Integrity Music announces the signing of WorshipMob, the Colorado collective of worship leaders and musicians. Founded by Colorado Springs worship leaders Sean Mulholland and Garrett Chynoweth almost four years ago, the group began as a weekly gathering between two local worship teams. Today, the “Mob” represents 30 local churches through 70-80 ministry leaders who meet weekly to worship, pray together and encourage one another.
For the first time, WorshipMob are sharing their songs on a full-length album, Carry the Fire.The project consists of 12 tracks, including some of WorshipMob's most popular covers and original compositions that reflect their heart for unified, creative and passionate expressions of worship. I had the chance to speak with WorshipMob’s Nico Perez and Garrett Chynoweth about their great new worship song, “Our Father Has Won.”
Please tell me the personal story behind this song.
Nico: Garrett and I met at WorshipMob a few years ago and we became really good friends. It’s funny that Garrett never really did any songwriting at all, and I was just starting to get into and loving to do. Garrett writes poetry about God, and one day I was at his house and he was sharing some of what he had written and I loved it. That began the process of us writing songs together. It was a first for me as I took lyrics that someone else had written and put it to music. I’ve been a music first kind of person. It was totally God. We started writing, and our relationship grew.
Garrett: The partnership with Nico was such a blessing. He has a way of building into people, and he built confidence really quickly. It was a perfect match as we walked together through the process and it was amazing. For this song it started out as “The Father of Love” and we started thinking about since God is love, what does love look like? Nico took it and thought there was a better direction for the song, and we had written the chorus, and Nico wrote the verses and bridge with some friends of his, and we combined it all together, and we loved it. The message of the song is about how awesome our Dad is, and we are bragging about our Father. It’s an intimate way of saying our Father has won. There’s a childlike faith involved in the song and it’s resonating deeply with people.
Nico: With the verses, we wrote about what God has actually done in our lives. Us meeting Him, and God being our Father, and Him defining us. Who is He? He’s a Reviver, Father, Friend. We talked about how we are totally new people since we met Him. The song says “You made our hearts to beat again” and “Unlock our minds to dream again.” That’s so true. I feel like since I’ve understood His grace, I see people differently, and I dream differently. We were excited about that.
Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?
Psalm 16:2 (NKJV): "O my soul, you have said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.'"
1 Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV): "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."
Romans 8:14 (NKJV): For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Romans 8:31 (NKJV): “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Galatians 4:4-6 (Voice): "When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the law) to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the law. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters. Because you are now part of God's family, He sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts; and the Spirit calls out, 'Abba, Father.'
Psalm 60:12 (Voice): "Only through God can we be successful. It is God alone who will defeat our enemies and bring us victory!"
Hebrews 10:14 (NKJV): For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
2nd Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV): Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
What is the takeaway message?
Garrett: The Bible passages which are about our intimate relationship with our Father, and He is talking to us as His sons are what this song is about. He is our Friend and our Comforter. It’s not about saying, “God out there, come to us here.” He lives inside of you, and forgave you of your sins. Now he has perfected you in Christ and it is finished. The Bible tells us that we are a new creation in Christ, not that we are becoming a new creation. God tells us we are the righteousness of Christ. He’s ripping the old stuff out of our lives, and reveals the righteousness of God, which is who God made us to be. That’s where the song comes from.
For a lot of people, the word father means different things. For me, I was orphaned as a little kid when I lost my father, and he was my hero. When you don’t have a father you are proud of or who is proud of you and all of the things you don’t have without a father, you have an orphaned spirit. Who am I? It gets to the identity issue of looking at what your Dad can do. People don’t know how awesome they are because they don’t know they are truly forgiven and have been adopted by God as His children. The passion in these lyrics are based on my background of knowing what it means to look for security and trust and feeling loved, adored, perfected and protected. That’s exactly what we get from God. He has chosen you to be a part of His family.
Unifying truly comes from the work of love. The only way we can be unified is to love God and love people. That’s the distillation that Jesus said of everything. We love God because He first loved us, and not out of the idea of love, but from the intimacy that love brings, that’s what changes the game and we actually feel differently. God cares about me! There’s no barrier between us and God. Jesus took care of that. Once I receive that, it’s easy to love other people once I feel love in the core of my being. That’s the message we want to keep washing over people again and again and again, as they’ve receive so much un-love in their lives. They’ve been beaten down and tried so hard. I know what that feels like. Quit trying to earn approval, God did it already and our identities can rest in Christ. We don’t need to be driven to impress God because Christ lives in us. He gave it to us as a gift. That’s our thesis in most of our songs.
Lyrics:
Reviver, Father, Friend
You made our hearts to beat again
A new creation song
You gave us joy to sing again
Once broken and guilty
Now drowning in mercy
All curses undone
Our Father has won
In bondage no longer
Now free sons and daughters
Made whole by the blood
Our Father has won
Identity restored
Unveiled our eyes to see again
So let the anthems rise
Unlock our minds to dream again
Once broken and guilty
Now drowning in mercy
All curses undone
Our Father has won
In bondage no longer
Now free sons and daughters
Made whole by the blood
Our Father has won
All hope restored
Our lives reborn
Created for Your glory, glory
All shame has fled
Our faults lay dead
Oh God, You said You're for us, for us
With Easter just behind us, the day all followers of Jesus celebrate that “Our Father Has Won,” one thing I love about the sentiment of this song is that regardless of your denomination or preferences, the words of this song are something we can all come together and say yes, and Amen to. Part of WorshipMob’s mission as a collective of musicians from churches is to bring the Church together. I share in that desire as a fellow believer. In writing about songs for the Church for several years now, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with all types of artists with all types of backgrounds, and the common denominator is our love for Jesus and one another.
Clearly some truths that we can rally behind as believers in Christ together is that God is Our Father, He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins, and He rose again and defeated death. We can all say Hallelujah and celebrate those truths together while singing along with this song. The enthusiasm and energy of this song and band is infectious.
I love listening to this album when I want an exciting time of worship that glorifies God and gets me pumped about my faith. Carry the Fire is loaded with great up tempo songs, catchy melodies, and solid lyrics reflecting unashamed faith in Jesus. This is a wonderful song to sing in order to prepare your heart for Easter, and it is one of the many highlights of this album’s offerings of praise and worship.
Rarely has an album affected me this deeply, as many of the songs cause me to physically feel the depth and sincerity of the goosebump-inducing, emotional vocals. How these songs convey our relationship with Jesus is truly inspiring and convicting. “Our Father Has Won” celebrates the freedom we are promised in God's Holy Word: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Amen to that!
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Originally posted on NewReleaseTuesday.com by Kevin Davis