders, and it’s fantastic.
While the CD seems to be a seamless recording, it was actually recorded over multiple nights in Sydney and even jets over to the other side of the globe to Hillsong London.
Worship leaders Darlene Zschech, Reuben Morgan, and Joel Houston hold down the lead of the album along with Brooke Ligterwood, Ben Fielding, Matt Crocker, and Gio Galanti from Hillsong London.
A few highlights from the album:
- Like Incense/Sometimes By Step: No joke, the instrumental part of this song is a small taste of what Heaven will sound like. I’m not kidding… I get goosebumps every time I listen to it. The lyrics to Like Incense, combined with Brooke Ligterwood’s vocals, and a throwback to the early 90s worship hit “Sometimes by Step” by Rich Mullins all culminate to make one of the standout moments on the CD.
- The Father’s Heart – This song is one of my personal favorites and comes out of Hillsong London. The lyrics along passion coming from the crowd make this song one that will be stuck in your head all day long. I love it. I also love the woah-oh-oh’s!
- Forever Reign and The One Who Saves – I’m sure these two songs will be the ones churches latch onto. They are both great corporate expressions of God’s greatness, and the energy coming from the crowd on both of these is infectious. The One Who Saves, especially, is one that I could probably sing for 10 minutes without stopping, declaring “His love endures forever!”
- The rest are all great… these were just a few tracks that stood out to me!
A Beautiful Exchange features 12 new songs and a radio version of the song Forever Reign and is available on iTunes today. You can also stream it online for free via YahooMusic.
The bonus edition on iTunes features five videos from the DVD, which may be purchased via HillsongMusic.com or Amazon. The DVD includes four tracks from Hillsong London and a behind-the-scenes documentary.
Reuben Morgan and a team from Hillsong will be touring the USA in July and August this year (I’ll be seeing them when they are in Dallas at Fellowship Church)! If they are coming anywhere near you, it’s definitely worth the trip.
A Beautiful Exchange is a solid offering from Hillsong and, to me, signals the beginning of a new day and a new song for Hillsong Church… and I like what I’m hearing so far.
I’d love to share A Beautiful Exchange with you, so I’ll be giving away three copies of the bonus edition today at 11 AM, 2 PM and 5 PM CST today.* All you need to do be entered to win is follow the instructions below:
- Tweet This: I just entered to win a copy of #ABeautifulExchange! Comment here and RT to enter: http://bit.ly/9LYvww
- Comment Below: With your Twitter handle [so I can verify you did the first step ] and share your favorite song from Hilsong.
- Check back at 11 AM, 2 PM, and 5 PM CST today: I’ll randomly choose someone to win!
UPDATE: Congrats to @colinharman, @erod26 and @countrycuban for snagging your copies! Thanks to all who participated. Support Hillsong and get your copy here!
* You must have a valid US iTunes account to win!
