The MxU Worship Podcast

The MxU Worship Podcast Ep4
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Jordan Howerton: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the M xU Worship podcast hosted by Stephen Brewster. Each episode features great conversations between Stephen and all kinds of worship leaders from the most prolific songwriters, from prominent churches, to folks you may have never heard of. Either way, we hope that these resources and conversations will encourage, equip, and empower you to be the best worship leader you can be.

Make sure to follow and subscribe to this podcast too, so you can stay up to date on all of our episodes, computer and resources. Let's get to the, here we go.

Stephen Brewster: Uh, excited to have my friend Jordan Howard with me today. Jordan, thanks for jumping on the podcast. Oh my

Jordan Howerton: gosh, we get to do this. Thanks for having me.

It's gonna be awesome. I know.

Stephen Brewster: Um, tell me a little bit about c c b music and just c c b church in general. Just give me a, a quick overview. If I don't know anything about

Jordan Howerton: C C [00:01:00] B, tell me about it. Yeah, yeah. Well, our church is based out of Phoenix, Arizona. We're a multi-side church and, uh, started 30, around 38 years ago, uh, in a living room Wow.

With four or five families. And, uh, man, God has just shown tons of favor to our church over the years with a commitment to reach the valley. It's what we call the Phoenix area, the valley, um, for Christ. And, uh, in the midst of that time, it's crazy to think that starting in a living room now, we. Um, at the, at the time of recording this, we have 12 campuses and God continues to show us favor, and it's all for him.

Truly. Like no one's, no one's taken hold of the, the glory of it for themselves. And so that's what our, that's what our church is, is about, is, uh, um, winning people to, to, to Christ, um, train up believers and sending them out to impact the world. And so that's what, that's what C C V is all about. And c c v music is the, um, Musical [00:02:00] expression of what it is that God is doing here.

It's really a something that was birthed out of, um, us looking around. We've benefited so much over the years from churches who had the fortitude and the vision to write prayers, set them to melody of their own house and record them and release them. We've benefited from that for years. And so we felt, we kind of took a, a survey and an inventory of our own team and said, we've got a ton of talented people here.

I, I feel a deep burden myself, um, to be good stewards of what it is that God has given us for sure. Um, really believe much in the parable of the talents and I feel like God has given us much and much is expected. And, uh, so we said, let's, let's. Know that, let's do something about it. So we started to, to write down these prayers and, and set 'em to melody and record and, you know, it started.

The first live recording that we did with CV Music was, uh, I think there were just like a couple hundred people that, that showed up to that, and it was awesome. And the [00:03:00] way that God has continued to grow and and influence that aspect of our ministry is a big deal. We want to contribute what it is that God is speaking through our church here.

To be able to help other churches be able to pray those same things Yeah. That they may resonate with. So that's kinda the origination of C C V music, why we exist and it's a creative collaboration, or our music team here at the church is, uh, is quite large. And so we have a lot of people who can contribute in lots of different ways.

Yeah. And it's fun to get to steward that and champion that with each other. That's so awesome.

Stephen Brewster: Um, how did you get started

Jordan Howerton: leading worship? Uh, I'm a, I'm a third generation, uh, pastor, so the church that I grew up in was in Missouri in a town of 200 people, 201, to be exact, and my grandpa was a senior pastor.

My dad was the worship pastor, associate pastor, counseling pastor, youth pastor. All the other things, pastor. Which is how it goes in most churches, right? ? [00:04:00] Yeah, exactly. My mom was the part-time kids minister, and my uncle was the secretary, like my granny played the piano and a family friend played the organ.

My gosh. And that was the, I grew up in, so I started singing when I was three specials, like in church, you know, Jesus loves me kind of stuff. I started playing guitar when I was. I was a jock in high school. I was gonna go to college and play basketball. And when I played, started to play guitar, my dad came to me and said, Hey, you've got three chords, so you're gonna lead worship for our youth group.

And I was like, no, no, no. I'm the jock. I'm not the worship leader. Right. I kinda had like the Zack, the Zack Efron complex before high school musical Yeah. Had ever been released. Yeah. Um, that's not who I am. I'm this person. And I, I gave in and I led, the very first song I ever led in our youth group was, Lord, I lift your name on high and.

