LENT Week 2 Worship (Restoration Church)

So thankful to have the team from Restoration Church in Philly yesterday.  They're 3 weeks away from launching so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.  We'll be supporting them financially in our annual Celebration Generosity campaign so if you want to know more about the team and the vision please watch the video below or visit their website.

I had a playlist on repeat last week from one of their worship leaders Leah Smith and I'd encourage you to check out her music.  Her voice is beautiful and effortless.  Below is a song she recorded 7 years ago that she wrote while she was still touring and working with Israel Houghton.

So this week's set was curated by Rob Williams Jr who is Restoration's worship director.  The main idea was about God as our Restorer, Redeemer and Healer.  There was a thread that ran through the worship set and the morning about God holding our whole world in His hands and Rob and the team did such an amazing job of inviting us to open ourselves up in worship, to be vulnerable in asking God into our lives through worship.

OUR GOD - Israel Houghton

Originally written by Chris Tomlin and team Israel wraps his signature gospel infused sound around this massive worship hit.  I love the live version on the left because Israel's energy live is unbeatable, the video on the right is the album version that is closer to the version Restoration's band played.

Shout to the lord - darlene zschech

This is a classic worship song that has been around for years written by an Aussie worship leader.  Lead led a version of this song that they've been playing at the church that is involved in sending out Restoration to plant.  I'm putting the original song on the left for a throwback worship moment and the video on the right is a short documentary about DOXA, a musical worship project of Epiphany Fellowship.

healer - anthony evans

Originally written by another Aussie worship leader this song has had a huge influence globally and here it is sung by Anthony Evans.  On the end of this song the worship band tagged a few choruses from other worship songs and so the video on the right is from "He Knows My Name" which was one of the choruses

you hold my world - israel houghton

The final song in the set while we took communion was another Israel Houghton classic "You Hold My World" which was then dovetailed into the old hymn "How Great Thou Art".  On the spotify playlist I chose the classic Elvis version but I recently saw Carrie Underwood crush this hymn live so I thought I'd share it.