A DECADE OF PRAISE — SONICFLOOd, the band that paved the way for the modern praise and worship movement and touted as “The Fathers of Modern Worship Music” is celebrating 10 years of ministry. In the 10 years that SONICFLOOd has been ministering through praise and worship, they have seen great and tremendous advancements for the kingdom of God. One of their greatest honors was to perform the first Christian concert ever in a secular venue in modern Turkey’s history. This was nothing short of a miracle in a Country that is 99.9% Muslim. They have also had the privilege of performing at the President of Thailand’s birthday party. Their international ministry is extensive as they have performed on every continent except Antarctica. They have touched the lives of Orphans in Thailand, the Shanty Towns of South Africa, the prisoners in the Bahamas, and our brave men and women serving in our military around the world. Their commitment to the world is ever present as they produced a groundbreaking media production 56-city tour with the International Mission Board.

While the band’s international ministry is vast, their influence and involvement here in America is equally as impressive. They were recently asked to minister in Geneva, Alabama after the tragic mass shooting spree that killed 11 people. They have ministered with Promise Keepers, Franklin Graham, Josh McDowell, Morris Cerullo, Robert Schuller, Luis Pulau , Rod Parsley, and Acquire the Fire, just to name a few. They had the distinct honor of being asked to play at the 2008 Republican National Convention Prayer Breakfast, and lead singer, Rick Heil and his wife were appointed Americans of Faith Coalition Chairmen. In their 10 years of ministry they have helped facilitate over 10,000 child sponsorships and counting. They have earned a Grammy nomination, Dove Awards, ASCAP awards, as well as many other accolades. They have been featured on the 700 Club, TBN, INSP, God TV, and Harvest TV. They have sold over 2 million records and are currently touring in promotion of their new album “A Heart Like Yours”, which Christian Music Planet says “proves Sonicflood is still the cream of the crop.” They are working on their first Christmas album which is due out this fall. All in all, over the last decade Sonicflood has tirelessly labored in the mission field to live up to their title “The Fathers of Modern Worship Music!” and have changed the face of worship music forever.

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Jason Upton is a singer/songwriter with the heart of a pastor. Whether Jason is leading people in worship through singing or speaking, Jason carries the Father’s heart. His songs and his messages reflect a life fully lived in relationship with God, family and friends.

Jason and Key of David Ministries released a new CD entitled 1200 Feet Below Sea Level. Recorded live in various venues around the world in 2007 and 2008, 1200 Feet Below Sea Level finds Jason and his band expressing the heart of God for His people through song, instrumental spontaneity and spoken word.

Jason currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife Rachel and their children Samuel, Emma and Lucy.

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Lead by Dove Award nominee singer/songwriter Billy Buchanan, Fusebox’s mix of driving guitars, funky bass lines, soulful gritty vocals, hypnotic beats, and worshipful lyrics, are a contagious combination.

Having endured an abusive father, poverty, and eventually his parent’s divorce, Billy encourages listeners with songs of worship, hope, and restoration. He describes his band’s music as a blend of “concrete and dirt.” He explains, “I was raised in Cleveland, OH, but my family was originally from Georgia, and brought a lot of that culture with them. I would hear pop, hip-hop, and dance music on the street, but at home and at my grandparent’s houses, I would hear soul, country, and gospel. It all rubbed off on me.”

Billy is the worship leader at Good News Church in St. Augustine, Florida. After nearly a decade of touring and recording with his band Fusebox, Billy has just released his first solo album, “Transparent.”

*Billy Buchanan was nominated for a 2005 Dove Award for his role as Kai, on the !Hero The Rock Opera Live DVD.

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Jeremy Riddle is first and foremost a follower of Jesus Christ, husband to one beautiful wife, father of four amazing children, a servant of the body of Christ, a songwriter, and a pastor/teacher.
Jeremy has released two projects.
Full Attention in 2007 and most recently The Now and Not Yet in 2009.

The Riddle band is:
  Jeremy Riddle – lead vocal and guitar
  Brandon McCoy – drums
  Josh Fink – bass
  Evan Weatherford – Electric guitar

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It’s time to say ‘hello,’ again, to love.

With so many worldly distractions, it’s easy to loose sight of what’s most important. Chris Tomlin recognizes this and desires to reacquaint us with the one fundamental element that’s become all too elusive. He explains, “The thought I’ve had running through my head is that it’s time to introduce ourselves to love again. People need to be reminded that what we’re here to do is to love God and love people. Worship is a relationship of love. It’s our love of God and our love of people.”