I, it's three chords. Somehow I messed it up. I don't know. , I just wasn't very good at the time. That's hilarious. And it is for our small youth group in Phillipsburg, Missouri, a small farm [00:05:00] town off of I 44. And God met me in that space. And I really feel like God showed me in that, in that moment, even through a song like, Lord, I lift your name on high, that I've given you a talent and an ability and it's not about you and it's not for you.

And there was something about that moment that was, It just captured me. Fast forward like four or five months. And I did it my first inner city mission trip, um, to Chicago. And I learned the open e chords, , uh, to be able to play open the eyes of my heart from a guy named John Moton. And, uh, he's like a pillar of the faith, a giant in the faith from me.

Um, he taught me to play. Lord, I lift your name on high with open E chords, and that's when my world just really even expanded. To see how the kingdom could be utilized and, and, um, forged forward. in a context different than the one that I grew up in. And so I saw church planting and I saw inner city missions and my, my eyes of the kingdom just expanded beyond what I had [00:06:00] ever experienced before.

And, and music was the means kind of to that. Yeah. And so, um, God just started using those little experiences. I went to college at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, and got a degree in biblical or biblical literature. Um, I did not go to Bible college to get a music. I went to Bible college to get a Bible degree and learn and play music as much as I could on the side.

That's awesome. And, uh, shortly after I graduated from college, I started working at a church, worked there for six years and then, um, went on the road full-time. Yeah. With a band under my name, um, Jordan, Howard Band. And we toured full-time for about four years. Um, we got up to about 200 dates, 250 dates a year in that range, and we're gone all the time and, uh, felt like God.

Colin started to feel like God was calling me to take roots. I was spending more time investing in other people's kids instead of my own. My wife and I started a family in that time, and so we felt the call, um, to either Nashville [00:07:00] to do the label thing or to Phoenix to do the, to do the church thing.

Both felt very separate and, and different . Yeah. And uh, at the end of the day, we felt like God was calling us here. And so this is the move that we made, and I've been on staff here now for six and a half years doing this. That's awesome.

Stephen Brewster: That's so cool. Yeah. What a great story. Um, so the, the average worship leader in America isn't gonna do 250 dates.

They're No, they're, they're not gonna get the, the reps of doing 250 dates. How did you, yeah, how did you find. Like, learn how to find the voice of the church musically. Like I would, I would assume that part of that, all of those reps kind of helped a little bit on, on that. But then you come into, you, you leave the road and come into church.

How did you find the voice of c c b and like,

Jordan Howerton: how long do you feel like that has taken? Yeah, it's a great question. So I, I mean, I grew up in the church and so I felt like God gave me, [00:08:00] genuinely, like gave me a heart. Even when I was on the road. The point of our band touring was to resource the church even in the midst of being on the road full-time.

It wasn't to make a name for ourselves, but it was to genuinely resource the church. And that's been my. Since I can remember when it comes to music, um, is that I'm not content, uh, with us just doing a good job on Sunday. Yes, I want us to do that, but I want us to be a resource beyond, you know, true worship really happens.

Outside of the walls of the place that we've sing songs in, um, that's when we're living our lives of worship. And so wanting to equip people and inspire people to take these choruses and these melodies with them in their car or as they start their day or whatever that might be, to be able to really be able to utilize that, encounter the Lord in the space that we're in collectively.

But then take those prayers and let them inspire throughout our day as we move from that place. [00:09:00] And so that's just something that I feel like God had just put in me from a really early age. Um, I grew up on hymns, man. I, I grew up on, uh, a lot of Sunday nights where Pick your favorite hyn number. You know, and everybody would just throw out a number 3 56 Church in the Wildwood.

Awesome. Let's jump into it. Piano player jumps right into it. Those were the songs that I grew up singing. Yeah. And those, those made an impact on my life. Those are foundational to my faith. And I feel like even more so than as, as you start to introduce, whenever we, I started to learn songs like Open the Eyes of My Heart, uh, even Lord, I Lift Your Name on high.

