Nashville's Cross Point Music is set to release its first-ever LP, Never Going Back, July 23 from Centricity Music. Written and recorded by this collective of nearly 400 volunteer musicians, vocalists and songwriters anchored by worship leaders Mike Grayson and Cheryl Stark, the new seven-song LP features the lead single, "Oh The Wonder," which releases today and is available now at digital and streaming outlets everywhere.
Led by Grayson and co-written by Grayson, Stark, Heath Balltzglier (North Point Worship) and Matt Armstrong, "Oh The Wonder" is a surprisingly joyful song. It was written during the pandemic last August as members of the Cross Point Music worship team were prayerfully asking God, "Where are we and where do we need to go? What's next? Lord give us a song for where you are taking us."
"There was a moment, a sense of freedom to move," reflects Grayson, who is the former frontman of MIKESCHAIR. "We felt like the Lord was saying, 'Joy is coming, and help people see it.' It felt so weird to still be on Zoom -- we weren't even in the same room -- writing a song about joy and acknowledging the joy we have because of what Jesus has done. Even in the midst of the pandemic, this is still true."
"I remember when we wrote the bridge of the song, Mike said, 'That was the moment for me where the skies began to part'," recalls Stark, who previously served as a country writer for Sony/ATV and is married to Apollo LTD member Adam Stark. "I knew that for him this was a huge moment of perspective shift. Hey, we are not going to be stuck here forever. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus, and this is where we are going."
I've got joy that's found in a heavenly hope
Peace like a river down in my soul
I'm held by the power of the Holy Ghost
Oh what a wonder
("Oh The Wonder" bridge)
"My prayer is that our church and the people of God would see that His faithfulness has gotten them to where they are," adds Stark, calling attention to Psalm 126. "...and the prayers that they prayed in their darkest moments, they will return back home with armfuls of laughter and blessing."
Along with the new single, the full Never Going Back LP is the result of the Cross Point Music team realizing that God has been moving them forward, through even this incredibly tough pandemic season that began right after their main downtown Nashville church campus was largely destroyed by a tornado.
"We have learned so much about worship and who God is that we never want to go back," affirms Grayson. "We all learned how to worship again from a place of 'I've got nothing but me and my room.' No stage, no lights, no people even. You're singing to a phone and it's like, 'Lord, I trust that you are going to use it.'
"I'm so pumped for people to experience what came from these songs and these recordings," continues Grayson. "The fact that this recording all happened in the last year is only a God thing. That we were able to write, record and videotape songs....it is a celebration of what God did and what He is continuing to do."
The new single and upcoming LP follows Cross Point Music's debut EP Never Stop Singing that released in January and features the title track along with three more original songs. Each song was organically birthed from the worship emanating from Cross Point Church, which serves about 10,000 people across six campuses in and around Music City.
