It’s Friday Fun Day and today I’m excited to share a BIG announcement!
All posts tagged Hillsong United
Quick Update
- Happy Monday! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a Monday Mind Dump and I’ve literally been living out of a suitcase. Here’s a quick update…
- The first leg of my journey was to Nashville speaking with Cynthia Ware at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on innovation in the church. It was great to connect with friends, meet new ones, and an absolute honor to speak at NRB.
- I flew back from Nashville to Chicago for about 16 hours before boarding a flight to Orange County for Catalyst West.
- Catalyst West was incredible. This was my first time going and loved the relaxed nature and smaller crowd compared to Catalyst East. All of my notes from the main sessions are here and here’s an article that I wrote for Pastors.com about the event.
- While at CatWest, the Center for Church Communication hosted our first Meet Up! It was great to connect with other church communications leaders from the SoCal area and share more about the heart and story of CFCC.
- CFCC founder Brad Abare and my fellow co-director Justin Wise and I met for an afternoon of planning about the future of the Center for Church Communication, and I have to say I’m very excited about what’s ahead.
- I made a quick trek back to Chicago before heading BACK to Nashville to hang with my friend Christian do some brand consulting with Oasis Church. There’s some great things going on there and I’m excited to be apart of their journey.
- Also, I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Birmingham, Alabama, while I was there to see Hillsong United on their AFTERMATH tour. Having seen the United team a number of times, I have to say this was one of the best. With new songs and fresh mixes of some of their favorites, United led us in an amazing time of worship where God’s presence was so evident.
- On Wednesday I did a webinar with Anthony Coppedge and the team at Fellowship One on Proactive Communication for Churches. Read more and check out the audio.
- For some reason I’ve been reading A LOT lately… I’ve recently finished Guy Kawasaki’s Enchantment, Poke the Box by Seth Godin and The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuck. I’ll be reviewing all three shortly, but if you want my unbiased opinion, Thank You Economy is a must-read for church communicators. Last year my pick was REWORK, this year it’s Thank You.
- I am continually amazed at God’s way of orchestrating things. When Jack Dorsey, co-creator of twitter, spoke at Catalyst West, he said, “It’s not important to be lucky but to cultivate an awareness when fortunate situations arise.” I don’t believe in luck but have faith that we we live our lives in obedience to the Spirit of God’s leading in our lives that God will place us in circumstances and situations that are beyond our comprehension [in a good way!]. I’ve had a few of those moments lately and have decided that there’s no better way to live life but then to be led by the whispers of God… listening for His voice, being led by His Spirit and seeing His presence in our everyday lives. So, back to what Jack said, I think that we need to cultivate an awareness of when God is speaking to us and to be willing to respond. I’m in awe of how God has brought some crazy connections together in my life and am excited to see what happens next.
A F T E R M A T H from Hillsong United
Hillsong United will break some charts today with their sophomore studio realease, A F T E R M A T H.
I got my copy of AFTERMATH about a month ago and haven’t been able to stop listening to it.
Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of Hillsong United so this review will be a bit biased. BUT, I will say that I generally prefer live projects over studio projects. I love it when the crowd seems to overwhelm the musicians and singers and makes a song of their own in live projects… there seems to be so much corporate energy and passion that is oftentimes not as present in studio albums. That being said, AFTERMATH follows Hillsong United’s first successful studio album Saviour King where we were introduced to Hosanna and Saviour King… both of which are standards in most churches today. Although the passion on these projects is contained to a studio they don’t fail to deliver heartfelt anthems for the Church.
This album is a fresh new sound from UNITED and will no doubt top sales charts and set lists for church worship services. It’s fresh, edgy, original, and at times absoluetely breathtaking.
The thing I love most about Hillsong United is that unlike many groups or bands out there, they are rooted in and committed to their local church, Hillsong Church based in Sydney, Australia [now with locations around the world including New York City]. Hillsong United isn’t a typical band and they don’t do concerts… they are group of musicians and songwriters who love Jesus, are committed to their local church and travel the globe leading people in worship experiences that leave you utterly and completely in awe of God’s presence. It’s not your typical church music and it’s not what you’d expect from a Church group but it’s the sound of a new generation of believers proclaiming the hope and freedom they’ve found in Christ and they can’t stay silent.
