Visiting Worship Artists
LEELAND
Originally formatted as a pop/rock outfit readying commercial songs for radio, LEELAND released their debut album, ‘Sounds of Melodies’, in 2006. Spawning a GRAMMY nomination and multiple Dove Award nods, the record trailblazed a new path of artistic and Levitical worship led by the band. Mooring explains that the bulk of LEELAND’s songs have always been inspired by the communion of worship. More recently, Mooring co-wrote one of the Church’s most-sung standards, ‘Lion and the Lamb’, with seasoned worship writers Brenton Brown and Brian Johnson. The song cemented his personal status as a young veteran in the sphere of modern worship music, further affirming that LEELAND as a collective are drawn into crafting songs that court congregations across the globe to worship God through the act of singing – and singing together.
LAURA STORY
Laura Story is a Bible teacher, worship leader, singer/songwriter, and bestselling author. Her songs – which have won Grammys, Billboard Music Awards and Dove Awards – include “Blessings”, “Mighty to Save” and Chris Tomlin’s “Indescribable.” “Blessings” was certified platinum in 2020 and inspired her first devotional book “What If Your Blessings Come Through Raindrops”. Her second book “When God Doesn’t Fix It; Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can’t Live Without” serves as a reminder that despite questions or circumstances, God is the ultimate author of our story. In 2019 she released a book, Bible study series and new EP titled “I Give Up; The Secret Joy of a Surrendered Life.” Her latest book and Bible study series is “So Long Normal; Living and Loving the Free Fall of Faith” releasing on July 20th.
Laura has a master’s degree of theological studies and a doctorate in worship studies. She has served as a worship leader at Perimeter Church in Atlanta since 2005, but her greatest joy is being a wife to Martin and mother to Josie, Ben, Griffin and Timothy.
SHANE AND SHANE
Shane & Shane is the combination of solo artists Shane Barnard and Shane Everett. After meeting in college, Shane & Shane began writing songs and touring the country leading worship. Over 15 years later, they’re writing more music than ever, with no intention of slowing down. Their desire has always been to glorify the Lord instead of themselves and they do so by writing music that is biblically based, lyrically rich, and sonically engaging. Check out their discography!
Over the past few years, Shane & Shane have dedicated their lives to encouraging and equipping worship leaders and their teams through an online resource called The Worship Initiative. The Worship Initiative is an equipping ministry and a collective of worship leaders that, over the past few years, has grown into a thriving community in and of itself.
JOSH BALDWIN
Josh Baldwin is a songwriter and worship leader who joined the Bethel Music Collective in 2014. He began his journey in North Carolina where he was a worship pastor for 10 years before joining the collective and is now a resident of Franklin, TN with his family. Josh loves writing corporate worship songs for the global church, and his music is an expression of who God has been for him in every season. Josh’s newest album, Evidence, released in the fall of 2020 featuring anchor song and radio single, “Evidence.” Josh released “Stand in Your Love” in August 2018 which is also featured on Bethel Music’s album VICTORY (2019). This song reached #2 on Christian Billboard charts, garnering Josh’s first nomination for the 2019 K-Love Awards in the “Breakout Single of the Year”, and “Worship Song of the Year” categories. Josh is featured on Bethel Music’s most recent album Homecoming (2021) singing, “My King Forever.” In May 2017, Josh released his debut solo album with Bethel Music titled The War is Over, and his song “Praises” is featured on Bethel Music’s album Have it All (2016). As a worship leader Josh enjoys creating space for people to feel seen, encouraged, and invited into intimacy with God where true peace and hope is found. Josh lives with his wife, Sheila, and their two children, in Franklin, TN, and continues to tour domestically and internationally.
SANDRA MCCRACKEN
Sandra McCracken is a singer-songwriter and hymn writer from Nashville, Tennessee. A prolific recording artist, McCracken has produced 14 solo albums over two decades. Her best selling release, Psalms (2015) received critical acclaim, followed by God’s Highway (2017) which made the top 50 on Billboard Heatseekers chart without a major label. She has had songs featured in TV, including ‘Ten Thousand Angels’ on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and has over 15 million streams. Blending the old and new, Sandra has also shown a unique ability to recast sacred scripture texts into theologically rich yet accessible songs. Her thoughtful lyrics and gospel melodies in songs like “We Will Feast In The House Of Zion,” “Steadfast” and “Thy Mercy My God” have become staple anthems in churches across the U.S. As a published writer, she contributes a regular column in Christianity Today and released her first book “Send Out Your Light” in September 2021.
