LIVE NCC album

Well, I've had a dream for the past 3 years to make a live record with whatever church I ended up being a part of. I mostly thought it would happen while I was set up in Music City - Nashville, but God has a funny way of doing things in HIS timing, and not ours. It was a little over a year ago, when I first got here to Washington DC to join National Community Church, as a worship leader, and then later as a campus pastor. Back in Fall of 2010, we got away to Baltimore for a couple days, and held our annual Planning Retreat, where as a team, we brainstorm, pray, and just seek God for fresh ideas for the upcoming year. That was when it all started...

Mark, Heather, and the rest of the amazing minds that make up our staff had an idea to do a series the Summer of 2011, called The God Anthology, where we approach 9 certain attributes of God, and in our best effort, try to describe who God is, and where that leaves us, as a human race. Out of these 9 attributes, I've joined with the other worship leaders at NCC to write songs that reflect those attributes, based on Scripture, and with additional lyric input from our teaching team. The 9 attributes are Holiness, Love, Faithfulness, Mystery, Beauty, Jealous, Mercy, Wrath, and Sovereignty.

I'm used to writing songs on my own, and not really co-writing outside of Nashville writers, and so this was a whole new beast to tackle for me, and while I wrestled with it at first, I now look back and see that God was really trying to do something new. The lyrical content on these songs is so meaty, saying things we've heard over and over again, but in a new way, with a new passion. And yet the songs are finely crafted to be congregational, and you'll find that you can't get these melodies out of your head. It's been tough at times, because there are some strong opinions collaborating, but in the end, I really think God reigned supreme, and made the songs what HE wanted them to be.

This past weekend, we got to hang with one of my favorite people on the earth, Akil Thompson, who will be producing the album. Akil has worked with artists like Israel Houghton, Jonny Lang, Kelly Clarkson, and the list goes on and on.. Akil's heart for worship and drive for excellence in art will take this project where I believe worship music in the church hasn't gone yet. We're believing for a ground-breaking, God-exalting, lost-redeeming album, that will not only impact our NCC congregation in a new way, but will hopefully find a place in drawing our nation back to the heart of worship..

So get ready, because August 3, 2011, we will be recording a live record here in Washington DC. We're currently looking into several venue options, but praying that the legendary Lincoln Theater is the place! Will YOU be there?!