Jaci Velasquez will release her new album Diamond in March 2012. In this video she talks about the album...

 
 
And here is a listening preview of the album!

Gateway Worship's new album "Great Great God" has just been released in South Africa. We thought it would be a good idea to re-publish this post. After you've read it, do go out and get the new album - it lifts the Gateway story to the next level.

 
 

Article by Tim Pettingale

The story of Gateway Church is one of phenomenal growth and of the blessing and favour of God in response to an obedience and willingness to shape a body of people according to His plans and purposes. From humble beginnings, this US mega-church is now reaching literally millions of people with a message of hope of truth.

Beginnings

It was in early September 1999, when Robert Morris felt compelled by God to plant a Bible-based, evangelistic, Spirit-filled church in Southlake, Texas. God had given him a dream: to establish a church that would first impact its surrounding area – Northeast Tarrant County and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex – and then expand to touch many more lives beyond their region. He began to gather a team of willing co-leaders around himself and developed a working relationship with the pastors at Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo, Texas, whom he could approach for wisdom and guidance. The following Spring, on Easter Sunday 2000, the church’s first service was held at the Hilton Hotel and around 180 people turned up for it.

After just three weeks, the church moved location, borrowing the building of Christ Our King Church in Southlake on Saturday nights. Over the next year this Saturday night congregation gained momentum and by July 2001 another move was necessary – to another borrowed facility in the area. What is amazing is that by this time – just 15 months after its inception – the church had grown tenfold to over 2,000 members and needed to run five weekend services to accommodate the number of people who wanted to occupy the small loaned space! It was a staggering growth curve by anyone’s standards.

It was obvious that the church could not continue without a building of its own, so Robert and his fellow leaders broke ground on Gateway’s current Southlake Campus during Gateway’s third year. As the building was constructed the church continued to grow. By Easter 2004 the congregation reached around 5,000 and it currently stands at just under 17,000 members actively involved. November 2007 saw the church complete its second major campus build as Gateway NRH (North Richland Hills) opened its doors – a 50,000 square foot building on nine acres of land, now also running multiple weekend services. Plans for multiple other campuses located across the US are afoot.

All About People

So what has contributed to Gateway’s exponential growth? Robert Morris says that, “Though many new and dynamic ministries have been and continue to be created to help minister to individuals and families, in the midst of all this exciting activity we recognise that church health is more important that numerical growth and church programs. At Gateway, we recognise that God has a specific plan and purpose for each person’s life. That’s why we’re all about people. The scope and variety of ministries at Gateway are simply a reflection of our heart to help people of all economic, social and ethnic backgrounds.”

Gateway’s vision is fairly simple, based on Jesus’ stated mandate for His own ministry expressed in Luke 4: to preach the Gospel to the poor, heal the broken hearted and the sick, and to proclaim freedom from oppression. The desire of Robert and his team is to see people saved, healed, set free, discipled, equipped and empowered for a life of service to God. To that end, their ministry has been deliberately angled to recognise the needs of individuals in order to help each person find their purpose in God and live it out, according to His will.

The goal of Gateway’s discipleship programs is very much about touching the lives of others. So much so, that Gateway’s strapline has become: 'We’re all about people'. “We demonstrate our love for God through our love for people,” Robert says. “Helping each person experience an intimate relationship with God. Good church programmes alone cannot change people’s hearts – but an encounter with the Living God always changes people. Our aim, therefore, is to introduce people to the intimate and life-changing presence of God.” The church’s time of worship, then, is a vital feature of any gathering. Many have become familiar with the worship of Gateway, especially through the ministry of Kari Jobe (who just received two Dove Awards for her music). The way in which Kari leads worship complements Robert’s desire to create an environment in which God can draw people into His presence.

Looking Outwards

Robert’s dream for Gateway was always twofold: firstly, an effective church that touched its region, and, secondly, one that would reach “beyond”. When Gateway began, Robert had no idea how God would grow the church and use it to impact Southlake, let alone what “beyond” might look like. But now Gateway is taking its “people empowered by presence” message to beyond its immediate reach and also to many other nations through its Global Ministries initiative.

Still infused with a passion to see people saved, set free and released to minister to others, projects have included working with battered women’s shelters, inner-city outreaches, developing a local benevolence fund and hurricane relief efforts. Internationally, the Global Ministries team is partnering with over 75 ministries in 23 different countries to facilitate evangelism, discipleship, leadership training conferences and compassion relief projects. Diverse activities include such things as drilling water wells, rescuing children, feeding the poor and providing shelter for those in need.

