Hillsong UNITED album reignites wonder

Hillsong Conference Sydney 2017 was four days of worship and also acted as resource for churches to help spread the Good News.

A band that has been doing just that since 1998 is Hillsong United that was formed through youth ministry. Since then United has continued to top the Billboard’s Christian music charts and is one of Australia’s most successful bands.  In the midst of the conference, United sat down to discuss their new album Wonder and how they stay grounded.

Their new album has already garnered success in the charts, with fans latching onto the powerful lyrics. An example of this is the lyrics ‘Devil no not today’ from the album song ‘Not Today’.

Band member Matty Crocker explained the song was about saying, “Let’s put God in his place and let’s put the devil in his place.”

“We give way too much credit to the devil and as Christians, as people who believe in God and trust that he is above all things, we have the right to say to the devil no not today,” said Matty.

For United this album plays on that feeling of nostalgia with the attempt to reignite that wonder in our spirituality.

“I just feel like as Christians, the whole theme of wonder is having this childlike faith and being in awe and wonder of who God is and where he is going to take us,” said band vocalist, Taya Smith.

Taya also points to the poignant meaning behind the song Shadow Step.

“Best thing it says is, in the wonder of His shadow step and I love that because we don’t do it alone, we actually do it in the shadow of His step.

“He goes before us, He goes behind us and He walks with us,” said Taya.

So how does one of Australia’s most successful band stay grounded?

Jad Gillies said it’s about remembering they are church kids and that the band’s purpose is rooted in their faith.

“On the weekend we are all serving in the same capacity, we are all leading worship, we are all serving in church… doing our very best to build the church,” said Jad.

Band member Jonathan Douglass, who has been with United since the beginning, agreed and said it comes down to the fact that they had their start in the church and they have remained in the church.

“For us it has always been about lifting up, glorifying the name of Jesus, what the bible says is love God, love people. And that is to bring glory to God and to help people and the best way we can help people is to point them to Jesus,” said Jonathan.

Hillsong United’s album Wonder is out now and available on ITunes and Spotify.

Melissa Stewart