Christy and Jeremy Johnson, part of the collective of worship artists formerly known as Worth Dying For, took a massive leap of faith nearly four years ago to found a new church in the Los Angeles area. Talking about the move, Jeremy shares "Fear had been something we'd both battled with our entire lives, and yet we felt called to the dreamers, to those crushed by their dreams, to those chasing their dreams, those with dead dreams... to people who had moved to LA from all over the world to pursue the arts, entertainment, education, entrepreneurship--to not just be a safe haven, but a dream factory, helping broken people dare to dream again."

The name of that new dream factory, which meets in the unique location of the number one nightclub in the U.S., comes from a quote from legendary church writer A.W. Tozer: "A scared world needs a fearless church." Newly named FEARLESS BND's second of twelve monthly singles, "Jump Around," released in October. The ambitious twelve singles are accompanied by aids such as chord charts and lyric videos. I had the chance to speak with Christy Johnson about "Jump Around."

Please tell me the personal story behind this song.

This is one of those songs that after you put it on you can't help but start moving, get up off wherever you are sitting and move around. My kids are 3 and 2, and this is their favorite song. We put it on, blast it at full volume and have so much fun with the song. It's one of those songs we wrote to tell people to get up, move around and celebrate. 

Let's thank God for everything He's done for us. We've been saved. We've been set free. That's great! Now let's get up and show Him the passion and fire inside of you for God, who you love and you serve. We're telling each other when we sing it in the room, "come on, we're going to party like it is '99." I graduated from high school in 1999, and when you go back to when you were young, for me, I have to remind myself about what it means to celebrate. I forget. 

I've been raised as a Christian my whole life. I'm a pastor's kid, so it's very easy to allow things to get stagnant. I have to go wait, go back to where I fell in love with God and where He touched my life. With my kids, that's a theme with me. I was going through treatment because they thought I couldn't have kids, and the month I was going to treatment, I got pregnant. My two kids are my miracles and my gifts from God. We all have things we can celebrate. We all have breath in our lungs, and that's enough. 

I love this song. It is a celebration song, saying we're not just going to tell the world that Jesus lives in me, but we're also going to show the world that Jesus lives in me.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

Psalm 149:3 (NKJV): "Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp."

Mark 16:15-16 (NKJV): "And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.'"

James 2:14-17 (NKJV): "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

1 John 4:18-19 (NKJV): "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us."

What is the takeaway message?

We aren't saying in the song we'll be loud just with our words, by just telling people or holding up signs telling them they need God, but also for our actions to speak louder than our words and to let our lives show God to people. If you love God, show love to people. Let's show people God, show the world that He lives in us. People see Christians as preaching and saying what they believe with no depth behind it because they don't live it out. I don't want to be known for that. Let's show the world God's love and let them see Him in our lives.

A couple of years ago, we moved with a team to Los Angeles to try to shift and change culture. We are in a place where people are aspiring to make art, and we wanted to be in the middle of it, to try to shift culture from the core and epicenter of it all. Maybe we'll never get the major celebrity, but maybe we'll get the person right before they make it big. We have a heart to see the world's culture shift by being a part of it. We are in LA, and we want to believe in dreamers, those who have been crushed and those who have dreams. We want to be a dream factory. People all over LA have a lot of crushed dreams, and they have given up and feel hopeless and depressed. We want to take that person, believe in them, love them and see them pick it up again. We believe in these dreamers and these gifted people. 

We came to LA as Worth Dying For, and we birthed this new movement coming out of being Fearless. We are breaking and tilling the ground and fertilizing it. We see lost people coming in every week from all backgrounds. We are a couple of streets down from skid row, where there are homeless people and drug addicts. They walk in the doors of our club-- we have church in a club. Church isn't a building. We are the church.  The club has been a place where more people who won't typically walk in a church will walk in. We turn the dance floor into a place where people dance and jump for God. We've made it a house of God where we dance for Jesus Christ! The club owner watched one of our church services and saw the peace we had, and he asked us to stay. There are people getting saved every week.

Lyrics:
We're gonna party like it's ninety nine
Come on ev'rybody, get your hands up high
We got a light, so let it shine
Running through the streets, singing "it's our time"
And ev'rybody's movin' down to the beat, sing it
 
Relentless like a flame
Spirits consumed by Your holy name
Shake your burdens, it's time to shout
No need to be quiet, you can let it all out
And ev'rybody's movin' down to the beat Sing it
 
Get up, time to jump around
Cuz we free from the sin that used to hold us down
Tell the enemy fall back cuz we live now
No shame and no games when we get loud
 
So if you with us, put your hands up high
Insecurity can wave bye bye
No one can take this joy I've found, so please don't get offended if I jump
Around and get crazy
 
Get up and jump around, no we won't be quiet
We're gonna shout it out and make our praises loud
Get up and jump around, no we won't be silent
We're gonna show the world that Jesus lives in me
 
We're gonna dance, dance, dance
We're gonna dance, dance, dance
We're gonna dance until the sun goes down

One of the great new trends in worship music is to invite worshippers to dance before the Lord with a contemporary, exciting musical feel featuring electronic dance music (EDM) and upbeat musical arrangements. Some recent examples of songs we've been able to sing and dance along with include the energetic songs "Alive" and "Wake" by Hillsong Young & Free, "#LITO (Love in the Open)" by Press Play and "Feel It" by TobyMac. In that same vein of upbeat songs to really get you excited about your faith is this great new dance anthem by Fearless BND.

I love how the music of this song matches the excitement being expressed lyrically. Our God is worthy of all of our praise, and we'll be singing and dancing before Him for eternity. This song gives believers a foretaste of that celebration. One of my favorite things about "singing a new song to the Lord" is that the idea of worship in Heaven is an exciting picture for me, and that's the glimpse that we gain from this high energy song. It delighted God that David, a man after God's own heart, danced unashamed before the Lord. This song is an example of being obedient to that calling to make God the object of all of our worship. 

I love how the Lord is bringing up worship leaders who are unashamed of the Gospel and are about proclaiming the Truth of God's Word. A revival is something that God wants us to pray for, and biblically we are commanded to spread the Good News of the Gospel. In Mark 16:15, Jesus commands "Preach the Gospel to every creature." There are no conditions or exceptions in that command. It's more of a lifestyle that Jesus calls us to live as Christians.

Sometimes people think that worship is something they do at an event or at church or only through music. We know from Scripture that worship is what you put your worth-ship in, and that a biblical definition of worship is a lifestyle of endless praise. God tells us repeatedly in His Word to sing and dance before Him. This song is a great answer to that calling. Join in with the angels and saints and dance and sing before Him: "Get up and jump around, no we won't be silent, we're gonna show the world that Jesus lives in me." Amen to that!

Watch the music video below.