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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
Ten years after Keith and Kristyn Getty launched what was intended to be a one-time event celebrating a book about congregational singing, the Sing! Conference has grown into an international gathering of pastors, theologians, musicians and believers focused on strengthening the singing life of the Church.
This year, the conference will return to Nashville on Sept. 7–9 with the theme “Symphony of Scripture,” marking the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale’s English New Testament and examining the influence of the Bible on worship, theology, language, culture and the arts.
For Keith Getty, the Grammy-nominated hymn writer behind worship classics including “In Christ Alone,” “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” and “The Lord Is My Salvation,” the focus reflects what he says has always been at the heart of the Sing! movement: helping Christians sing the truth of the Scriptures.
“There are many goals with the Sing! Conference: congregational singing, to improve high artistry, but I think at the heart of it is helping people sing the Bible,” the Irish artist told The Christian Post.
Getty, who shares four daughters with his wife, said the timing of the anniversary was particularly meaningful because the first Sing! Conference was deliberately postponed until 2017 so it could coincide with the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
Now, its 10th gathering falls 500 years after Tyndale’s English New Testament helped make Scripture accessible to ordinary English-speaking Christians. The conference will also coincide with the 25th anniversary of the English Standard Version Bible.
According to Getty, this year’s conference will highlight not only how Scripture has shaped Christianity but also how singing biblical truth has shaped American life and the global Church.
The event, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, will feature speakers alongside large-scale hymn sings, theological discussions, instructional sessions and orchestral performances. Crossway is also launching its “Symphony of Scripture” project, Getty said, and a full symphony orchestra will accompany the opening day’s programming before the Getty band takes a larger role beginning on the second day.
“We’re excited about all the potential this has to touch people, to bring the Bible to people in a fresh way and to a wider audience. It’s a really amazing missional opportunity,” he said.
Music and poetry are embedded throughout Scripture itself, Getty contended, and have historically functioned as a way of teaching and preserving biblical truth.
“Scripture itself is about 20 percent poems and songs,” Getty said. “The Bible is more biased towards songs and poetry than any Christian book written since. … Singing is exhilarating. It’s a holy privilege. It is doxological worship to our God and Heavenly Father. But it’s never less than instructional.”
What Christians sing, Getty said, helps shape what they believe and remember. He pointed to Martin Luther’s vision for the Reformation: Scripture should be opened in the language of ordinary people, pastors should faithfully explain it, and believers should carry biblical truths through song.
Luther, who Getty said is his “hero,” envisioned Scripture being opened “in the language of the people” so ordinary Christians could read the Bible while pastors explained and applied its truths. But Luther’s vision didn’t stop at biblical literacy, he said.
“People would carry the Bible out of church by being able to sing the Bible in their own tongue,” Getty said. “In other words, he thought the singing of the Bible had more to do with Monday to Saturday than the preaching or the reading of the Bible.”
For that reason, the hymn writer said strengthening congregational singing is “hugely important to our Christian health.”
He also sees that mission increasingly extending beyond the Western Church. The songwriter noted that much of Christianity’s growth is now occurring outside the English-speaking West, often in places without centuries-old traditions of hymnody. Part of Sing!’s mission, he said, is to “be a supporter” and “help stimulate” the singing life of churches around the world.
“The goal is, number one, to really reform it in the Western Church, and then to go out and be a supporter and someone who could help stimulate and contribute to the singing life of the Church around the world,” he said.
And that emphasis on theology and the power of worship is reflected in the speakers selected for this year’s conference, among them John Piper, John Lennox, Wes Huff, Sinclair Ferguson, Malcolm Guite and Os Guinness, among others.
“We take a theme each year and we share the platform with many people who we believe are wiser and more holy than we are,” he said. “The Sing Conference every year is, to some degree, what Kristyn and I have been learning in the last year, what we’ve been doing, what we’ve been writing, what we’ve been sharing.”
