Often the enthusiasm and excitement expressed when a person’s team is winning rise above the typical worship in a Christian church. In the South, college football easily fills up stadiums on Saturdays while some churches are practically abandoned the next morning.
However, Australian-based worship band Planetshakers is seeing arenas worldwide filled with worshippers seeking God. In July the band released “Winning Team,” an album filled with songs about the true winning team — the family of God.
Starting point
The worship band originates from Planetshakers Church, which was birthed out of a youth conference in Adelaide, Australia, in 1997. Each year following, the conference doubled in size while the passion of the attendees and their influence also grew.
“[Planetshakers Church] quickly grew with the emphasis on presenting the gospel of Jesus, stirring a generation of people from all ethnic backgrounds to lay their lives down for Jesus and serve Him unreservedly,” said Sam Evans, worship leader and singer-songwriter for the band and joint founder of the church along with her husband, Russell Evans.
“This year we celebrated 20 years as a church and have seen 123,000 decisions for Jesus. And now, with campuses in Melbourne and in different parts of the world, we are truly grateful to God for all He has done.”
Organic growth
The church grew quickly and now has 11 international campuses. Though this growth started organically due to congregants driving 60 to 90 minutes to get to church and needing something closer to home, it has since spread to other countries, including campuses in Singapore, South Africa and Papua New Guinea.
Planetboom is another band associated with the church. It’s similar to Planetshakers but is focused on teens while Planetshakers reflects the church by encompassing all generations.
The website states the vision clearly: “The mandate of Planetshakers — empowering generations to win generations — is outworked globally through the ministry of the Planetshakers band.”
All age groups and 151 different nationalities are represented throughout their campuses.
The church website doesn’t conceal its main purpose. The first tab is simply titled “Jesus,” which leads to a page on how to be saved and what happens next. This was a calculated choice to make Him easy to find.
“It was a decision we made that expresses our No. 1 passion — Jesus. We want the positioning to reflect our hearts and our priority but also to be honest about this to the outside world. We didn’t want to hide anything away,” Evans said.
Focus
Planetshakers is a band focused on praise and worship. Evans is adamant that they are equally important because “both bring glory and honor to God.”
“The faster tempos that we often have in our praise songs lend themselves to dancing and clapping and shouting. They encourage people to express themselves in celebration and praise, in freedom and in joy. We are facilitating this kind of expression, and we have found that it brings great joy and freedom to the atmosphere of our church services and conferences.
“The slower-tempo songs then lend themselves to more intimate expressions of worship where we can express love and closeness to God.
“All expressions are important. Just like in a loving relationship, all experiences of joy, laughter, closeness and intimacy make for a rich relationship,” Evans said.
The music videos from a recent conference include an aspect of the worship team that isn’t seen often within Christian music — dancing.
Evans doesn’t apologize for that decision.
“We wanted to take back an area of worship that has been influenced and dominated by the world. The Bible is clear about dancing before the Lord, and we wanted to give people with this kind of gift and passion an opportunity to do it unto the Lord in praise.”
She also doesn’t apologize for the emotional component of this style of worship.
“I think our emotions of joy and freedom are authentic, and if the songs provoke joy then I think that is a good thing.”
Evans believes that when the emotion comes from happiness based on experiences, it’s short-lived. On the other hand, the emotions that accompany this type of worship can instead be an expression of true joy.
“I have witnessed how these songs have led people to experience the true impartation of joy from the Holy Spirit and a revelation that God gives us overwhelming victory,” she said.
Prayer and purpose
The band’s latest album, “Winning Team,” came out of their church’s prayer and purpose. While the church was teaching on this subject the band concurrently wrote songs that agreed with the message being shared.
“We value the Word of God and want to write songs that contain the truth of God’s Word. [Out of these songs] this ‘winning team’ was birthed,” Evans explained. “It really was the most incredible year where we saw God do the impossible in so many people’s lives and in their situations.
“I hope people can sense the joy that we’re experiencing and expressing when we’re singing these songs. We want them to have the same revelation and the same understanding that we are victors in Jesus, then experience the joy of these songs as we’re singing them.”
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