An old Al Din CB was like, He knows my name was a song that like, was one of the first ones that I, I listened to and it like, it captured me, man. And, and I started to, those prayers, those songs started to influence the way that I saw the world. They started to influence the way that I engaged in worship with my life, and not just in a moment in a room.

And so I felt like, [00:10:00] man, that's been such a gift to me. I wanna make sure that we can give that to others. I think the thing about finding your voice in the church with music and, and as a worship culture is just recognizing that it's just real people who are wanting to connect to a real God. And our, our job is to, in an authentic.

Help people make that connection. Um, mm-hmm. let, music is a language in my, I I believe that music is a language and it transcends cultural backgrounds. It transcends, um, any borders that we can put up between ourselves and somebody else. It is a language that is universal. If you play a minor progression, people feel a minor progression.

They may not be able to call out that it's a minor progression. Right. But it emotes a feeling. Yeah. The same thing with a, with a major progression. And whenever you set melody in sonic waves, literally into motion and connect those with truth, that's it's sticky theology. It's like take home theology. I mean, the way that we [00:11:00] learned our ABCs is not that somebody said, c, D fg.

Now repeat after me. We didn't do that by siding. We learned our ABCs by putting a melody. We sang our ABCs and the ABCs became part of our understanding. And I think that singing worship songs is the same thing. It's something that it's take home theology that equips and inspires and empowers us to live lives of worship outside of the room that we sang those songs in.

So good. And I love,

Stephen Brewster: I love that, that picture of take home theology. I think for a lot of people that theology in itself can be confusing or intimidating. And so, you know, music. Yeah, music does simplify, which is a, which is a beautiful thing for sure. So you lead a gr, you lead a team, an awesome team. I would get the pleasure of knowing a, a lot of your team, and they're phenomenal.

What do you feel like is. The biggest lesson you've learned as a worship leader that you're trying to teach the team that you

Jordan Howerton: lead? [00:12:00] Oh my gosh, that's a great question. Um, one of them though that I'll share is, um, take a risk, try something new. I think that we get in this place as worship leaders of sustainability.

Uh, of, of preservation. I, I, I maybe would use the word preservation, where we're like, we're trying really hard not to lose the thing that has been given to us. And so our attempt to, to not lose that influence or that position or the mojo or energy or momentum that we have in, in whatever season that we're in, is that we're just gonna.

So, but what preservation does is it causes me to, to like clench my fists on the things that are in my hands. And I've never effectively seen God move things forward when I've tried to [00:13:00] hold onto things that were never mine to begin with. And so I think that preservation creates this false sense of ownership as a creative.

I own this. I got to this point by what it is that I've done, and maybe God used you to do that, but you never actually owned it. Newsflash. And the way that I can actually move things forward, the way that we can innovate, which we have to as a church, and we're gonna keep being left in the dust man. The only way that we can innovate and move things forward is by risking, is by taking a chance.

So what I actually challenged my team to do this this year was I challenged everybody to. That's awesome. I said, I dare you. I dare you to fail. I dare you to try something and it not go well. And then you learn from that and you pick up the pieces of what it was that you tried that were broken. You put it back together in a better way.

And now we're gonna try something different. And had a, had one of our worship leaders actually come three weeks ago and, and, uh, She said that, uh, in [00:14:00] her, in one of our services, we typically don't have like open mic moments within our, within our context as a church. I've been to plenty of churches who do that.

If you have a word you wanna share, come do it. We don't, we haven't done that a ton in our context, in our multi-site. It can be a dangerous game to play, for sure. ,

Stephen Brewster: it's a little bit like roulette

Jordan Howerton: for sure. I mean, , yeah. For no. No doubt that person's gonna come. She felt like that was something God was calling her to do, and she was like, no, we don't do that here.

Am I allowed to, am I allowed to? Like, is that a risk that I could take? Is that I feel like that might fail. And I said, I think that's exactly why we should do it. Let's give it a shot. Yeah. And so the, the context was around, The word of God and the word of God is foundational to our lives. It's important and it's, it can sustain us in, in good seasons and in bad seasons.

