With a passion to encourage congregational worship, create resources for churches and draw listeners closer to God, Highlands Worship releases Prayers To The King Aug. 13 to digital retail and streaming outlets globally. The 10 songs on the LP were meticulously crafted to create a contemplative, peaceful and worshipful environment to encourage and inspire listeners to connect with God in prayer.
Produced and co-written by Highlands Worship’s Chris Griffin and mixed by Chris Greeley (Bethel Music), Prayers To The King also features nine songs co-written by legendary Hosanna! Music songwriter Lynn DeShazo (“Ancient Words, “More Precious Than Silver,” “Be Magnified,” etc.).
“Our goal with writing songs specifically for the prayer environment is to help create the moment where we can connect with God,” shares Griffin. “The Bible says, ‘Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise [Psalm 100:4].’ Worship can walk us into God’s presence.”
Uniquely written and recorded for the Pray First app created by Church of the Highlands, one of the largest churches in America, the new music is being shared with the world on the app at no cost. Churches and individuals are invited to download the app for free on their devices via the Apple App or Google Play stores. In fact, the open-source app is built so that if churches wish, they may reconfigure the app specifically for their congregations.
“Our prayer is that the playlist of songs in the app is way more than just music— we hope it helps people encounter God in a real way,” continues Griffin.
Along with the app, Highlands Worship has beautifully captured every Prayers To The King song on video. These videos will release in the coming weeks, with select videos premieres to be announced soon.
Prayers To The King and the Pray First app are an extension of Church of the Highlands’ annual 21 Days of Prayer that begins Aug. 8 and invites congregants to pray over their church, communities and nation.
“Pray First is a saying that the people of Church of the Highlands use often to remind us that in every situation we should take our burdens to God,” shares Worship Pastor John Larson, who leads Highlands Worship’s team of 1,000+ members and 70+ full or part-time musicians. “Prayer is our first priority, not our last resort. The Bible says that God sees when each sparrow falls [Matthew 10:29]. So how much more does God love and care for us? Our hope is to pray without ceasing; that every moment of our lives is covered by a faith-filled habit of prayer.”
The full Highlands Worship, Prayers To The King track listing follows:
1) Ever Close
2) You’re Coming (Pray)
3) Help Of Heaven
4) Prayer To The King
5) You Can Do All Things
6) Into The Water
7) Control
8) Echoes
9) Let It Fall
10) Even If I Tried
For more information on Highlands Worship, its music, chord charts, tutorials and many other creative resources, go to www.HighlandsWorship.com, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
About Highlands Worship
Birmingham, AL-based Highlands Worship, the worship ministry of Church of the Highlands, released its first full-length, live album, Place of Freedom, in 2012 followed by the Christmas EP, My King Is Here (2013), the acclaimed debut studio album, Here I Surrender (2016), Shine Heaven’s Light: A Christmas EP (2019), and the No. 1 SoundScan Praise and Worship album Jesus You Alone (2019). With churches around the world using its songs in their own services, Highlands Worship songs have also become one of the top-most-requested from worship teams that use MultiTracks’ digital resources.
Founded in 2001, Church of the Highlands, under the leadership of Pastor Chris Hodges, has expanded to 23 multisite campuses that collectively have over 60,000 people attending online or in-person services weekly. With the accredited Highlands College as well as student, kids, marriage and family and more ministry outreaches, the church purposes “to reach people with the life-giving message of Jesus that they might become fully devoted followers of Christ.”
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