Gateway Worship

Less than two years after making a splash across congregations nationwide and beyond, Gateway Worship is poised to once again leave an imprint in the world of praise and worship music with Wake Up the World. The album is the follow-up to 2006’s Living for You, Gateway’s Integrity Music debut and a runaway debut that introduced church-music enthusiasts to the heartbeat of Gateway Church—one of the fastest-growing churches in America. Bigger and bolder than its predecessor, Wake Up the World was recorded live on September 21, 2007, during an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind evening of community, spirit, and song. The result is a faithful, true-to-form representation of what went down that night: a celebration of sight and sound where worshippers on and off the stage came together to offer songs that reflect their journey of faith and God’s sovereignty every step of the way. It’s a journey that’s been momentous at the very least. Situated in the suburbs of the bustling Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Gateway has only been around since 2000. But, in the past few years, it has experienced exponential growth, skyrocketing to a membership of more than 12,000—in no small part thanks to Gateway Worship, its impactful worship ministry. “Worship is the only reason the church has grown,” jokes Thomas Miller, Gateway’s worship pastor and the spiritual leader of a department comprising numerous vocalists, instrumentalists, composers, support crew, and just about anyone with a heart for worship. Miller quickly shares the real reason for the church’s proliferation: “The main thing for our growth is the health of the church,” he says. “We strive more than anything else to be a church that remains healthy internally and externally—through structure, through doctrine, through authority…just numerous accountability measures. Faith, family, and finances are a priority for our health. That’s pretty much our litmus test.” Gateway’s humble beginnings date back to an Easter morning service at a Hilton Hotel in Grapevine, not far from the church’s current Southlake campus. Only about 180 people assembled that day, but even then, music appeared to occupy a place at the budding congregation. “Obviously the church didn’t have a lot of resources at that time to have a worship staff, so it did what it could,” Miller says of those early services. Inspired by a likeminded passion for worship, Gateway pastor Robert Morris foresaw in Miller the future of the church’s worship department: After a few heart-to-heart conversations and invitations to lead worship, Miller came on board to head the church’s worship arm. “When I first came to Gateway, it really felt like a mission field when it comes to worship,” Miller says. “The culture of worship at Gateway was such that there wasn’t really much expression—people weren’t singing along with the worship. It was more of a spectator situation.” Though it seemed like an uphill battle at first, Miller wasn’t alone in his quest to transform people’s attitudes towards worship. “Even though I noticed that there weren’t that many people entering into worship, the one who was passionately worshipping the Lord was Pastor Robert,” Miller says. “He was the primary worship leader of the church. Knowing that his desire was to bring a real deep expression of worship, I knew I was at the right place.” It was under Morris’ pastoral oversight and Miller’s ministry-mindedness that the worship department blossomed, eventually recording the landmark Living for You, an album that in time went on to yield such corporate favorites as “Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King” and the stunning “Revelation Song,” plus other Sunday morning gems. As Gateway’s worship ministry flourished, another leader, Walker Beach, was watching from the sidelines. Though not actively involved, Beach was a Gateway regular—attending the weekly services and quietly relishing every moment of it. “It felt very, very natural,” Beach says. “I just had such a wonderful time with the Lord. It didn’t feel contrived at all. It didn’t even feel produced or anything that would give it a stigma of performance. It felt like you encountered God.” Incidentally, both Miller and Beach got their start at the School of Worship at Christ for the Nations Institute—the latter was a student there while the former led in worship. The setting proved an ideal training ground for both, as each minister honed individual strengths in areas such as worship leading, songwriting, production, arranging, and musicianship—all facets that today serve as the basis for Gateway’s core strengths. From a production standpoint, Beach was an ideal fit, so much so that, mere days after the church finished recording Living for You, he was asked to join the staff. Rounded out by the leadership of Sion Alford, Zach Neese, David Moore, Kari Jobe, Jason Tam and many others, Gateway Worship became one of the most promising new ensembles in praise and worship music, as evidenced in their brand-new live recording, Wake Up the World. In the same vein as its previous album, Gateway ushers in God’s presence with a modern reinvention of a time-honored standard. The booming “New Doxology” immediately sets the tone for the rest of the disc, as a sea of voices and a potent, stadium-sized pop/rock foundation serve as the main elements of Gateway’s larger-than-life arrangements—augmented further by reverb-rich soundscapes and opulent keyboard layers. From there, Wake Up the World quickly leads worshippers to a new level of adoration with praise rockers “The Lord Reigns,” “Real,” and “God of My Days”—proof positive that Gateway too knows how to encourage believers to declare empowering truths about God’s everlasting love and freedom over their own lives. Once the hearts of churchgoers have been prepared for a deeper level of intimacy, Gateway proceeds to what it does best: offering heartfelt, impassioned worship balladry. Jobe’s “You Are Good,” Miller’s “Save Me,” and Beach’s “We Cry Out” are all remarkable, soaring anthems waiting to be picked up by worshipping congregations all over the country. One of the most memorable selections on Wake Up the World, “When I Speak Your Name” is a haunting, plaintive prayer with shifting melodic lines and an explosive chorus that leads to an even more explosive denouement. It’s one of those climactic snapshots of worship that must be experienced to be believed. As soon as the mountaintop has been reached, the church stirs parishioners to descend from it to revolutionize the culture around it, as expressed in the missional “We’ll Make It Loud” and “Wake Up the World.” By the time the evening closes with the poignant “Beautiful” and a show-stopping encore of “Revelation Song” (available only on iTunes and the DVD version of the album), Gateway Worship has simply offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the ministry that goes on when the music fades. “I haven’t met many people personally who have said, ‘We’ve heard your CD and we started attending the church,’” Beach says. “It just seems like normally people hear about someone’s life being changed, so they start coming to church.” “What God does in personal ministry will always supersede what God does in platform ministry,” Miller says. “Our desire is to be one-on-one ministers and really set people free—equip them, release them, make sure we’re doing everything we can to lead them to the Lord. That’s going to be the thing that’s going to change people’s lives for eternity.” This biography was provided by the artist or their representative. Print this