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Brooke Ligertwood reveals story behind hit single ‘A Thousand Hallelujahs,’ talks new album
Popular worship artist Brooke Ligertwood says her latest single, “A Thousand Hallelujahs,” was inspired by the Christians of old who worshiped in simplicity and truth and that she’s passionate about writing Scripturally sound songs that are helpful for the local church body.
“A Thousand Hallelujahs” is the first single from Ligertwood’s forthcoming album, Seven, releasing next Friday, Feb. 25.
In an interview with The Christian Post, the Grammy Award winner revealed that the song is one of the last she penned for the album, along with her husband, Scott, and fellow worship artist Phil Wickham.
“It was just such a beautiful surprise and such a blessing,” she said.
“My husband and I went down to our friend, Phil Wickham, who lives just about an hour down the road from us. And we were writing in the church that Phil goes to, which is like this old little church hall in Southern California.”
“We were sitting in the church hall with the keyboards and the guitars, and there’s just this beautiful, empty hall, and kind of started talking about all the generations of people who had worshiped in this church. We were just were so inspired by the generational nature of the Church of Jesus. And we started talking about the thousands of hallelujahs that had been sung in that room.”
From there, “A Thousand Hallelujahs” “just kind of poured forth,” Ligertwood shared.
“All of us, at the end of it, were kind of like, ‘Did that just happen? Thank You, Lord.’ I feel so, so blessed that the song has been entrusted to us, and we just really pray that it’s a blessing for the Church and that it actually is really helpful.”
Ligertwood, a mother of two, is no stranger to writing and releasing music, with two decades of experience in the industry. The New Zealand native has six mainstream albums with Sony Music under her maiden name, Brooke Fraser, along with 17 years with Hillsong Worship under her belt.
Seven, the 38-year-old producer revealed, is “probably the first and last album” under her married name. The album was recorded live in Nashville, Tennessee, and features a 30-piece choir. In addition to Ligertwood’s husband and Wickham, collaborators on the album include Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick, Brandon Lake and others.
The project, Ligertwood said, was not her idea. But she acknowledged, “my life is not my own.” She called Seven a “step of obedience,” one she felt God calling her to do.
“The Lord made it really clear, to my surprise, relatively recently, that this was something that was going to happen,” she shared, later adding: “I was like, ‘Alright, Lord. I’m going to be as faithful with this as I can. We’ve worked so hard and prayed and saturated this thing so much, but this is yours. You get to do what You want.’”
From the start of her career, the Hillsong Worship leader said she’s sought to make simple, Scripture-laden music that is “helpful” for the local church — a passion that was only magnified in the wake of COVID-19.
“At the moment, our campus of Hillsong, that my family and I attend, we don’t have a building right now. We’re meeting in a tent,” she reflected. “We don’t have a fancy PA. We don’t have a big LED screen, reading lyrics that are on TVs on steroids. It’s a really modest time. So, I think I’m really conscious at the moment of what are the songs that work in that context. Because they’re not the songs that have 5 million parts and are very complex and require four-part harmonies. They’re the songs that are vertical that point people to Jesus straightaway, and that can sound great with just a piano and guitar if that’s all you’ve got.”
“As a local church member, those are the songs that we’re finding are building our faith in the congregations, week by week,” the “What a Beautiful Name” singer added.
“I have a front-row seat to … what’s helpful, what blesses me as a congregant, but also what blesses me as a person who is then leading the congregation in these settings which have been so moveable for so many churches throughout the pandemic.”
Ligertwood is one of the most recognizable voices in CCM, with hits including “Lead Me to The Cross,” “Hosanna” and “Desert Song.” Her songs have been streamed globally more than 1.5 billion times and translated into over 15 languages.
Though her name is synonymous with modern worship music, the artist said she draws inspiration from the hymns of old and their longevity.
“Hymns are so powerful and have endured for so long, obviously, because the theology and poetry are compellingly put forth, but also because, back in the days where the hymns were circulating, it wasn’t recordings that people were listening to learn the songs; people were getting, literally just the melody written down, the sheet music and the words. Songs had to be robust enough and strong enough to stand on their own with just the melody and the words … these songs had to work,” she reflected.
While it’s a blessing to access worship music through modern streaming services and technology, Ligertwood stressed that “it’s good to remember why these hymns have endured for centuries, as many of them have and, and continue to bring to the Church songs that can endure and still speak in that way.”
The artist is also passionate about infusing her songs with Scripturally-sound theology.
She told CP that while “we can and should use poetry and language and metaphor and colloquialism points to be able to paint the picture of the lyric that we are communicating,” “if it can’t be biblically defended, we can’t sing it.”
“The reason theology in song is so important for the Church is because … a lot of people have long commutes, or they listen to worship as they’re commuting or in the car, and sometimes they’re listening to worship music, in terms of a daily basis, more than perhaps they’re spending time reading the Word,” she said.