Tomlin doesn’t find a great amount of value in hashing over his musical journey again and again. It’s not that he’s disinterested, it’s more that he’s much more interested in the present.

“I want to talk about what’s right now,” says Tomlin, the singer/songwriter/worship leader/Texas native/three-time Gospel Music Association male vocalist of the year/two-time GMA artist of the year/two-time GRAMMY nominee/most sung Christian artist in the United States. (Sorry, Chris…we had to recap it all somewhere.)

Tomlin’s present revolves around this new set of songs titled Hello Love, his fourth studio record for sixstepsrecords/Sparrow, and the continuation of what Tomlin believes is the direct calling for his musical talent, creating songs for the church.

He’s unapologetic about that, as well. “I feel a responsibility to use that talent, because God’s given me a gift to connect people with God,” Tomlin says. “So I try to write songs with those people in mind. I try to open worship up to everything it can be, not just my personal preference, but what can it be for a person sitting in an office, or a mom driving her kids to school, or a teenager in high school? .How can I bridge all those generations and try to grab something that can help them worship and communicate with God?”

The result of Tomlin’s internal questions, and the elements that make his music so instantaneously powerful, are found yet again on Hello Love. Simple choruses fraught with great beauty weave themselves seamlessly into the listener’s worship mentality, giving new songs like “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “You Lifted Me Out,” “Praise The Father, Praise The Son” and “Exalted” both a sense of immediacy and a tone of timelessness.

It’s finding that balance of time and place, of rote cadence and vertical awareness that Tomlin the songwriter spends the most mental energy on, so that Tomlin the worship leader/performer (not to mention the countless others who will use the songs in a worship setting around the world) can use to connect.

“I always come to songwriting always thinking about God and people. There’s something that is stirring in me about God, so how do I get that out so that it’s maybe a voice for everybody? How do I write that so it can be sung by anyone anywhere? I love it when people think, after the first time they’ve heard a song, that they can really sing it,” Tomlin says. “At the end of the day, what’s going to last is who’s causing people to say and sing, and that is response to Him. Worship is responding to God for who he is, what he has done for us, and that’s what we’re trying to do with these songs: help people respond to God for who He is and for what he’s done in their lives.”

Tomlin is quick to give credit where credit is warranted, pointing out the aid of producer Ed Cash and co-writers like Cary Pierce, Louie Giglio, Matt Redman, Matt Maher and fellow band members Jesse Reeves, Daniel Carson, Travis Nunn and Matt Gilder in crafting some of the powerful moments on Hello Love. There was even some help from a random band from Ireland, though maybe not the one you might think.

“I was in Belfast and this band called Bluetree opened up for me. I heard part of a song they played, and I fell in love with it,” Tomlin says of the track “God Of This City.” “They gave me an old demo of it and I thought ‘this is exactly what we’re trying to believe at Passion.’ There’s unbelievable power in that song, and then I heard the story of how they wrote it.

“These guys were in Patia, Thailand, one of the top places in the world for human trafficking, a very dark place,” Tomlin continues. “They were in the city, just hanging out, looking around, and were introduced to a guy who owned one of the bars. The guy found out they were a band and asked them if they wanted to come play. They said ‘sure,’ so they got up and played nothing but worship songs for two hours in the bar.

“In the middle of that set, God gave them this song, saying ‘greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city.’ It was a real prophetic song, and what I think is worship leading at it’s best, in the midst of the darkest place, there’s a light,” he says. “Cities aren’t bricks and mortar and streets and buildings. Cities are people, and they can be a small tribe of people or a massive group of people. This song is speaking hope that God’s story is still being told and is still going strong. We’re hopefully encouraging people to step into that story and let God do amazing things in their lives.”

Stories, and even the individual words that help convey them, are an important component of what Chris Tomlin aims to accomplish with the songs on Hello Love. The album’s debut single came from Tomlin’s desire to focus a worship song around a specific word. “I’m really excited about ‘Jesus Messiah’, because Messiah is a word that I’ve been trying to figure out how to put in a song for a while,” he says. “It’s such an amazing word for who Jesus is, and you hardly ever sing that word. But it really pronounces that he’s not just an historical figure, but he is the Son of God, the sent Savior.”