LESLIE JORDAN
Leslie Jordan is a creative artist living with her husband and son on lush Tennessee land just outside Nashville. She served on staff and led worship at an eclectic church just south of Nashville—made up of a large portion of artists—for ten years. From 2010-2018, Leslie comprised one half of the GRAMMY-nominated group, All Sons & Daughters. She is currently one of the Integrity Music Publishing staff writers, and co-founded the Nashville-based non-profit, The Fold, where she now serves as Executive Director. Leslie recently released her version of the song ‘Love Will Never Fail (Corinthians 13).’
ROBBIE SEAY
Robbie Seay is from Houston, TX. Robbie Seay Band (RSB) has been a band for over a decade, spending most of those years with EMI Music. 2012 marked the release of their independent project “Rich & Poor”. Robbie loves his family. He loves Tex-Mex. He loves God. And he writes about all of these on the new album (okay, maybe no Tex-Mex songs..but the rest is true). Robbie is best know for his career as a songwriter, recording artist & worship leader. Founding the Robbie Seay Band in 2001, RSB has released 7 albums including the critically acclaimed 2007 EMI release “Give Yourself Away”. Songs from these recordings have been featured in multiple tv shows and movies including American Idol, One Tree Hill & numerous shows on the ABC network. With multiple songs on the ccli charts for many years now including “Song of Hope” which was a top 50 radio songs of the decade, Robbie is the rare songwriter whose songs are both worshipful and inviting to the a broader audience. RSB is extremely proud of the record “Rich & Poor” and very grateful to have made a career of writing and recording music about their faith, lives of love and loss and everything else in between.
THE DIGITAL AGE
A four-piece Christian rock band out of Waco, Texas, the Digital Age is comprised of four of the six members of the former David Crowder Band (which split in 2012), Jack Parker (guitar, Rhodes piano, banjo, vocals), Jeremy Bush (drums, percussion), Mike Dodson (bass, piano, keyboards, vocals), and Mark Waldrop (guitar, mandolin, percussion, vocals). It’s a different band without Crowder out front, with Dodson and Waldrop handling most of the vocals, often in harmony, but the Digital Age does an equally good job at presenting spiritual-based material with a secular electronic rock sound. The band released an EP, Rehearsals, in the spring of 2012, and followed it with a full-length, Evening:Morning, at the end of the summer in 2013.
JIMMY MCNEAL
Jimmy McNeal serves as a worship pastor and elder at the Austin Stone Church in Austin, TX, and travels around the country leading worship for various conferences and ministries. Jimmy’s energy and passion for God are contagious, and he leads worship out of an overflow of this love for Jesus.
Jimmy is at home in many different styles of worship music, aiming to see Jesus glorified in his voice and leading, but gospel music will always be his roots. Growing up in a large extended family in south Dallas, Jimmy McNeal’s musical journey began singing and leading worship at the Waxahachie Miracle Revival Center, the church his grandfather pastored and the place he first met Jesus. His upbringing honored the gospel music and traditionals that his forefathers sang, and Jimmy’s love of those genres grew alongside his passion for modern worship.
DAVID CROWDER
David Crowder is an American contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter, musician, and author. He has had two independent albums chart in the top 25 Christian Albums, Come Around (2008) and Neon Steeple (2014). Crowder was born in Texarkana, Texas and graduated from Texarkana College in 1998. He then attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas and graduated with a degree in English in 2002. During his time at Baylor University, he was the lead singer of an alternative rock band called The David Crowder Band. After releasing six albums in six years with The David Crowder Band, Crowder announced he was leaving the group in 2012.
In 2013, Crowder released his first solo album Neon Steeple on sixstepsrecords. This album reached #8 on the Billboard 200 chart and #1 on the Christian Albums chart. The album featured a mix of bluegrass and folk music with some electronic beats and samples. Over the following years, Crowder released six more solo albums including American Prodigal (2016), I Know A Ghost (2018), Milestones (2020), and Milk & Honey (2021).
SHAUN GROVES
Shaun Groves is a communicator who’s known by a lot of titles: Singer/songwriter. Speaker. Blogger. Husband. Daddy. Friend. He feels and thinks deeply and laughs easily. And he’s helping Christians discover what they were saved for, and being a voice for children around the world, desperate to be saved from poverty.
His 2001 debut Invitation To Eavesdrop scored five songs on the charts and a half dozen Dove Award nominations, including New Artist and Song Of The Year for “Welcome Home.” He was soon touring coast to coast and around the world with Bebo Norman, Jars Of Clay, and Michael W. Smith. That success led to a second CD in 2003 — the introspective “Twilight,” followed by release of his third CD “White Flag,” based on his study and teaching of the Beatitudes in 2005. During this time, Shaun traveled with the Christian child development organization Compassion International to El Salvador. Shaun came home from El Salvador with a greater passion and renewed sense of purpose. He invested himself entirely in spreading a new message: salvation is not just about being “saved from” something, as he’d learned as a child. It is about being “saved for” something.