The Vision and Heart

Hello friends!

First, we wanted to send you a brand new update video from Jonathan and Melissa - speaking to the vision for this new live album and sharing the heart behind the process.

Secondly, we want to say “thank you” for joining us in prayer this week. As we mentioned in the previous email, this is a very significant week of the album process. All week long our live band has been working through arrangements and playing together on the new songs while working out the equipment for the live audio and video capture. In the meantime, the rest of our staff has been hard at work preparing for this weekend…

Live band arrangement and song run-throughs this week.
All of our worship leaders have brought beautiful songs to the table!

Tomorrow, we have 85 alumni from across many years of the 18 Inch Journey arriving for a weekend of live recording on the land. We will be hosting and feeding more than 120 people during these next couple of days as we begin to capture and record new songs. We are so thankful for an opportunity to document the sound and expression of worship with SO MANY years and stories of the 18 Inch Journey represented.

We welcome you to continue praying this Crafted Prayer with us as we move into this mighty weekend. Your prayer and agreement is POWERFUL as we move into these next few days.

A Crafted Prayer

FOR THE CAGELESS BIRDS LIVE ALBUM

Justina Stevens creating visual work for the live recording.
This artwork doubles as sound treatment for the Art Barn.

Almighty Father, we join our voices in prayer and adoration and come to Your throne of grace with boldness. Thank You for the unfailing promise that wherever two or three agree in prayer anything can happen. We pray the prayer of Jesus over this new Cageless Birds album: “Father, Glorify Your name” (John 12:28). In every melody, lyric, video, and detail of this record, “Father, Glorify Your name.”

May Your kingdom come and Your will be done in every song that is sung and in every moment that is captured. May the light of Your face shine on this album, so that all who hear and see it will experience Your Love and your Goodness. We ask for Your protection over all the details and every relationship. Hide us in the shadow of Your wings and may the oil of unity pour over everyone involved. Thank You for the inheritance You have given us in Isaiah 61. May all those promises fill each detail of this project. May the Spirit of the Lord rest upon us, may Your anointing flow through our lives, and may the work of our hands bind up broken hearts. May Your good news ring in every melody and may songs of deliverance bring freedom and healing to all who hear it.

We place this album in Your hands like the little boy's lunch of bread and fish and we trust You to multiply it in ways beyond what we could ask or imagine. May this project bring an outrageous amount of glory to Your Name. We proclaim the ancient words of Psalm 115: “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.”

Father, Glorify Your Name!

Amen