Many of the other tracks on Hello Love were given birth through similar purposeful motives, Tomlin says. “We’re starting to get this history of taking the older hymns and revitalizing them, hopefully bringing them back to a younger generation. So with “All The Way My Savior Leads Me,” here’s a song that’s a couple hundred years old and we just restructured the melody and lyric to make it a little more modern. I feel like it’s a powerful benediction song for this record.

“‘I Will Rise’ is special in that [sixstepsrecords/Passion Conferences founder] Louie [Giglio] challenged me to write a song that people can sing in the midst of grief, standing at one of the hardest places of their life. A song of worship people can sing at funerals of those who believe,” Tomlin continues. “We wanted a song that gives hope in the midst of the grave, of death. Through Jesus, the grave is overwhelmed and death doesn’t have any more power. It hurts, but in the end, there’s victory for those who are in Christ.”

“With ‘Love’, I wrote it with Cary Pierce, and then Ed Cash said it would be great to make this a more ‘world music’ kind of sound. I felt that way, too, and we thought ‘what if we had an African children’s choir on it?’” he says. “We get a text not too long after that saying the Watoto Children’s Choir from Uganda was in Nashville with a day off the same week we were recording that song. I couldn’t believe it. It was one of those things where God just said, ‘Here you go. I’m making the way.’ It’s just beautiful to see these orphan kids, and to watch them come into a studio and just light the place up. It was more of God breathing wind into what this music is about, the heart of what worship is.”

If you look at it a certain way, reintroducing oneself to love is exactly what we’re doing by entering the heart of worship. Tomlin hopes the purposeful way in which he and his compatriots have crafted this fresh set of songs will translate into the listeners’ own set-upon journey to that heart.

“Worship, in itself, is not a religious word. Everybody worships things, whether they realize it or not. It doesn’t mean they’re worshipping God; most people aren’t. It’s a natural thing to give value, to give worth to something or someone,” Tomlin says. “That’s what we’re trying to do through this music, to help people give worth and to say there’s something in life that matters most. There’s one thing that’s more beautiful, more famous, more amazing than anything else. We’re trying to help people realize that He is Jesus Christ.

“I know that it’s easy to get anyone into the mechanics of worship and the lip service of worship. But it’s all about your heart, and your heart can be so far from God and you just go through the motions. When it just becomes about the reflex or routine, it’s dead,” he continues. “You have to engage your heart and be moved to the core of who you normally are. That’s when the worship becomes real.”

And that’s exactly when you rediscover your brand-new relationship with love.

Hello Love.

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Brooke Fraser was born and raised in a not-so-hip area of a hip little city in the most beautiful country on God’s green earth – Wellington, New Zealand. She studied piano from the age of seven, began writing songs at 12, played clarinet very averagely from 13, and at 15 got sick of writing slow piano ballads and playing “Baby Elephant Walk” in the school concert band, so taught herself the acoustic guitar.  She still has quiet aspirations of being a drummer in a hardcore band or a forensic anthropologist, or a really great knitter, but these remain pipe dreams for now.

Brooke was co-erced into playing in public during her first year in high school, when the dean of the senior year wanted an assembly ‘item’ and one of Brooke’s so-called ‘friends’ dobbed her in.  This led to a semi-humiliating but character building bi-weekly ‘gig’ at the senior assembly.  Over the next few years as her songs stopped being about insects, her ‘gigs’ became music festivals, support shows and fundraisers for a charity that she remains committed to and passionate about today – World Vision.

In 2002 at 18, Brooke signed with Sony Music (now SonyBMG) and moved to Auckland where she played regularly at the grassroots/indie/acoustic venue ‘The Temple’ (no longer in existence) whilst continuing to write material for her debut album.

What to Do With Daylight
Brooke’s first album What To Do With Daylight was released in New Zealand in late 2003, debuting at #1 and achieved gold-selling status in the same week. The album eventually went 8 times platinum, selling over 120,000 copies in New Zealand alone. What to Do With Daylight remained in the top ten on the album charts for over a year, returned to the #1 spot twice and charted for a record 66 weeks.  All five singles from her album reached the top 20 NZ singles chart and achieved #1 airplay status.

Following the release of What To Do With Daylight, Brooke played a number of co-billed and headline tours throughout her homeland, and in 2004 toured Australia and New Zealand with American artist John Mayer and supported iconic U.K. artist David Bowie.  She then relocated to Sydney, Australia prior to the release of her album there and played various residencies throughout Sydney.  At the 2004 NZ Music Awards Brooke won ‘Breakthrough Artist of the Year’ and ‘Best Female Solo Artist’, and her debut single “Better” was named the Most Performed Work on NZ Radio by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).