“The message of Jesus Christ is eternal, yet He continues to reveal Himself in new ways… giving us what we need to be followers and disciples of Christ for this time in history,” says Hillsong United frontman Joel Houston. “Life with God is fun, its an adventure, it is grace, freedom, peace and everything in between. Whether you are listening to our newest album or our very first, our prayer and passion is that you are empowered to live life with God, encouraged to stay on the course and excited about all that He has for your future.”
On the title of the album, AFTERMATH, Joel Houston says, “The cross is a paradox. What was a symbol of failure and death is now established forever as a symbol of life and victory. The crucifixion was a gruesome and traumatic event and at the moment of surrender as the storm clouds gathered and the skies went to darkness it would have seemed to all who were witnesses, especially His followers, that all hope was lost – the so called ‘Son of God’ humiliated and tortured, dying as He hung upon a cross. But unlike any historical event that has ever taken place before or after, this moment would change everything – Forever. Because of the cross we no longer have to live entangled in the fallout and the wreckage of our lives, or the worst the world can throw at us. We have been lifted out of the ashes and into the LIGHT of the aftermath. We find hope, peace, freedom, and life, and we can know with assurance that He is with us no matter what comes our way.”
A few songs that stood out to me on this project:
- Take Heart – This song wrecked me in a good way. It’s a dramatic introduction to set the tone for a great album. This song talks about God’s faithfulness and calls us to take heart, hold on to hope and take courage through all seasons of life. It’s heartfelt, epic, passionate and ends reflectively with strings. I seriously listened to this song on repeat for about 2 days before I listened to the rest of the album. It’s that good.
- Go - This is classic stadium rock at its finest with this catchy ballad that says “we’re giving it all to go your way.” Note that purchasing the deluxe edition of the album on iTunes is worth it to get the music video to this song.
- Like an Avalanche - What a beautiful picture… being “caught up in grace like an avalanche.” This song starts off quiet and ends in explosive cry, “take my life, take all that I am, with all that I am I will love You…” This song is sure to be one that will follow the same popularity as “Hosanna.”
- Rhythms of Grace - One of my favorite translations of Matthew 11:28-30 is in the Message where it says, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” This song talks about the transformative power of God’s grace in our lives. This song definitely is in the top 5 for me on this album, talking about how none of us can imagine how great God is and how expansive His love is for us.
- Aftermath – First off, MARTY SAMPSON IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aside from that, this beautiful song is the title track of the album and shares how we are all caught in the aftermath of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It’s a stunningly beautiful song, lyrically and musically, and paints a captivating picture of the freedom and hope we find in Christ. His love will light the way.
- B.E. - B.E. is an instrumental interlude featuring clips from the song A Beautiful Exchange. I can see many churches using this song for random videos. Definitely has a great vibe… sounds out of this world!
- Father – I can’t wait to hear this song live. It will be out of control. This is song touches on the fact that God’s grace is enough for everyone and is a cry for the marginalized and oppressed. It’s a beautiful song revealing God’s heart for justice, reconciliation, and hope.
- Search My Heart – The vibe of this song is just plain awesome. And the song is a familiar prayer “search my heart, and search my soul” and ends with the powerful declaration that “without You I am nothing.” This is a close contender for being one of my favorites from this project.
- Awakening - For the first time, Hillsong United covers a song from Chris Tomlin from the Passion Awakening project and does a great job of adding their signature spin to it. LOVE IT. Such a great and powerful song.
This album has a fresh sound, will encourage you and remind you of the truths of God’s Word, and will give you a new song to sing. It will take you on a journey and beyond the creativity, musicianship, and lyrics, it will leave you with a great sense of awe… of God, His love, and the hope we have living in AFTERMATH of His grace.
Even if you think you’ve heard Hillsong United before, you haven’t heard anything like this and you owe it to yourself to get found in the AFTERMATH.
Hillsong United is hitting the road across the USA starting in March… check and see if they are coming near you!
To celebrate the release of AFTERMATH, I’m giving away a few [legal!] copies… it’s too good to keep to myself!
Here’s what you need to do to win:
1 – Make sure you are following me! I’m @timschraeder
2 – Tweet this: I want to be found in the #AFTERMATH. I entered to win a copy of @hillsongunited’s new CD! Details here: http://bit.ly/hudrIF
3 – Leave a comment below [to confirm you did the first two steps] and let me know your favorite Hillsong United song and why you love it so much.
NOTE: I have to approve each comment so hang tight if yours doesn’t show immediately!
I’ll randomly pick a few of you throughout the day. You will a valid USA iTunes account to claim your prize!
Worship//Service
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.
Spread the love!