And she set that up and she said, here's a verse that's meant a lot to me in this season of my life. She recited the verse and she said, I, I wanna just invite you in this next five minutes. If there's a verse that's been really influential in your life, in the season that you find yourself in, I wanna [00:15:00] invite you to come forward and I'm gonna hand you my mic and allow you to just recite that verse for our congregation here today.

And this was at one of our multi-site campuses, and they had a plant in each one so that you at least had one person that came up and did it to break the seal of awkwardness. Yep. And it was a big risk for our context, but somebody. And they shared a scripture and then someone else came up and they shared a scripture, and then a woman came up and shared her testimony of how they had been praying for a house and for the provision to be able to have a house for two years since they had moved to this area.

And literally the morning of that invitation to come and share a scripture. They got the last document for them to be able to close on their house Wow. In the community that they were in. And so the woman was able to come in front of the congregation and say, for two years, some of you had journeyed with us through this process.

And the, the, the, the verse that she rec reside was, um, there was a mountain behind their house. And she said that every day she would get home from [00:16:00] work. Helping other people move into their dream home. She would pull into their rental house and she would look up to the hill and say, where does my help come from?

My help comes from the maker of heaven and earth. Wow. Uh, I look to the hills. And she recited that passage and she said, today is the day that we got the final document for us to be able to move into our house. And the whole room just like exploded. Right? . Everybody's clapping and cheering and crying and wiping in their face.

Right? And that would've never happened if she hadn't have taken a risk. Right? And to do, to do something that had never been done before. And so I'm just learning that man, we, we try to preserve. So much, but I think maybe in our c clenched fists of preservation, we're stripping the spirit of what he may want to do in our context.

Yeah. We just weren't scared to fail. That's

Stephen Brewster: so good. Okay. So I, uh, first off, I completely align with that. I, I, I think anytime a team has permission to fail, it's, it's an empowering thing. Like you're gonna, you're gonna see God move in a disproportionate [00:17:00] way because control and growth don't go together. I mean, there's, they just don't right.

Align, but, If, if I'm a worship leader in my church right now, how do I go talk to my pastor and convince him besides sharing this podcast with him and hoping he picks up the hint , how would I share

Jordan Howerton: with him the importance of that? Yeah. Well, you want the f you want the, the risk to be calculated. So you don't just wanna be, just go like off the rails, something crazy.

And you wanna make sure that you're casting vision and you're bringing people along. In the example of the, uh, the worship leader on our team that I. She came to me, her direct lead, and she said, here's a risk that I would like to take. Do you see any problems with us taking that risk? She talked to the campus pastor at that campus and brought him on the same page.

You don't wanna surprise people in leadership with the risk that you want to take. That is not a wise move, but if you, if you communicate, if you articulate the why, why do I want to take this? and what do [00:18:00] I expect the desired outcome to be? Now you've laid out a target for why we're gonna take this risk, and you've allowed people to come alongside of you, champion you, and help, help support you as you take the risk and as you look after the desired outcome or or effect by the end of it, because she was able to do that, then people were able to come around her and say, that was amazing.

Yeah. If you're gonna talk to your senior pastor, like, you know, your, your smaller. Don't surprise people in leadership with a risk that you want to take. Bring them along on the journey so that you guys can, you know, ascend that hill together and like you wanna walk side by side with that. You don't wanna stand ahead of people and take a risk and ask them to come up to catch up to where it is that you've been.

You wanna bring them in at the floor level of that and climb that building, uh, of yeah. Of dreaming together. And what you'll find is, I, I think, I think that in most cases, um, [00:19:00] leaders will be more excited about, like, senior leaders will be more excited about those creative risks moving forward when you've brought 'em into the journey.

And they might ask you, what, what else do you wanna try right after you've tried something like, Yeah. So you wanna make sure that you're bringing people along on the journey of it. You don't wanna surprise people For sure.

Stephen Brewster: Hey, pastor, we're gonna do a whole new a no, a whole new thing today. We didn't tell you.

I've done that Plenty . Yeah. That always ends up biting us a little bit. You know, we don't, we always, it's not the, not the best

Jordan Howerton: move. Um, no. What's the, you

Stephen Brewster: know, like there's a, there is a tension that we all live in right now with, with what church looks like now compared to a couple years ago before

Jordan Howerton: a pandemic.

