Vertical Church Band's live worship albums have been highly anticipated since the first release, which included the hit songs "Not for a Moment (After All)" and "Open up the Heavens," featuring worship leader Meredith Andrews. Church Songs is the third full-length worship album by Vertical Church Band. The group is a ministry formed out of Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, composed of worship leaders Meredith Andrews, Jacob Sooter, Andi Rozier, Kyle Fredericks, Tara Rios, Jon Guerra and others.
 
The opening track "All the Earth" (featuring Andi Rozier) has tender and powerful vocals and takes listeners on an emotional and spiritual journey with every lyric sung about faith in our God Almighty, our Lord and Savior, Jesus. The chorus is very stirring and convicting. I'm really engaged by the emotional vocals and the deep, prayerful lyrics throughout the album. "Praise the Lord, all the earth, all the earth, Praise His Name, Only One Name, now and always" are the biblical cries of worship. I had the chance to speak with Andi Rozier about "Lamb of God."
 
Please tell me the personal story behind this song.
 
We have a cathedral in downtown Chicago where we write songs. We have seven campuses around the area, and this beautiful cathedral is one of the buildings that survived the Chicago fire. It is a creative pallet just to stand in.
 
We were downstairs in this cathedral, me, Meredith Andrews and Jason Ingram. He's pretty much one of the family and has been part of Harvest Bible Chapel longer than we've been a band. Some songs I can track have taken us a year to finish. I love that process, as it is like a painter returning to the canvas looking at it a little differently. Just like the painter spends time with the canvas, with a song when you return to it, you get to spend time with the Lord. With this song, it was one of those songs where the three of us talked about how we love singing the Gospel.
 
A staple verse in our fabric is "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" from the Gospel of John. Right before that, Jesus said "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." We were in that conversation, and the bridge of this song "There is no greater love, The Savior lifted up," came from that discussion. We talked about all the different ways Christ is portrayed: Savior, Redeemer. We got to the Lamb, and we thought about how the Lamb songs we sing are around communion, or Good Friday, and we wanted to write a worship song about the Lamb of God.
 
That same day, we finished this song. The Lord met us there in that moment, and it was less of a songwriting session and more of a time of mutual worship. We love singing about the Gospel. We love this picture of Jesus, the Lamb of God.
 
Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

John 1:29 (NKJV): "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
 
John 15:13 (NKJV): "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
 
Revelation 5:11-13 (NIV): "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!' Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: 'To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!'"
 
What is the takeaway message of the song and album?
 
We spent time singing this song together, and other people were writing songs in other places in the cathedral, and we started worshipping God together with this song right away. We shared this song with the others, and I said to Meredith that I thought Kyle should sing this song on the album. We had our moment with the song, and then we wanted it in Kyle's voice and to hear his amazing vocals preach this song.
 
You need to have the Gospel in the fabric of your worship time, and this song is about the Gospel. I love analogies. All artists are tormented in a certain way. For me as a songwriter, when the Lord puts the wind in the sails of a song and gives it favor, I kind of think of songs like boats, and songwriters are boat builders. Only the Lord puts the wind in the sails of a boat, literally. I'm a boat builder, and my job is to push out the songs and not judge which songs will pick up the wind. When a song picks up the wind, it is no longer the boat builder's song, it is the people's song. A song is a vehicle, and I love seeing people get carried on the boat together, knowing that only the Lord puts the wind in the sails.
 
When we have our songwriting retreats, we try to write songs about the Lord that don't address me and my needs in the song whatsoever. Every time we gather together to write, we ask what we don't have a song about. We wrote a song about Creation ("All the Earth") and a song that sings to the Spirit ("Spirit of the Living God"). There is crossover in the album in some lyrics, which were part of the economies of our conversations with each other outside of the writer's room, asking the Spirit to do what He wants to do with us ("Do What You Want To"). I love that we have songs that address the Spirit of God directly, asking for the manifest presence of God to appear in the room and change the atmosphere of our worship of God.
 
I view albums as windows. As we sing songs from the latest Hillsong album at our church, they are opening a window into what's happening at their church. That's what we are trying to with Vertical Church Band. Our songs are a window into Harvest Bible Chapel, and we are trying to use the albums to set a new bar for ourselves and pushing ourselves creatively.

Looking back at "The Rock Won't Move," it had some big songs and big moments on it. With this album, we are bringing back the vibe of how it was recorded in the round in our worship center. We didn't want an album with the band in one place, and the people worshipping, but instead we wanted to have us all worshipping together. We wanted that energy from the room to be captured in these recordings.
 
Lyrics:
You came from Heaven's throne
Aquainted with our sorrow
To trade the debt we owed
Your suffering for our freedom

The Lamb of God, in my place
Your blood poured out, my sin erased
It was my death You died
I am raised to life
Hallelujah, the Lamb of God

My name upon Your heart
My shame upon Your shoulders
The power of sin undone
The Cross for my salvation

There is no greater love
There is no greater love
The Savior lifted up
There is no greater love
 
This is yet another solid entry in this great series. These are very passionate worship songs sung with vocal sincerity and reverence, with biblically based lyrics. There are several instantly sing-able and worshipful arrangements that you'll want to add to your Sunday morning setlist. I especially recommend "All the Earth," "Do What You Want To," "Lamb of God," "It's Who You Are," "Restore My Soul," "Bound for Glory" and one of my top worship songs of the year, "Spirit of the Living God." All of the songs are catchy, exciting and worshipful. Church Songs is a must-have for your praise and worship collection.
 
"Lamb of God" is an emotive and poetic description of the beautiful picture of what Jesus did for us. You'll want to join fellow believers in singing these words, "The Lamb of God in my place, Your blood poured out, my sin erased, it was my death You died, I am raised to life, Hallelujah, the Lamb of God." No matter where you are in your walk with Jesus, this song is a salvation message that helps us remember that Jesus truly came to die and rose to set us free. There is nothing we have been given that is more valuable than our salvation. This song moves me to reflect on just how much Jesus endured for His bride, to purchase us from the grave.
 
"Lamb of God" is one of my favorite descriptions that God gives us about Himself, going back to Psalm 23 and thinking about God as our Shepherd, and looking ahead to Revelation knowing that for eternity followers of Jesus will be singing "Worthy is the Lamb" in Heaven. You can make the decision to admit you are a sinner, believe that Jesus is the Son of God and came to die as a sinless Savior on our behalf, and choose to make Him the Lord of your life. What a wonderful, loving and gracious God that we serve. I am so thankful to Jesus for saving me. John 8:36 says, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." He is Risen!


(Watch the music video here.)