Substance I/O

Well over a decade ago, the Lord spoke to me that He was planning on using our church to influence the sound of worship all over the world. So, as a part of our 2020 vision, we endeavored to start by launching a record label as well as our first national worship project. Our assumption has always been, if this project isn’t completely amazing, we’re going to ground the plane and wait until it’s ready. After all, the last thing the global church needs is mediocre Christian art.

So, for the album, we started out by writing well over 100 songs. We did demo recordings for 50 of them. Then we re-recorded the top 16 songs. And this Fall, we’re finally releasing our top 10! I can’t wait for you to hear them! Beyond this, we’re recording a half dozen music videos and launching an entire clothing line. Heck – We’re even printing our own skateboards!

But why? Why would we put this much effort into a single album? Well, quite simply, we believe that God deserves our best. But just as important, we believe that excellent art reveals God to the world. Every night, in every major city, hundreds of thousands of young people file into mega-clubs all over the world – which are the closest equivalent and competitor to the modern mega-church. They manufacture a sub-standard worship experience that rakes in $32 billion/year (in the U.S. alone) and they don’t even have Jesus!

Sadly, churches know so little about these mega-clubs or the music these young people relate to. Even though rap and electronic dance music have been the highest grossing music styles in the world for well over a decade, most churches don’t even have a single worship song in either of these styles. In some ways, the culture gap between the church and the world is wider than it’s ever been. But we’re going to change that!

Over the next couple months, we’re going to be unveiling a ministry called Substance Input-Output (or Substance I/O for short). It’s not merely a band, but a life-style. It’s a metaphor for worship: “We love because [God] first loved us.” 1 Jn 4:19 – “From him, through him, and back to him are all things.” Rom. 11:36

So here’s the scoop: Our national album launches on iTunes, Spotify, and will be available on over 150 music distribution platforms on October 6th! And there’s more:

On October 5th, 6th, and 7th, we are celebrating the launch of Substance Input/Output by putting on a 3 night live worship experience. We are actually going to be filming and recording these live events too.Pre-orders on iTunes will start September 22nd! And if you purchase the album there, you’ll get to download three songs weeks before everyone else!

Let’s receive the “Input” of the Holy Spirit so that our “Output” on a lost and dying world would truly be supernatural.