Stephen Brewster: A lot of people say that's their biggest tension. I was just curious, what do you feel like is your biggest tension right now as a leader and a worship leader in, in a local church? What's your biggest

Jordan Howerton: tension and how are you handling that? I, I think that the biggest tension is, um, especially in a, in a church our size, [00:20:00] in the context that we're leading in, um, is authenticity over perfection.

I think it's something that continues to have to. Looked at, um, just, uh, two weeks ago at our broadcast campus, uh, the sound, the soundboard brand, uh, like newer soundboard. Yeah. The computer in it just crashed it just at the, at, at our four o'clock Saturday night service. Our first service of the weekend computer crashed and there was like this five or six minutes of.

Silence in the room while they're trying to figure out like, can we reboot it? What's going on? What's what's happening? And it's awkward. Some random guy in the room like stood up and told a joke, , oh my gosh. He was like, this is my moment to shine. And he was like, Hey everybody, I'm Paul. He shares a joke and the room's kinda like awkwardly laughing and there, but there was this moment where you know, the next service.

We had to dismiss that [00:21:00] service. But the next service, they just threw a couple speakers up on a on sticks. We weren't able to use the sound system cuz it was dead and they just sang songs acoustic. And there was this authentic coming together in the room at the broadcast campus. And you have an expectation of an experience when you walk into that room.

And there was something that was just so real and tangible. And so I think that the thing that we have to fight for in a, in a. Is, it's easier to have the play already planned out and just walk in and execute and call that, you know, chase after a bit of the, the more of the polished nature of what we do.

I think that the really difficult thing is to create moments of authenticity that empower your leaders, your worship leaders, or your campus pastors, or your hosts or whoever is our leading moments. Um, that would probably be the, the thing for me is like authentic [00:22:00] moments that are being led. The biggest thing that I'm a champion of for our.

Is to get out of the mindset of us leading from song to song. But I want us to be mindful of leading from moment to moment. When I lead from song to song, then it's just kind of perfect, perfect moment to perfect, perfect thing to perfect thing. When I'm thinking about moment to moment, I'm like captaining the ship.

Of that song to be able to go to where it is that I wanna go next. I'm thinking about the transition after me thinking about what came before me, what comes after me. I'm thinking about what I want people to know. What do I want them to feel? What do I want them to do in this moment? And I think that that's something that we have to fight for in, in.

That's just something that we're continuing to chase after in the season, is that we would be people who lead inauthenticity from moment to moment and not just from song. That's so good, man.

Stephen Brewster: That is so good. Um, if there was, so, you know, uh, C C V God has [00:23:00] blessed your church and,

Jordan Howerton: um, you know, it's,

Stephen Brewster: it's, it's just so fun and phenomenal to watch.

The average church in America is not gonna be the size of C C V for the, for the guy or girl who's listening today, and they're bivocational

Jordan Howerton: or they're. You know, maybe they're, they're

Stephen Brewster: part-time or they're just getting started. What's the one thing a worship leader, like, what's the one thing a worship leader should know?

Like you've got a fresh class of worship leaders coming into your orientation. What's the thing that you're telling them? You've got to

Jordan Howerton: know this. Yeah. Yeah, so I, I think I would say that there are actually two things. The first would be that you cannot pour out an empty cup when you get onto the moment where you're gonna lead worship on a stage.

If you haven't spent time with the Lord before that moment, you're not gonna have anything to be able to give to your congregation. And that time on stage, in my opinion, is not your time to connect with the Lord for the week. That's supposed to be the [00:24:00] overflow of the relationship that you have with the father leading up to that moment.

If you have your eyes closed and you're just singing songs to the Lord as if it's just the two of you in there, there are moments where that can be meaningful, but sometimes that creates an environment where the. Congregation feels like they're seeing something take place and they don't actually know where they belong, right?

In the whole context of everything. And that's a difficult reality of that, but we have to be filling ourselves up throughout the week so that what happens on a weekend is the overflow. The worship is in the work. Of what it is that God has given us to steward work is worship. I think that's biblical all the way back to Genesis when God has put something in our hands and he has entrusted us to do something with that, that is worship for us.

