Paul Baloche reflects living God in next album

|PIC1|Two-time Dove Award winning Paul Baloche is one of today’s most influential worship leaders and songwriters. Glorious, his eighth collection of new worship songs, releases November 3 on Integrity Music and features co-writes with Michael W Smith, Brenton Brown, Meredith Andrews, Jason Ingram, Ben Gowell and Rita Baloche.

In addition to the CD, worship resources for Glorious include a print and digital songbook, CD trax and more.

Having served as the Worship Pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, TX for 20 consecutive years, Baloche is regarded as one of the preeminent worship writers of the contemporary church.

He has written some of this generation’s most compelling worship songs, including “Open The Eyes of My Heart”, “Hosanna”, “Your Name”, “Above All”, “Offering”, “All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises”, “Our God Saves” and “Because of Your Love”.

With several No 1 radio hits and 19 CCLI current Top 500 songs to his credit, his songs are sung by millions of people each week in churches around the world.

But the success and accolades are not what drive this faithful songwriter.

“I don’t want to rely on clichés or crank out Christian jingles,” says Baloche. “I’ve tried to wipe the etch-a-sketch clean for this record and force myself to go deeper in this season of my life, wrestling with the words and music that will help congregations connect with God to help strengthen their relationships, families, and communities.

"For better or worse, the songs we are singing in our services are going down deep into the core of our hearts and forming our theology. For this reason, I want every song on this record to matter, to be biblical, have relevance and carry spiritual weight.”

|PIC1|With an overall theme of intimacy with the living God being reflected in Glorious, the title track, co-written with Brenton Brown, points people beyond the cross, pushing them to look further inside the mystery of the gospel.

“God is a living Savior; He is Glorious. Sometimes we lose this … the adventure of being led by a living, active God and having an expectant heart,” reflects Baloche. “My pastor says that when we sing ‘Glorious’, it feels like the answer to the longing in ‘Open the Eyes of My Heart’ (another Baloche hit).”

Produced by Baloche and band member Ben Gowell, who co-wrote “You Saved Us” on the album, Glorious also features additional production by Michael Rossback and Jason Ingram (Bebo Norman, Rush Of Fools, Tenth Avenue North, Jim Brickman).

Baloche further co-wrote the first radio single, “Just To Be With You”, with Ingram. The single is already garnering acclaim from radio programmers across the country.

“With so much uncertainty all around us, it can be so easy to lose sight of what we really need - just to be with Him,” says Joe Buchanan, Network Music Director, New Life Media. “I can’t wait to encourage our listeners with this great song! Thanks, Paul, for another well written song with an incredible and timely message!”

Baloche shares the songwriting responsibilities with several other writers on this album, including his wife Rita. Together, they co-wrote the song “Wonderful God”, and Rita wrote the song “Shaken”.

Glorious also features a duet with Meredith Andrews on “How Great is The Love,” written by Baloche and Andrews. Notably, this year’s Dove Award winning song, “A New Hallelujah”, was co-written with Michael W Smith.

Known in Christian music circles for cultivating a sense of community among writers, Baloche is also a writer/artist for CompassionArt, a charity dedicated to seeing works of art generate income for the relief of suffering around the planet.

Playing the new songs from Glorious on the road, Baloche was the featured worship leader at the annual NRB Convention, the annual Southern Baptist Convention and the Saddleback Worship Conference.

In addition to writing, recording, touring and serving as a worship pastor, Baloche has created a variety of instructional DVDs for worship leaders and musicians and has written a book, God Songs – How to Write and Select Songs for Worship. He is a contributing writer for both Worship Leader and Worship Musician magazines and a popular conference speaker, most recently serving as an instructor for Integrity Music’s “Deeper: The Worship Sessions” national seminars.