Unlike previous years, Piper won’t deliver expository Bible teaching at the conference, but will instead tell the story of Tyndale and the extraordinary personal cost of his determination to give English-speaking Christians access to Scripture.
“I think a lot of how grace is taught today is just way too casual. It’s way too easy,” Getty said, adding that for Tyndale, faithfulness meant being “turned down 100 times” and ultimately being killed for his work. “I think Piper has a great way of telling that.”
Huff, a Canadian Christian apologist who has gained a significant following, will focus on the credibility of Scripture. Getty said Huff is “appealing to a new generation” that churches and Christian conferences have not always successfully reached.
Meanwhile, Guite, an Anglican priest, poet and longtime Cambridge educator, will examine Tyndale’s influence on the English language and subsequent literature, while Guinness will address Christianity’s engagement with culture. Ferguson, a prolific author and speaker, will focus on theology and worship.
The conference will also address a decidedly 21st-century issue: artificial intelligence. Getty revealed that Huff and Oxford mathematician and Christian apologist John Lennox will participate in what he described as a first-of-its-kind conversation between the two on “biblical intelligence versus artificial intelligence and the future.”
“As we enter the AI age, both the confusing disparity of what people have known to be true in the past and what is the new reality that they’re going to discover in the next one to 10 years will be so dislocating,” Getty said. “With the internet … rose depression, and then social media rose anxiety. And I think what AI is going to do for loneliness and just the lack of any sense of friendship is so crazy.”
The response, according to Getty, shouldn’t be fear, but be to root Christians more deeply in eternal truths and in the physical community of the Church.
“I think all the more important that we sing of Heaven, that we think of Heaven, that our trust is [in] eternal things. Ultimately … our hope has to be in Heaven,” he said, adding that throughout Christian history, movements of renewal have consistently produced new songs.
“All great movements result in doxology,” Getty said. “They result in people singing because, as the hymn writer says, how can we keep from singing? We just can’t. That’s how we’re made.”
“The world was sung into being,” he added. “Heaven is a picture of God’s people singing, and we want to help equip the Church to engage more fully in worship.”
Sources:Christianpost
This past year, award-winning singer and actor, Donnie Wahlberg publicly proclaimed Christ as his savior, and lately he’s been opening up more and more about his faith journey.
In early May of 2026, the 56-year-old went viral for collaborating online with Christian music artist Forrest Frank. They soon released an official remix track together called, “JESUS IS ALIVE (feat. Donnie Wahlberg).” Then in June, Wahlberg went viral again while acknowledging Christ during one of Frank’s concerts – MORE HERE.
As he was taking bold steps to put his faith in practice, Wahlberg also connected with the podcast host George Janko on the George Janko Show and shared some of what he has learned.
Being raised in an Irish-Catholic background as one of nine children, Wahlberg described himself as a “peacemaker” amid chaotic and strained family relations.
“I come from a very co-dependent family. When my parents broke up, I was around 11 and I immediately became like the peacekeeper and the peacemaker,” Wahlberg shared. “The struggle for me was discerning between – and at that age I wasn’t discerning – being a people pleaser and just trying to fix everyone else’s problems.”
The multi-talented star continuously poured into others as the pressure to fix others’ problems built up over time.
“Everybody, people that I used to look up to, grown-ups, be like, ‘Hey how do I fix this?’ I’m like, ‘What do I know? I’m in a boy band’,” the New Kids on the Block star recalled. “But then, I am also a people pleaser. I want to fix everyone’s problems inherently. So, now I’m like, ‘Well I got to have all the answers’, and I literally have walked around for the last 30-something, 38 years thinking I have all the answers.”
After his boy band music success with NKOTB, he then shifted to an acting career, starring in Band of Brothers, Blue Bloods, Boston Blue, and more.
But as he struggled through the years, trying to figure it out on his own, Wahlberg finally admitted that something was missing and surrendered to God’s helping hand.