Albertine
In 2005, Brooke went into central east Africa to the nation of Rwanda, eleven years on from a genocide which claimed the lives of almost one million people.  During the journey that she describes as one of the greatest privileges of her life, she met and befriended a number of Rwandans who entrusted their stories to her – namely a man called Joel Nsengiyumva and an orphan named Albertine. The profound impact that this trip had on Brooke inevitably coloured the songs and spirit of her sophomore album.  She wrote the song ‘Albertine’ upon her return home and eventually it was made the title track.
 
In June of 2006 Brooke temporarily set up base in North Hollywood, C.A. to record, but not before making a return trip to Rwanda, the place in which the roots of the new collection of songs lay.
 
The album ‘Albertine’ came to life in the North American summer of 2006 with producer Marshall Altman and a new band of American musicians affiliated with an array of notable artists, both live and recorded.  

In 2005, Brooke went into central east Africa to the nation of Rwanda, eleven years on from a genocide which claimed the lives of almost one million people.  During the journey that she describes as one of the greatest privileges of her life, she met and befriended a number of Rwandans who entrusted their stories to her – namely a man called Joel Nsengiyumva and an orphan named Albertine. The profound impact that this trip had on Brooke inevitably coloured the songs and spirit of her sophomore album.  She wrote the song ‘Albertine’ upon her return home and eventually it was made the title track.
 
In June of 2006 Brooke temporarily set up base in North Hollywood, C.A. to record, but not before making a return trip to Rwanda, the place in which the roots of the new collection of songs lay.
 
The album ‘Albertine’ came to life in the North American summer of 2006 with producer Marshall Altman and a new band of American musicians affiliated with an array of notable artists, both live and recorded.  

“Deciphering Me” was the album’s first single, initially shared with MySpace fans and shortly afterward released to NZ radio, where it achieved #1 airplay status and reached #4 in the NZ singles charts.  The follow-up single “Shadowfeet” also achieved #1 airplay status.

On December 4, 2006 Albertine was released in New Zealand, debuting at #1, achieving double platinum status less than a month after its release and remaining in the top 20 for almost a year, reaching five times platinum. The album was released in Australia on March 31, 2007, charting at #3 on iTunes and #29 on the Aussie album charts.

In 2007 the song ‘Albertine’ won New Zealand’s most prestigious annual songwriting prize, the APRA Silver Scroll as Brooke continued to play sell-out theatre tours in her homeland and Australia, where she has built a strong live following.

‘Albertine’ the album was released on U.S. iTunes in late 2007, and in December Brooke played a brief and well-received run of U.S. shows.  

This year on May 27, ‘Albertine’ finally hit U.S. stores, and Brooke and various forms of her band will be touring North America in support of the release from June through September 2008.  (See TOURS for show info)

NZ MUSIC AWARDS
2004 – Best Female Solo Artist
2004 – Breakthrough Artist of the Year
2007 – Highest Selling Album (Albertine)
2007 – Airplay Record of the Year

APRA AWARDS (Australian Performing Right Association)
2004 – Most Played Composition in NZ (“Better”)
2007 – Most Played Composition in NZ (“Deciphering Me”)
2007 -  The APRA Silver Scroll (“Albertine”)

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Charlie and band live in Oklahoma City, traveling year-round to places as far as Jakarta, Indonesia and as near as Norman, Oklahoma to share times of musical connection with people ranging from the spiritually bereft to the burgeoning missional to the artistic cynic. Peace.

Charlie Hall has been traveling for almost 15 years, from OKC to Kuala Lumpur, enthralling friends and strangers with his goatee and his songs. With a musical journey that has crisscrossed all kinds of rock music, folk music, and electronic music,he carries a songwriting sense that aims to capture dense images of life with God,in compositions that can be carried with the listener.

He aims to tell the old story of the Gospel in an ever-shifting world, without resorting to easy truisms, or lazy language.His new collection of songs, The Bright Sadness, echoes a journey pressed to the chest of God, joyful and sorrowful at once, with God’s heart clear and pulsing in each note and word. It wraps liturgy with the unexpected, and daily mundanity with daily surprise.