“It’s so important that the songs that people are listening to, and then, of course, singing out … that it’s true because what we believe about God frames how we live for God, how we interact with God, how we interact with others, how we see the world. So what we believe is really important, and of course, what we sing shapes what we believe.”
When asked about her vision for the future of worship music, Ligertwood hopes for “purity”
and for generations to come through who “recognize worship is a sacred thing.”
“To be honest, I think especially, there’s a lot of noise, and there’s a lot of distraction,” she shared. “I do feel concerned for the generations that are coming through, what they’re seeing, what their understanding of worship is, what their understanding of being a disciple is.”
When purity and integrity are compromised in ministry, Ligertwood pointed out, “God has to do something about it.”
“If f we’re not the first to repent, then eventually, the Lord’s going to have to bring some correction or allow some things to happen to correct our pride or our stubbornness or all of these things,” she said.
Though worship is a “beautiful rainbow of expression” encompassing high praise, lament and rejoicing, humanity “can never be the focus,” she emphasized.
“We, from our place of humanness and understanding of our sin and the grace that we require and the grace that has been given to us through that lens of humanity, we bring to worship, and we don’t deny that, but at the same time, that can’t be the focus of the worship. Christ is always the focus of our worship,” Ligertwood reminded.
The artist described herself as someone who “loves the Church” and wants to see it flourish — and through her music, hopes to help the Body of Christ do just that.
“I think that’s so important that we have these songs that prepare our hearts to receive the Word … that the time of singing is actually a beautiful part of something greater that God is doing through the service, which is part of something that He’s doing in a community of people, which is part of what He’s doing in His Church,” she said. “I just love the way that God uses all of those parts of the service and all of our gifts combined to mature us as a body of Christ.”
Sources:Christian Post
The holiday movie season is here, and a Grammy Award-winning duo is delivering the first big release. For King and Country’s highly anticipated “Drummer Boy” hits theaters Friday. It’s a nearly 90-year-old classic and a longtime, signature carol for the Christian pop duo’s Christmas tour.
Joel Smallbone told CBN News’ Studio 5 how they turned “Drummer Boy” into a story for the silver screen.
“It’s so fascinating because it’s almost like the movie chose us more than we chose the movie. Well, it’s For King & Country. It’s a British mantra. We always got dressed up in this sort of Revolutionary War attire. We did this rendition of the Little Drummer Boy. Luke is the drummer boy. We’re two brothers; you end up on opposite sides of the battlefield. It was like writing itself already,” he continued.
“And then in 2018 was the kind of precipice moment that we were like, oh wow, we love these sort of ideas of what does it mean to have forgiveness? What does it mean to choose each other? What does it mean to end up on opposite sides of the battlefield of life? And that was really the inception of the film. And from literally 2018 to today, we’ve been working on bringing it to life,” Joel explained.
Luke Smallbone shared the day-to-day of working on the set for this film.
“It was in Ireland. So, when we were over there, Joel was over there for about 4 months. I was over there for 3 months. And it was kind of one of the wonderful things because Joel and Ben, our other brother, co-directed the film, and I was one of the producers. Joel also acts in the film. I have a tiny little role. I say seven words. I’m not pronounced there. I will be looking for your vote, trust me. And obviously, to be able to make this film with brothers, obviously Joel was on both sides of the camera to be involved. And at the end of the day, it was a dream come true to make a project like this with people that you love was very special,” Luke said.
Altogether, it is a tale of brothers on opposite sides of a battle, and a love story, and a forbidden bond between a soldier and an enslaved young woman.
“We’ve sort of said it from it’s like Hamilton meets The Patriot meets Greatest Showman meets Pride and Prejudice. It’s like if you ram them all together,” Joel said.
Sources:CBN News
Christian singer-songwriter Colton Dixon said the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the government’s restrictive response to the COVID-19 pandemic “changed” him.
Dixon, 35, told CBN News seeing Kirk murdered for exercising his right to free speech pushed him “to seek truth harder.”
“I feel like, just for a lot of people, whether you believed in what Charlie stood for or not, just for a lot of people, it was, like, it just — I don’t know, it changed me,” said Dixon. “It was just, like, ‘Wow.’ [It] gave me a new outlook on things, even just to seek truth harder.”
The up-and-coming generation, he added, aren’t taking things at face-value anymore, regardless of the source. “They’re seeking truth for themselves,” he explained.
As a Christian recording artist, Dixon said he believes he has found the answer: “The answer’s Jesus.”
The recent spate of culture-defining events have, according to the “Build a Boat” singer, “anchored my feet down in my beliefs so that I’m not going to be pushed around by a little Chihuahua who might bark louder.”
