“Can you imagine with all of the faith in the room what the Lord can do?”
What would happen if we began to believe that God could do the miraculous through us? Can you imagine what might happen? These are the questions GRAMMY® Award-winning collective Elevation Worship is asking on their latest live recording. An invitation to dream with our Creator, CAN YOU IMAGINE? is poised to reignite the hearts of believers.
A musical expression of Elevation Church, led by pastor and visionary Steven Furtick, Elevation Worship has been steadily writing, recording, and releasing music since the church was founded more than 15 years ago in Charlotte, N.C. Since then, the group has penned offerings that have taken on a life all their own. Songs solely meant for their church, like “Graves Into Gardens,” “RATTLE!” “The Blessing,” “Do It Again” and “O Come to the Altar” have become anthems for congregations around the world. The career-defining release of 2021’s Old Church Basement, in partnership with Maverick City Music, broke streaming records and catapulted Elevation Worship into an entirely new stratosphere. To date, the collective has earned six GMA Dove Awards, two Billboard Music Awards (Top Christian Artist and Top Christian Song), and a GRAMMY Award. The act’s most recent single, “Same God” — from Elevation Worship’s GRAMMY-nominated album, LION — crowned the top of the radio charts, further solidifying their longevity in the modern worship movement.
With their songs consistently appearing on CCLI’s Top 100 list, Elevation Worship continues to simultaneously lead at their home church while also sharing their original selections with broader audiences on their celebrated “Elevation Nights” cross-country outings, as well as on tours alongside some of the biggest names in Christian music.
Now, just 14 months past the release of LION, Elevation Worship returns with a fresh set of all-new original songs meant to spark a passion in the hearts of listeners for the purposes of God. “We want someone to listen to this album and know that God is still writing their story,” reflects Elevation Worship singer and songwriter Chris Brown. “Our hope is that these songs will not only point people to the wonder and greatness of God, but stir an awareness of his goodness and how lovingly he’s involved in the details of our lives.”
Anchor track “More Than Able” embodies this sentiment and provides the project’s title in the song’s bridge. The piano-laced selection was written by Ben Fielding, Chandler Moore, Naomi Raine, and Furtick with Moore and Elevation Worship’s Tiffany Hudson sharing vocals on the cut. “‘More Than Able’ has been such a big and important song over the last three months for our church,” Brown shares. “Scripture is filled with stories of people who doubted their potential or that God could use them. Take Moses for example, who tried to talk God out of appointing as deliverer of His people. For anyone who’s found themselves in a similar place, this song aims to reignite our hearts to dream and believe God for greater things.”
With a lyrical thread that naturally lent itself to the record’s name, as well as the cover art for the collection — boasting a singular image of a burning bush — “More Than Able” asks followers of Christ to consider what God can do with a life that’s fully surrendered to Him. It’s a theme that permeates the entire live project starting with buoyant opening track “Jehovah,” which calls on the name of the Lord using His familiar Hebrew name. Further down the tracklisting, the moving “Make A Way,” spearheaded by Moore and Brandon Lake, ushers in an epic Red Sea moment.
The full eight songs that comprise CAN YOU IMAGINE? were part of one of the fastest, most unorthodox paths to a release the collective has ever experienced.
Wanting to begin the new year with intention, the group simply circled a date (January 13, 2023) on the calendar and announced a worship night at their church. A month out, they only had a couple songs they really believed would make it and a third contender that needed major work. Unsure how many new offerings they’d be able to craft with the holidays fast approaching, they gathered with Chandler Moore, Brandon Lake, and Pat Barrett, longstanding friends of Elevation Worship to write the week of the recording. Their 11th-hour inspiration proved fruitful. What came within days of the recording were the powerful anthems “Praise,” “Make A Way,” and “Been So Good,” which was heard by most of the team and rehearsed for the first time just hours before the night.
“It was a wild and wonderful way to kick off 2023,” reflects Brown. “Even with our church being unfamiliar with many of these songs, they came with expectations high, ready to worship, and caught on quickly. What we captured together that night set a tone for the year, giving thanks to God for his faithfulness and setting our hearts on Him for what’s to come.”
One of those songs was “Trust In God.” Written early on in the Fall of 2022, the track wasn’t feeling right as the recording approached. As the team was traveling back from leading at the annual Passion Conference at the beginning of January, Brown remembers getting a text from Furtick that read “what if the verses of the song take cues from ‘Blessed Assurance.’” The result is not a reimagined version of the hymn as much as it is a brand new creation altogether that seamlessly weaves the hymn’s timeless lyrics together with modern language to form the album’s unforgettable lead single.
“Psalm 125 says, ‘Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.’ What an incredible promise that is from scripture,” Brown says. For all the things we encounter that aim to make us anxious and fearful, this scripture holds the secret to a stable and peace-filled life. I believe the truth in this song is a needed confession for all of us seeking to daily follow Jesus.”
With CAN YOU IMAGINE? Elevation Worship hopes listeners will place their full trust in Christ and allow Him to rekindle long-forgotten dreams as they submit their plans to a God who does the impossible. “Don’t give up believing God for more,” Brown offers of the guiding message behind the album. “You don’t have to have it all figured out. You don’t have to know how it’s going to turn out. Just trust that God is in the details of your life, and He’s working all things together for your good.”