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To get the real story behind Worth Dying For, the five-member worship band at Calvary Temple in Modesto, California, youve got to dig below the surface. Put aside the status quo, the way its been done, and make room for a deeper calling, a more passionate pursuit than music itself. Birthed in the city-wide outreach of Calvary Temples weekly youth group (”The Stadium”), which is aimed at shaking this generation out of its lethargy and despair, Worth Dying For is more creed than career, more mission than music. And the music—aggressive guitars, searing vocals and heart-provoking lyrics—speaks for itself.

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What’s in a song? Songs have the power to to transcend language, culture, and generations. They can provide the soundtrack to a love story or heal a broken heart. They elevate words into something extraordinary. And in their most divine expression, songs can draw us into the very presence of God. For Paul Baloche such songs are simply the result of a lifestyle of worship. “Following Christ is much more than music,” says Paul. “Music is the byproduct of living for Christ.” This lifestyle has produced some of the most renowned worship songs of our time, and made Paul one of the preeminent songwriters of this generation.

From playing small venues in New Jersey in the 90s, to his current role as the worship leader at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas, Paul’s journey of faith is marked by extraordinary music. Songs that serve as signposts on our own journey. Songs that glorify God and encourage believers. Songs that edify the body of Christ. Paul’s passion for the Church is evident in his approach to writing, inspiring songs that move beyond personal praise to become worldwide anthems. Building community… “I think one of our responsibilities in writing worship songs is to be conscious that we are trying to create a sense of community,” he notes. “We are trying to use songs as a vehicle and a tool to bring people together and sing our prayers collectively to God.” Paul’s heart for community has inspired some of today’s most powerful songs of worship, including “Open the Eyes of My Heart” (ranked fourth in CCLI’s Top 25), the radio favorite “Hosanna,” which he co-wrote with Brenton Brown and “Above All,” a Dove award winner for Inspirational Song of the Year that he co-wrote with Lenny LeBlanc.

Integrity Music celebrates the rich legacy of Paul’s music in The Writer’s Collection, an anthology that highlights his most cherished songs. The release also features an updated take on Paul’s classic, “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” produced by Grammy Award winner Ed Cash. From timeless songs of worship to modern-day standards, The Writer’s Collection showcases the very best of Paul Baloche. In addition to his own work, Paul has co-written with a wide range of artists such as Michael W. Smith, Brenton Brown and Lincoln Brewster. But though Paul often creates music for different genres and styles, he maintains a straightforward approach to writing. “I try to keep it simple, yet interesting—simple and inspiring,” he says of his songwriting. “You don’t want to teach the whole Bible in one song, you can’t do that. I try to take one aspect of God’s character perhaps, and really focus on that and try to bring it to light.”

Now 25 years into his journey in worship, Paul continues to be one of today’s most prolific songwriters. Friend and fellow writer Michael W. Smith tapped Paul to co-write the title track and first single from Smith’s live worship release, New Hallelujah. Paul is a member of CompassionArt, a unique songwriting collective committed to social justice. Conceived by Martin Smith of Delirous?, CompassionArt features a veritable who’s-who of contemporary Christian and worship artists including Darlene Zschech, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman and Israel Houghton. All proceeds from the group’s songs and recordings are pledged to aiding those living in extreme poverty.

Paul is also passionate about encouraging and training those who lead worship. Through his website www.leadworship.com, Paul offers a wealth of resources for equipping the worship leaders of today and tomorrow. Paul also serves with Seminars4Worship where he trains and mentors worship leaders, songwriters and musicians. Paul’s contemporaries readily recognize his vital contributions to the worldwide worship community. “Paul continues to amaze me with his ability to write songs that connect with so many people and give voice to the cries of the heart,” shares fellow songwriter and Dove Award winner Don Moen. “As a worship leader, he understands the need for songs that embrace sound doctrine and universal themes, songs that transcend generations and cultures.” Pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren adds, “Paul Baloche has the hand of God on his songwriting and worship leading. His music is a great gift to the body of Christ.”

Paul realizes that songs are secondary to a lifestyle of community and praise. “We need each other. We need to worship,” says Paul. “The essence of life is a relationship with God and a relationship with others. I think writing songs and trying to be creative with God’s word, to sing out your prayers spontaneously is a great spiritual exercise. And if a good song comes out of it, that’s a bonus.”

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Known for his work with New Life Church and the Desperation Band, Jared Anderson is the writer of such modern worship favorites as “Rescue” and “Amazed.” He’s also the force behind two critically-acclaimed solo projects, 2006’s Where To Begin and 2008’s Where Faith Comes From, both of which infused Anderson’s worshipful lyrics with pop sensibility. Now, playing to all his best strengths as an artist and songwriter, while keeping the Church clearly in focus, he returns with Jared Anderson Live From My Church.