Robert concludes, “Jesus’ coming to earth was the greatest expression of God’s love. Another great expression of God’s love is when we meet another person’s need. Whether we give a cup of cold water to someone in His name or pray with someone to receive the Lord as their Saviour, we must be actively involved in reaching out to those in need.”

As well as being the senior pastor of Gateway, Robert can be seen weekly on The Blessed Life television programme that is seen in more than 80 million homes in 200 countries. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Jack Hayford’s “King’s Seminary” Bible College. But, though the objective observer could be forgiven for thinking he has “arrived”, Robert doesn’t see it that way at all. He doesn’t believe Gateway has achieved anything like that which God has for them. In fact, though they are noted as “the fastest growing church in America”, he believes they are still only scratching the surface. Why? Because there are still millions who need to hear the message of God’s love.

Gateway’s brand new CD ‘God Be Praised’ released in South Africa 9 November 2010.
Look out for the DVD releasing on the 15 February 2011.

The long wait is finally over: Jesus Culture will be visiting South Africa in March next year!

So far no details are available, except the dates and places:
Johannesburg: March 2-3, 2012
Durban: March 6, 2012
Cape Town: March 9, 2012

They are having their "Encounter 2012" conference from 3-4 February 2012, focusing on "The Culture Project", and South Africa might get something similar. (For more info on this conference go to http://www.jesusculture.com/encounter/.

We will post more information as it becomes available, but for now keep these dates open!

Contemporary
Distributed in South Africa by Maranatha Record Company
Review by Treebeard
Available as separate CD & DVD

Hearing King David sing his song is deeply moving. Seeing the images of the curly-haired shepherd boy and the wizened old King takes the experience to a dizzying new level. Multiply this with 16 songs and videos of other Bible characters (or groups of characters, like the disciples), and you're beginning to grasp the scope and power of The Story".

Loosely based on Max Lucado & Randy Frazee's "The Story" Bible, a re-telling of the Bible as a continuous story in 31 chapters, The Story lets 17 Bible characters tell their own stories, in their own words, in the first person - showing how everyone's story is part of "The Story" of God's dealings with humanity. And along the way, almost unnoticed, every story evolves from "the story" to becoming "my story" for every listener/viewer.

Combining the songwriting talents of Nichole Nordeman and Bernie Herms sets the stage for something awesome, but they have outdone themselves by a few orders of magnitude - musically and lyrically they have produced songs that makes the characters and the truths of their lives come alive in a way few would have imagined possible. I have yet to find someone who wasn't deeply moved on hearing these songs, and every time I listen to the album I'm moved by the beauty and majesty of the story it tells. And then you watch the DVD and get blown away...

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Spirit Break Out - the debut live album from the London-based Worship Central team - has just released in South Africa. And for a movement dedicated to helping unleash praise and worship within local churches across the world, Spirit Break Out is a live album full of energy and experience.

But this is no empty title. Spirit Break Out is the perfect summation of a profoundly held belief that we need to allow God more freedom and power within our worship.

Tim Hughes - songwriter, worship leader, co-founder of Worship Central and vicar-in-training - puts it clearly in a forthcoming interview with Mission Worship magazine:

“We’ve never had better quality songs to choose from. There are amazing songs on amazing themes coming out of Hillsong, Passion, Soul Survivor and - I guess - Worship Central too. But there’s a danger here: that we rely on those songs to create the amazing encounters in worship. If we let the song become the king, then worship becomes more about what we can create and less about our response to God’s initiating love and glory.

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One of Christian music’s premiere bands, Downhere, is back with an awesome new album. On The Altar Of Love will release in South Africa on August 23, and once again teams the group with Grammy and Dove award-winning producer Mark Hiemermann (Michael W. Smith, Tait, Stacie Orrico). The new CD is a pop-driven project that offers a positive outlook for our future, while maintaining the integrity and artistry of Downhere. All songs were written by vocalists/guitarist/keyboardists Jason Germain and Marc Martel.
(Watch the band talk about the concept behind the new album at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fteCiEw6IEc&feature=channel_video_title.)

"Let Me Rediscover You", the first single from the album, was written by Martel two weeks before Downhere entered the recording studio for On The Altar Of Love, and has just been released to South African radio stations. (If your favourite station don't play it, request it! They can get it from Maranatha Record Company.) It's the type of song we all should sing every now and then, and showcases the awesome vocal abilities of Downhere:

Let me rediscover You
And breathe in me Your life anew
Tell me of the God I never knew
Let me rediscover you

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After almost 10 years as a band we have decided to say farewell to Revive. We want you to know that this was a tough decision to make and one we prayed about for many months. We will miss so much about the band but in the end we wanted to have more time at home with our growing families and (for Dave & Rich) be closer to family back in Australia.

God has certainly had us on a crazy adventure as many of you know.

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