“I kind of even really figured out why I believe what I believe,” he said. “[B]ecause again, it’s just COVID and just all these different things, they’re trying to get you to do different things and I’m like, ‘OK, why aren’t we just going to do it?’ Let’s figure out why so we’re not just being stubborn and hardheaded.”
“We open up God’s Word, we pray, we seek godly wisdom, and then we come to the conclusion, ‘Oh, this is why,’” Dixon said. “So now I just feel more steadfast in why I believe what I believe.”
As he’s ruminated on his convictions in recent years, Dixon has become noticeably more comfortable creating edgier content — at least edgier for the status quo in the contemporary Christian music world.
The “American Idol” alumnus just released a new song, “Bones,” based on the Old Testament passage of Ezekiel 37, chronicling the story of the prophet being transported to a valley filled with dry bones. God asked whether the bones could live and then commanded Ezekiel to prophesy over them. As the prophet began speaking promises to the bones, they assembled and were covered in flesh. Then a second prophecy called breath to fill their lungs and they became a living army standing to their feet.
Dixon said the song is “straight from Scripture,” recalling reading the biblical account and feeling “super inspired” and “like God gave me revelation” about speaking “over the dead things in your life.”
During a time of year when most of American culture is fixated on death from a secular perspective, Dixon saw an opportunity to flip the script around Halloween with a biblical understanding of death.
“What if we could … take this passage that already theatrically lines up with a lot of the visuals of skeletons — that’s what this whole passage was, it was a valley of dry bones, the bones rattling, coming together, flesh coming upon the bones, it was like zombies out there, you know, in Ezekiel 37,” he reflected.
That passage of Scripture, Dixon emphasized, shows a biblical interpretation of death, which, for the Christian, he said, is “just a little blip on the timeline of what our lives look like.”
He said, “For the rest of the world, death is the final word. … That’s the period. Life after death is this big mystery. But for a believer, death is not the final word; the cross —what Jesus did on the cross — is the final word, and not only that, but three days later, Him resurrecting from the grave so that we could spend eternal life with Him in heaven. … Death can be a scary thing to talk about, but as a believer, I don’t think it should be.”
The song — and its music video, which is set at night in a graveyard — is certainly unorthodox in its approach, but it paints a clear picture to the world that this life is not all there is. It also tells the story of spiritual power, a nod toward Romans 8:11, where Paul wrote, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you”.
“I think that this song is … a kick in the pants for sideline Christians, where I’ve found myself before,” said Dixon. “It’s time to start using the spiritual authority that we have as believers and not just talk the talk, but walk it, as well.”
In fact, for Dixon, it was his wife Annie’s certainty about spiritual authority that led him to do some self-reflection.
“I found myself being so in awe of [my wife] that that was her first response [to pray and speak over things],” he said. “But then also going, ‘Why isn’t that mine?’ You know? If I’m really going to be the best spiritual leader of our house, I need to stop kicking my feet up and actually get in the game and start doing this for real.”
Sources:faithwire
Mel Gibson is calling on churches to pray as he prepares to bring one of the most important moments in human history to the big screen.
In a special video message to Pastor Samuel Rodriguez and members of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Gibson offered a new glimpse into the spiritual weight surrounding his highly anticipated film, “The Resurrection of the Christ Part One,” which is scheduled to hit theaters May 6, 2027.
“I’m so grateful to all of you and can’t wait for you to see ‘The Resurrection of the Christ Part One’ in theaters May 6, 2027,” Gibson said.
But Gibson’s message wasn’t simply about promoting a movie. He issued a direct request to the church: Pray.
“Please prepare your churches to pray for us as we get ready to release the film in theaters next May,” Gibson said. “And thank you for all your prayers and support in leading your churches to ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’. God bless.”
Gibson also revealed that Rodriguez was with him in Italy during production, where he got a firsthand look at the work in progress.
“Pastor Samuel was with me on set in Italy during production, and he saw firsthand the epic scale of what we’re putting together,” Gibson said.
The video also included powerful statements about the potential spiritual impact of Gibson’s latest project, with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller declaring that the filmmaker is “preaching the gospel with this modern means.”
“’The Resurrection of the Christ’ is not just a film,” the Rev. Franklin Graham said in the video. “This is the greatest event in history, and it’s being recreated right here so you can see it.”
Graham expressed hope that the movie “will touch the lives of millions of people,” while another described Christ’s resurrection as the very source of the church’s life.
More than two decades after “The Passion of the Christ” brought Jesus’ crucifixion to audiences around the world, Gibson is now preparing to tell what happened next.
The message of this next chapter is unmistakable: The resurrection is not simply the end of a biblical story. It is the foundation of the Christian faith.
As Pastor Samuel Rodriguez declared, “This right here, this is the exclamation point of Christianity.”
Sources:CBN News
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