National Community Church (NCC) is a multi-site church that meets in theaters (yes, secular theatres) around the Washington, DC metro area.
As a ministry, NCC has been pretty effective! They have converted a crack house into a coffeehouse (Ebenezer’s), an old theater into a gathering place for worship (The Miracle Theatre) and this year alone, they will launch over 33 mission trips and give away more than $1 million to charitable causes around the world!
Even the proceeds from the sale of “You Alone” will be used in developing the DC “Dream Center”, which will focus on serving the poor and the disenfranchised while also serving as a place of peace, reconciliation and refuge for southeast DC.
Integrity Music calls “You Alone”, a worship resource pack and will be a digital-only global release for now. “You Alone” is more of an EP than a full-fledged album. There are 5 tracks here with two versions of each song—a studio recording and a live edition. The full digital bundle also contains videos of the live versions recorded at Ebenezer’s coffeehouse, lyrics and “mini teaching” messages from NCC lead pastor, Mark Batterson.
About the Songs
Majestic is a mid-tempo song that opens the project with an infectious chorus based on from Psalm 8:1. It helps us reflect on the splendor of God humbling us with His grand work of creation.
Christ the Lord is Risen Today (He is Not Dead) is a cool contemporary take on this popular hymn with a new simple refrain also added. This is a no-brainer addition to your Easter set lists, trust me!
You Alone leads us to look upon the Sovereign Lord and declare how deserving He is of our worship.
Eternal One (Psalm 145) picks up the tempo again with a catchy “Hallelujah” chorus set to the Psalm-based lyrics.
Where Would I Be declares the love and faithfulness of our God and helps us to express our gratitude to Him. The bridge especially is very emotive and makes you want to sing it again and again and again:
You have claimed
All that’s lost and broken
You have breathed
Every dry bone back to life
By Your grace
You have called me righteous
By Your love
You have brought me into light
The USP of this project is simplicity—the lyrics, melodies and arrangements are all simple, congregational and easily accessible to all kinds of worship bands, big and/or small.
Here’s a video of one of the songs:
[Video via YouTube]
Standout songs: All of them, I kid you not! Every one of these songs will easily work in church worship sessions—and that’s the highest compliment in my book for any worship project!
Well done NCC Worship, your heart for God shines through the entire project, would love to listen to more of your work!
Produced by Kurtis Parks and Kyle Lee (All Sons & Daughters, Pocket Full of Rocks), You Alone features lead vocalists/musicians Parks, Joel Buckner, Carolina Soto, Dan Rivera and Chris Douglas.
GIVEAWAY
Simply leave a comment to win a free digital download of “You Alone” by NCC Worship. There will be 2 winners.
[If you enjoyed this ChurchMag Saturday Morning Review, read more!]
Disclaimer: I received this album for free from the folks at Integrity Music to listen and post this review. The views expressed here are completely my own and I am not obliged to write a positive review.
GIVEAWAY: ‘You Alone’ by NCC Worship [Saturday Morning Review] first appeared on ChurchMag and is sponsored by ChurchMag Press.