CITY SESSIONS - LIVE IN LOS ANGELES

In May 2017 Urban Rescue took some time off the road to fall back in love with their sound and their calling - to bring revival to the city. The idea came together that their city of LA would be the perfect place to play some old and new songs that have meant a lot to them this year.

These seven songs were recorded over two days at the Swing House Studios in Los Angeles, California. Urban Rescue played fan favorites “Never Stop” and “Up From The Ashes” as well as five never heard before tunes. They even brought some friends in, like Derek Minor, to help bring these raw songs life. Every friend they brought into this process was intentional, working in “the round” gave each instrument and voice a new sound.

City Sessions - Live from Los Angeles will be band’s first live audio/visual recording. This special project, directed by Tyler Rumph and produced by Justin Cowan, is a beautiful but vulnerable new approach of bringing people into worship as a process instead of an outcome.

This will be Urban Rescue’s third album and second to be released independently. The band wanted to work in real time and within the limitations of live recordings to let the songs truly lead. All of these songs are in process or maybe even still ideas that haven’t been fully developed but that’s the truth they wanted to give their listeners.

With the anthem like tune “Freedom” to the heart wrenching ballad “Unconditional”, Jordan Frye says “Our desire from the start of this project was to record a live audio- visual experience that spiritually decompressed the frantic soul, challenges the way we think about faith, and help bring a more personal encounter to Jesus Himself.”

FINDING FREEDOM

“Blessed are the people who know how to praise you. They walk in the light of your presence, O Lord. They find joy in your name all day long. They are joyful in your righteousness because you are the glory of their strength.” Psalms 89:15-17

I’ve always wondered if there was a “right” way to worship God. So many times I’ve entered into church services or worship nights’ wide-eyed, looking around for affirmation from others that I am doing it right – that my response to God’s presence is good enough or appropriate. It’s like when you were a kid learning to play baseball for the first time. You know you have to hit the ball, but what is your batting stance suppose to look like? When you walk up to the plate, you immediately look to your coach and teammates for direction. You ask yourself, “am I bending my knees enough? Is the bat high enough? Are my shoulders down? Am I looking the right way? Do I know where I want to hit the ball? And when that ball finally heads towards me at full speed, am I actually going to connect with it or will it fly right past me?” Sometimes, this is how I feel when I enter into worship.

It’s easy for me to get caught up in all the moving pieces and find myself asking God, “Am I doing it right? Am I connecting with you? Did I hit the mark?” Psalms 89 says, “Blessed are the people who know how to praise you.” So, how do I know? How do we know when we enter into worship that we are praising God and doing it well? Over the past few months, I’ve found myself wrestling with these questions and what I’ve realized is my definition of worship was totally warped! I held worship at a distance. It was something I stepped in and out of when I entered and left church. But that is NOT worship! Worship is an everyday, all the time practice.

Romans 12:1 says this: “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to- work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.” 

What if we lived our everyday lives EXPECTING the glory of God to dwell in us? 

What would it look like to be so AWARE of God’s presence in conversations, in the grocery store, or on our way to work? 

As Christ followers, we have the opportunity to worship God in every moment of our days because He has made His dwelling place in us! God puts His Spirit in us and where His Spirit is there is freedom - freedom to dance, sing, shout, kneel, cry, and praise Him all day long (2 Cor 3:17)! The great thing about this way of worshipping is that there is no right or wrong way of doing it. The pressure is off because God’s Spirit is freedom. We are free to be our broken and human selves - to not sit wide-eyed looking around for approval or affirmation. Our everyday, ordinary lives placed before God is enough.

MEGAN SISK // SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR 

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MEGAN SISK IS A GRADUATE STUDENT AT FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR FOR URBAN RESCUE AND WIFE TO NOLAN SISK (ELECTRIC GUITARIST). HER PASSION IS TO SEE PEOPLE INVEST IN INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES AND EXPERIENCE THE LOVE OF JESUS THROUGH DISCIPLESHIP AND WORSHIP.