Yeah, so eyes open. We're looking at the congregation, we're, we're pouring out what it is that God has put in us in that week, and that is a really important thing. You can't pour out an empty cup. We have to be intentional with our times with him. The second thing is that we. [00:25:00] Push or impose things from, from other contexts into our own context.

If it doesn't work, we have to be open-handed with our ideas and the things that we're bringing to the table. Just because it worked over there at that place doesn't mean that it's gonna be most effective at your place. Um, and so I think that's an important thing to keep in mind. We have to lay down our own ideas sometime.

My very first Sunday at the first church that I worked at, I led worship bare. Because I was a big, rich Mullens fan, and I like, I'd been doing a lot of conferences to that point. So I'm barefoot and I'm leading worship, and it was kind of like a statement thing, you know, like take your shoes off, you're on holy ground, kind of a vibe.

And that one was like, that was just the thing at the time. And so I lead worship. I finished that first Sunday. I get off stage after the eight 30 service. That was the time of our, of our first service. I get off stage, I walk down in front of the stage to just say hey to people and meet 'em, and I will never forget it.

A couple older, older ladies come forward and they bee lined [00:26:00] it for me and they said, you, how dare you not wear shoes on our stage. How dare you not respect our space the way that it should be respected. And they went in on me, man. They started questioning my leadership capacity and my integrity and a bunch of things.

They just, cuz I wasn't wearing shoes. So that following week on Tuesday, I got a box of shoes in the mail and a letter that was scathing, man. It was like, we don't think you, we don't even know if you're the right person for the. This is ridiculous. How dare you not wear shoes on our stage? And I was just, dude, I was beside myself.

The shoes were the wrong size. So those went right in the trash right away. And there were like some hand down things, but the, the, the letter, like I held onto that letter. Yeah. And I took it to a mentor's house, um, a couple days later. And I just, I had him read it and I just said, no, what am I supposed to do with this?

I'll never forget it. He took that, And he it very dramatically in front of me. He got out a [00:27:00] lighter and he actually lit that letter on fire and he burned it down to the very end and he shook it out and he threw what was left of it in the trash. And he looked at me and he said, just wear shoes, . And I was like, it's that simple.

What? No, I have things that I've decided that I want to do. There are things that I wanna accomplish here. And those old ladies, I, I have all these, I've got all this theological ammunition. Like, I, I cannot wear shoes and I'll be just fine. Who were they to tell me what I can and can't do? And he, his, his wisdom to me was, is it worth it?

What, what matters more to you, the thing that you've been entrusted to steward or doing it your way. Just wear shoes. And I think for young worship leaders, for old worship, for all of us, it's important to just be reminded that I need to lay down sometimes my own preference for the sake of what it is that God wants to do through the moments that he's entrusted me to steward.

Just, just wear shoes, man. So good.

Stephen Brewster: [00:28:00] That's so good. All right, let's talk about your new album. You guys have a great Yeah. Great new album. Uh, thank you. Live recording. Full, full worship night. You captured it all. Uh, what do you, what, what's your hope for this record? What, what do you hope people experience when they hear

Jordan Howerton: it?

Yeah, we want people to experience, um, joy. Uh, celebration. We want people to experience the eye-opening perspective that God can give us through these songs. The name of the record is Perspective, and it came from it. The, the idea of the album came from Ephesians one, 17 through 20 where Paul's praying to the church in Ephesus, and he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be.

And then he goes on to say, so that you would be able to see the things that Jesus has accomplished on your behalf. And that just became a prayer for us. It was actually a song that we introduced to our church last Christmas. Um, as like kind of a special song at Christmas [00:29:00] time, um, that really reinforced the content of the message.

It's even a word that our church has adopted for our staff for this year. It's like the word for our church for the year is perspective. And it's something that I feel like we could all do with a solid dose of. God perspective in the season that we find ourselves in. It feels like you can't, especially in church man, like if you make one decision, you are ridiculed from every side possible.

