so part of my job is coming up with those ideas
with my team and then pitching those ideas.
In the last several years I’ve really upped my
pitch game, kind of like a car salesman, I go
into a meeting now and I’ve got my strategy
for getting the idea pushed through. Whatever
idea gets decided on, then we go into the
implementation process of that, probably
just like any other creative director. The one
difference for us is we have nineteen campuses,
so we’re implementing times nineteen. It’s on a
large scale and whatever we do we have to do
it “times a bunch”, so there’s a lot of fun in that.
John Larson
We also create a lot of content in the church.
Highlands Worship puts out a lot of original
content, but we also put out content for our
students. Our students have their own groups
called ‘Motion’ and they put out a lot of original
content too. We do content for a lot of the
different departments at the church, whether
it’s for kids, or uploading videos for the sermon
series. Last year we produced about fifty songs
in house that would have a variety of uses
inside and outside of the church.
[WM] John, you’re the Worship Pastor over
Nicole McClean
worship and audio. Along with Nicole and
Jesse Abram Reeves, you were also part of the
songwriting team on this release. Can you tell
us a bit about how the vision for the album gets
distilled into the songwriting process?
[John Larson] That’s a great question. What’s
really great about Chris Hodges, our Senior
Pastor is that he was a worship leader first, so
we have tons of conversations on a daily basis
about where the Lord is leading us in worship.
In one of those conversations, we were talking
about how we have a bunch of amazing songs
about what God does for us, the identity that
Chris Griffin
we have in Christ, and the finished work of the
cross. But, what we really needed was some
more songs that really talk about the nature of
God, the nature of Jesus, and who He really is,
bringing worth and honor back to that in the
area of worship. So, from those conversations
came this idea… what if we were to write a
whole record without talking about ourselves
Highlands Worship // “Jesus You Alone”
March 2019
Highlands Worship // “Who Is Like the Lord”
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