Worship Musician June 2020 | Page 25

found as we ventured at time in the Christian ren’t tons of churches albums. But now there logy any church can and it’s beautiful. But mmon thing, so it was re trying to figure out themselves, “what are ment, we were out of a first king r as only nagers ith Jesus they ing to . so they to the the next could sciple er... ” d Jesus Culture Band. stled through this, “Are even being called that, bout it, but it was just but that it was putting t didn’t feel quite right. ecessarily a band, we were just a movement of people doing life together, and were very ministry and church focused, so it felt kind of weird to be called a band. So we tried to fit in that mold and it didn’t quite ever feel right. So, when it came to this album we said, let’s just take that label away. Who are we? We are the church, we are the Body of Christ, we are here to serve the church, that’s what we do as worship leaders. And who do we write these songs for? We write these songs for the church, and these are the songs we want to sing for our people. So we kind of just wanted to go back to the simplicity of that where were not trying to conform to any identity or establish a big far out there idea, we are just trying to establish and be who God has called us to be. And calling the album Church felt appropriate on so many levels, because this is who we are. This is who we write the songs for. This is where it’s recorded. This is where we’re giving our lives to. It’s just kind of all encompassing. So that is the long version in how we arrived at calling the album Church and what we believe about the album and the themes of the album and the songs. [Chris] I don’t even know how many live albums we’ve recorded, but a good handful of our albums early on were recorded at our conferences, which was amazing. It’s amazing to get into a room with people that are excited to be there and have come from all over the country, or the world sometimes. But there is something really special about recording locally with a group of believers that you’re pursuing God with week-in and week-out, and you’re in each other’s lives. There is something about that, these songs feel personal not only to us but to the people in the room, so there is just an ownership over it. I think it was a huge honor to be able to lead with people who we’re doing life with, and these songs were written out of those life experiences and journeys that we’ve walked together. Being able to proclaim these truths with friends and family and people you’ve laughed with and cried with, its just so powerful. It’s a special album. We’ve done a Subscribe for Free... 13