Louder Than The Music

Following a week that saw a worship album become the tenth most downloaded album in the UK, LTTM asked Worship Central's Al Gordon for his reaction to the mainstream chart success of the new live album 'Spirit Break Out', featuring Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon, Al Gordon, Nikki Fletcher and Luke Hellebronth.

LTTM: Last week the Worship Central album 'Spirit Break Out' seemed to take a lot of people by surprise - you must be pretty excited about how well it did last week?

Al: We're so amazed at what happened because it was unplanned and without precedent. Worship albums just don't ever feature in the mainstream, so for us it's been a crazy week. Worship Central is so much bigger than an album or a collective of worship leaders: we're a movement of worshippers in local churches across the world. Since 2006, over 100,000 people have attended our events, conferences and nights of worship. We're all a part of this vision: making the worship of Jesus central in our lives, churches and communities. We've had a dream of seeing Jesus glorified outside of the walls of the church, but we never thought it would happen like this. It feels like the beginning of something new.

LTTM: Why do you think this album managed to do so well in the download charts compared to other recent releases from worship leaders like Tim Hughes or Matt Redman for example?

Al: What has been so cool is that I've been getting calls from friends who are worship leaders all across the country this week, and they've all been saying things like "It's amazing, WE'RE at number 9 in the iTunes charts." They are as much part of this as we are. I think there is something very powerful about being part of something bigger than ourselves. This album has been made by a collective of worship leaders that are representative of a much bigger movement, and I think that has been reflected in the support we've seen. It's a biblical principle that where there's unity, God commands his blessing, and perhaps we're seeing a bit of this in the way people have picked this up and got behind it.

LTTM: Can having a worship album in the UK charts help make a difference in society?

Al: Jesus alone will make a difference to society, and that's the urgency of the gospel. I guess part of leading worship is painting a picture of Christ in the culture, proclaiming Christ to the culture and pointing people to Christ in our times of worship. Our prayer is that many people will hear this record, hear songs like "Saviour of the World" and encounter God. One album doesn't change anything, but we want to play our part in shaping a movement who are passionate about making Jesus central in our culture. There were some Tweets flying around this week saying 'Let's make Jesus famous' by getting the album into the Top Ten. Of course, Jesus is above fame... he's God! But on another level, we live in a generation which is growing up often only hearing the name of Jesus as a swear word. Worship is about making much of Jesus, lifting him high not just on Sundays but in the whole of life. It's our public proclamation of a hidden reality. Ultimately, worship can change the world. If we see a turning and returning to right relationship with Jesus, then the world will be changed. William Temple, the great Archbishop, once said, "This world can be saved from political chaos and collapse by one thing, and that is worship."

LTTM: Aside from releasing albums, what else does Worship Central do?

Al: The album is a small part of what we do. We're a training movement which is growing organically all across the world. We've run conferences and training events all over the world, from the US and Canada, through the UK, Holland, Germany, Sweden, right across Asia in places like Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. In fact we've also released an album in Mandarin with our Hong Kong team, because God is doing some amazing things with worship in that part of the world. We also do a lot of online training on worshipcentral.org which includes training videos, iPhone app, podcasts, new songs.

The big thing we've been working on for a number of years now is a training course that any local church can run with their worship team, which is out online this Autumn as a free resource. We've also launched an academy where 12 students are spending a year with us training as worship pastors. So there's a lot on!

LTTM: What's next for Worship Central?

Al: We've got an amazing conference lined up in London on the 28-29 October, with a focus on training worship teams for leading in the local church. Some incredible people involved in that, including Martin Smith, Matt Redman, Alistair McGrath, Rend Collective, Vicky Beeching... it's going to be unmissable.

LTTM: Are there any plans for a live DVD or another album from Worship Central?

Al: We're just getting our heads round finishing this one! We filmed the night and will be releasing footage for free online over the next few months. One song, 'At Your Name' is out now on worshipcentral.org today. We'd love to do another live album in the future.

LTTM: Any plans for a new Al Gordon album?

Al: Ha. We'll have to see. I am writing more songs that ever, and feel so encouraged after this recent album. I guess I feel more excited about being part of a collective than being a solo project. Somehow there seems to be so much more synergy in working as part of something bigger. So, not sure if I'd want to do another 'Al Gordon' album, but I'm definitely excited about making music and serving the church. At the end of the day all of these songs happen because we care about the people we lead on Sunday, week in week out. If your motivation is to write songs for an album, you're left with just songs, but if you write songs for the church, you become part of serving a story bigger than yourself. For me that's where creativity has most integrity, where it's not about you but about others.

Al Gordon leads Worship Central alongside Tim Hughes. Find out more at worshipcentral.org