What you’re holding is the fruit of a three year collaboration and friendship. As a pastor myself I’ve seen artists and pastors struggle to connect. But when City Church began and reached out to me to do music, their pastors and leaders wouldn’t settle for such a disconnect. They envisioned beauty ringing in harmony with devotion and peace-making. So we set out together to build Christian worship experiences that were authentic to the indie music and art, and lives of justice we all loved.

Then in the spring of 2012 we decided it was time to share these experiences through an album. City Church’s leadership put up the first half the budget and we were fortunate to raise the other half on kickstarter in just 29 days. Even though this is comprised of songs we sing week after week as a congregation it has been quite a project. A smaller band met weekly for three months tightening arrangements; then one March weekend a host of people put together the stage, lights, sound, beer table, you name it; we recorded both the dress rehearsal and show involving as many as 18 musicians—all live to tape; then spent a couple months in the studio editing, mixing, mastering and committing all manner of skullduggery with the textures culminating in what you now hold in your hands.

If there’s one thing we hope you get from this project it’s that prayer is not quartered into hours, lines, or measures. It is a way of being present, resonant with God’s presence all around us. And because of this, worship–be it as a church congregation, at a party, or as an individual with ear buds–oughta include songs. We hope you love listening to these songs, that you learn to play them and pray with them, and that they help communities pray together. But we also hope this kicks you in the butt to get out and create authentic art that you can pray by too!

I’d like to thank Scott Armstrong, Bryan Buck and the whole congregation of City Church. Thank you Kelley, Eve, and Wake; and all those partners and kids who encouraged (or bared with) all us artists putting in extra hours on this project. Thank you, Mike Sink, Jason Gregory, and Ben Cox who really made the concert possible and David Drexler for hours upon hours in the studio, letting me manhandle your equipment. Thank you to Chris Van Beneden, Jordan and Skyler McDonald, Brandi and Jonathan Bronsink, and everyone else who gave on kickstarter. And thank you to the congregation of Neighbors Abbey and community of SW Atlanta who didn’t get to benefit from this art as much but who inspired so much of it.