You're trying to find where the target is as a, as a believer of Jesus even you're like, where do I fit in this hot topic or that hot topic? And I think it would just be really good for us to just pause and say, God, give me your perspective. And so these songs are songs that were. We believe are indu inducing God's perspective on ourselves.

Songs like More Than Enough that He's more than enough for us. Songs like You are here, that even when I don't see it, when I don't feel it, God, I believe that you're present in my life. Songs like Bloom that say, God, I, I don't [00:30:00] see the goodness and the season, but I believe that you can tread the ground inside my heart and make it new and I'm gonna ask you to do that.

Um, there are all these songs that are indicative. God really shifting our perspective to see the world that he created, the way that he sees it, and not just the way that the world tells us we're supposed to see it.

Stephen Brewster: I love that CCV is known as a church, that that resources, the, the Capital C Church. Um, What do you, which songs off the record do you think are the ones that, regardless if I'm on the West Coast, if I'm on the East coast, if I'm in another country somewhere, what's the song that I can pick off that record and lead from my congregation?

And it will help make, take, help

Jordan Howerton: us have a new perspective. Yeah, there are. There are a few that we've really, really worked hard to make them. Be able to cross cultural borders, if you will, in, in that regard. Cuz it can be very different. for sure. East Coast to West Coast. It definitely can hit, hit different.

There's a song [00:31:00] called Standing Tall that has, uh, you know, we've already, it, we released it as a single in May and it's already been proven to be a really big hit with, uh, churches, different parts of the country, uh, who are already picking it up and doing it. Uh, easy to. Kind of has a country flare to it a little bit.

So you're, regardless of your context, kind of feels like you maybe need to be in a pub. It's very sing songy, uh, upbeat too, which is, you know, yeah. That can be a difficult thing to find in the repertoire of worship songs. Upbeat and a, and a solid message. Very clear to understand. Not too heady, just very worshipful of our, you know, I'm standing tall on the foundation that God's laid forth for us.

Yeah. Another one is the song Bloom. The chorus of that song says where you walk, the flowers bloom. You turn desert SY gardens. When you move, this barren land can give good. Come tread the ground inside my heart and make it new, let it bloom. And that has been a song as we've led it in our [00:32:00] congregation, as I've led it at conferences even throughout this, throughout this summer.

Um, that is the number one song that people are like, we want to do that in our church as soon as you guys release it. And it's not surprisingly the song that we're holding onto to release until the album comes out. Um, and so people have been a bit, a bit upset. There have actually been. Social media campaigns that people started of release, release bloom now that's nice kinda thing.

So Bloom. Bloom is a song that we, we really are excited about and it has just been so impactful for our church. The other that I'll mention is just a song called All I Have. Um, it's a very simple prayer declaring our dependence on Jesus in no matter, no matter the season. Uh, the chorus just simply says, if all I have is Jesus, I have all I, if all I have is Jesus, I have everything.

That's the chorus. It's really simple. Um, and a song that has proven to be, uh, a prayer, not just of our house, [00:33:00] but you know, we've even been here already, just a prayer of other, of other houses too. And there are a few others I'd I'd love. What other people are doing and what other songs they're picking up.

Cause I think there are a few on there that people would really be able to adopt as their own.

Stephen Brewster: That's awesome. So if someone wanted to tell you that, or wanted to get in touch with you and wanted to share how the record impacted them, how would they do that? How'd

Jordan Howerton: they get ahold of you? Yeah, just get us a follow on at CCV music.

You do it on TikTok? You can do it on Instagram? Yeah. Wherever it is that you're on social media. Um, give us a follow and then just direct messages. Just DM us. I mean, we've got an active team on social who want to respond to, and they can shoot you, uh, you know, emails and things like that to be able to get ahold of whoever on our team can.

But that's the easiest way. Great to get ahold of us at CCV Music. Um, and our crew will respond right away. That's awesome.

Stephen Brewster: Jordan, thank you for today, man. Thanks for taking some time. Yeah, thanks for, uh, being willing to share just your knowledge, your wisdom about this new project that people need to go out.

Right now we'll have show notes that have [00:34:00] links to all of that. So

Jordan Howerton: thanks so much, man. Yeah. Really, really appreciate it. Thanks, man. Appreciate your.[00:35:00]