“It’s been so difficult in the last year to realize I don’t… I don’t have them all. I can try and I know God’s doing all the work, but I finally got to a point where I was like, I can’t do it anymore without Him. I’m missing something in my life.”
For Wahlberg, this powerful admission did not come out of a place of lack or despair, but out of a deep realization that, regardless of all he had achieved, he was empty without God.
“And I have a wonderful wife, wonderful kids. I have everything. So, as I am testifying right now, I don’t have a story of having everything and losing it. I don’t have a story of being a drug addict and recovery. God bless all those people who find their way,” Wahlberg told Janko. “Everything to the outside, to everyone, looks perfect and I was empty. I was empty without Him.”
Along with emptiness, Wahlberg struggled with loneliness and shared how Jesus Christ was the only remedy.
Despite the challenges he faced, Wahlberg recognizes God’s hand and plan through it all. He acknowledges his past as the preparation to properly pour into others today.
“I look back now and I know without a doubt, He built me into that life to do what I am doing now. I literally spent my childhood in that house trying to make nine kids, my grandma, our dog, our cat, and everyone happy and bring us together and everyone unified as we were fracturing and falling apart,” Wahlberg explained. “And that’s what I do for a living. I get on stage in front of 20,000 people and their suffering, their struggling and they’re going through all these things.”
As he continues to live out his faith, he celebrated his birthday today, August 17, with another post about Jesus, declaring, “Looking back over the past year of my life, the Lord has been renewing my mind, rebuilding my spirit, rearranging my priorities, recentering my focus, recharging my energy, reshaping my heart, refining my faith, restoring my joy and redeeming my life! I don’t know where I would be without Jesus, but I know where I will be with Him! All the glory is His! Thank you again and God bless you all!”
Sources:CBN News
“No Limbs, No Limits” captures the powerful story of inspirational speaker Nick Vujicic’s early life, revealing how Christ trades beauty for ashes.
As a top three speaker worldwide, Vujicic inspires billions of people, declaring Christ’s ability to use any willing heart no matter the circumstances.
Coming to theaters September 25, 2026, “No Limbs, No Limits: The NickV Story” will follow how Vujicic’s life became one of extraordinary resilience, hope, and Kingdom influence despite being born with no arms or legs.
The film features deeply personal home videos revealing intimate moments Vujicic and his family experienced. However, all of them proclaim one final message of hope.
“It was humbling. Revisiting some of the darkest seasons of my life hasn’t been easy, but neither was watching my family relive it with me. At the same time, we celebrate the lives that have been changed and the people who have come to Christ along the way,” Vujicic told CBN News’ Studio 5. “It’s amazing to have footage my mom had the foresight to capture when I was little, and I’m so grateful she did. Every frame of this film points back to one thing—what God can do with your broken pieces when you place them in His hands.”
While the film takes the viewers through Vujicic’s “real” and “raw” life, it is not meant to glorify him or his accomplishments but rather acknowledge the God who spoke a better word when his physical condition declared defeat.
“People can expect the real deal. It’s raw. The highs, the lows, and stuff I’ve never shared publicly before. This film isn’t about what “Nick” has done. It’s about what God has done with a guy born without arms and legs,” Vujicic shared.
“I want folks to walk away inspired and knowing they’re not too broken, too forgotten, or too far gone; everyone’s life has purpose,” Vujicic told CBN News’ Studio 5.
For Vujicic, the film’s overall success is not measured in ticket sales or reviews, but on the millions of people who may leave the theater inspired and transformed by the name of Jesus Christ.
“I want people to walk away knowing their limitations don’t define their potential when they’re in God’s hands. If He can use a man with no arms and no legs to reach the nations, He can absolutely use you. You just have to say yes. My hope is that folks leave inspired to trust Him and live boldly for Him. At the end of the day, the real win isn’t ticket sales or reviews; it’s about a million people watching ‘No Limbs, No Limits’ and walking out changed forever in Jesus’ name,” Vujicic concluded.
Sources:CBN News
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