“Writing outside the New Life context was such a cool opportunity,” he says of his two previous albums, “but all the while, the congregational songs I’d written were taking off, were really gaining acceptance.” Then when the church found itself rocked by controversy, “The self-questioning grew intense for everyone on staff and it just became clearer and clearer to me personally that I was meant to write worship that people in the pews can sing.”

Clarity is a powerful thing. And Live From My Church finds this long-term Coloradoan getting back to his corporate worship roots.<

“It’s been a real process of self-discovery, of stumbling in the right direction and finding myself, artistically and as a worshiper.” Ultimately, doing what works for worship is Anderson’s greatest passion, the organic, un-watered down approach to crafting songs, his finest gift.

“The first half of the record really echoes with the idea of receiving from the Lord. Receiving his grace, receiving his mercy, receiving his forgiveness,” Anderson explains. “The second half is about responding by giving back—giving our worship back to God, giving our love away…reaching out and giving what we’ve been given.”

Anderson points to the Psalm 1:3, the ‘tree planted by streams of living water that brings forth fruit in time…’ as a pivotal scripture for the inspiration behind the new record – a reminder that as we received life from God, we give back.

“Of all the images that could’ve been used to describe a person who knows God or who is blessed, God used a tree. Seriously, a tree. It’s interesting that God would use that. For me, the X and Y of how a tree works is this: Every tree grows up. That’s intention. That’s the Y. Singularity of direction. But every tree also grows out. That’s the X, and that’s imagination. If you’re going to grow up, you have roots as tall as your branches, or you’ll topple when the storms come.”

Up and out. Receive and give.

From the joyful, rousing opener “Lift the Name,” to “Never Be Shaken,” an anthem for difficult times, to the unforgettable version of John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves,” to the project benedictions of “Glorified” and “We Will Be Changed,” Live From My Church is a powerful reminder that God is the Author of every good thing in our lives, and the only response to his grace is uncompromised worship in action.

The ColdPlay-esque single “Inside,” declares “I will be clay in the Potter’s Hand / I will be light in a darkened land / I will be love lit on fire / Holy Spirit burn on the inside…” stands out as a modern anthem for today’s generation.

“God Be In My Head,” Anderson’s twist on an ancient poem/prayer, stands as one of the richest songs on the CD, a daily psalm for passionate, modern believers. “I was praying one morning, and that idea popped into my head,” he explains. “I thought ‘That’s already a song,’ but I Googled it, and there it was. A six-line poem/prayer from the 1500s, with a melody of its own. I knew I had to sing this, so I kept almost all the lyrics and used it as a springboard to add the rest. I think I’ll always sing this one.”

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor To bind up the brokenhearted, to make you known even more So people living in darkness will see the great light I’ll be the carrier of love and compassion…

“Carrier” picks up the theme of ‘giving back,’ a response to take Jesus’ healing to a broken world. It’s a song that, as experience has proven, has already made a powerful connection with worshipers.

“Connecting with people, it’s not just about the song, it’s not just about a strong lyric…” Anderson says. “You make a memory with people through a song, whether it’s musical or lyrical, and every time you hear it, you go back to that place, that emotion, that connection surfaces.”

That’s why, he says, writing songs for live worship and leading it requires a certain letting go, a certain surrendering of your own agenda. “Connecting in a live setting is about relationship, about letting people know that you’re there for them, not for yourself… you have to surrender what you want to do in order to reach them.”

The total result of Live From My Church is a CD packed with 11 songs written with congregational worship in mind, sonically stripped down to what a live church band can accomplish on a given Sunday.

“There’s a little something for every congregation here,” Anderson says. “There are three or four songs that First Baptist would do. There are four or five songs that First Baptist would never do, but First Charismatic Church will… I try to have a filter on what goes into me, not what comes out, so that creatively there are no limits.”

“Worship leaders are in the foot washing business,” he continues. “If you want to lead, you have to serve. And if you want to serve, you have to surrender. And if you surrender, you’re really going to have to die. So to lead is to really die.” Not an easy road for anyone, he says, but Anderson cares more about the process than the parameters. “I’m up for whatever… but the ultimate goal is to serve the church. And I think these songs will serve and hopefully challenge the church.”

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