'Break Through the Stars' Pays Tribute to Golden-Era of Praise and Worship Music
Have you ever felt like God gave you a very clear vision for something He wanted you to do but for whatever reason you talked yourself out of it. Perhaps it was a new business venture, to get more involved in some activity, or to not pursue something that you really wanted to do. For whatever reason, it seems that your way makes far more sense than what the Lord is prescribing for you to attempt.
Singer/songwriter Chad Gentry found himself in a very similar situation in late 2020. He had an experience with God following a Sunday morning church service, where he felt a calling to spearhead an immersive multimedia project to honor praise and worship music from the golden age of that genre: the 1990s.
Rather than run in the opposite direction, Gentry embraced the challenge, and has dedicated the last three-plus years of his life to not only producing a full-length album featuring this music but to also create a video docuseries on the era as well as overseeing a series of live concerts that highlight the era.
To kick off the Nineties Worship Night branded movement is the release of a new album, Break Through the Stars featuring such 1990s praise and worship music luminaries as former Sonicflood lead singer Jeff Deyo, Lenny Leblanc, Brenton Brown, Lindell Cooley, Christy Nockels, Out of Eden’s Lisa Nicole, and Gentry’s sister, acclaimed newcomer Kim Gentry-Meyer.
Specifically, Break Through the Stars re-imagines a curated collection of some of the most powerful songs from that era, an assortment of music featuring powerful, anointed, multicultural worship.
I recently sat down with the affable Gentry to discuss why he chose to focus on music from the 1990s with this project, some notable musical artists who contributed to it, and why music from this era is so timeless.
If you were trying to convince a friend or family member to pick up a copy of Break Through the Stars what would you say to encourage them? What would your sales pitch be?
I think this for anyone who is a fan of good music should check this out. Regardless of what genre that they're a fan of, or what the lyrical content might be. It's just a great record. It really is. It was our specific goal to make what I would describe as a multicultural album where we had different styles. It definitely has some pop rock in there, some folk, some country, some R&B, and some gospel music. We basically have every kind of musical flavor.
And that was really important to me with the Break Through the Stars album. This is because with Nineties Worship Night, we're covering the nineties decade and, and all the content that that period of time had to offer. When I kind of took a 10,000 foot view of the nineties era, that's one of the things that really struck me. There were so many different flavors that were there musically. I feel like in worship music for the last several years, the word that I've always heard from conversations with other worship pastors and leaders, it seems to have become homogenized a bit. It's easy for everything to kind of sound the same, where you have ambient guitars and keyboards with a moderate tempo in songwriting. It is what it is, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But one of the things I really appreciate from the Nineties was the variety. And we wanted to make sure with this album that we had that variety in there. No matter what someone likes musically, check this album out. I promise you, of the 15 tracks, you'll at least like a few of them.
All of the songs on this album were originally written and released during the 1990s. Simple question, why focus on 1990s music?
That is a great question, and arguably the most important question about why we're doing this. I kind of preface that to say, even though a lot of people have made the assumption that this is a passion project of mine, or just something that we wanted to do, or maybe even a marketing strategy, none of that is the case. This was not something that was foreseen. I always joke that if this would've been a plan, we'd have been a lot better funded going into it. The story started in September of 2020, when a mentor slash pastor of mine, Danny Chambers, passed away unexpectedly. Danny was someone who was very instrumental in Nineties worship music. He was probably the leading worship leader/evangelist for the youth movement during that period of time. I personally think he was the most gifted worship artist of the modern music era. So, he made a great impact on my life and was probably the main figure to interest me and inspire me to pursue worship ministry. In the later years, he was most recently known as the pastor at the Oasis Church in Nashville from 1998 through 2019, when he retired. So that's how a lot of people know him.
But upon his passing, I really felt a burden. I want to do something to honor him. And I just said a simple prayer. I would love to do something to honor Danny and his legacy, kind of one of those, ‘here I am, send me if this is something that needs to happen’ moments. And in December 2020, I had an experience with the Lord after a morning service where my wife and I had led worship. It was kind of a divine download of the whole Nineties worship and that concept. It was pretty well mandated. I had a divine mandate to spearhead it, and at that time did not really know the enormity of what it was going to be.
I like to joke that it may have been harder to say yes had I known it was going to turn out to be as involved as it has become. But it also has been a beautiful thing to watch. The Holy Spirit just opened doors and really connected the dots with this. Just to get to know folks such as Darlene Zschech (Hillsong United), Martin Smith (Delirious), Lindell Cooley from the Brownsville Revival, Jeff Deyo (Sonicflood), and Charlie Hall. It's just not something where I could have picked up the phone and tried to get in touch with these people and get them interested. It was really the Lord leading the path.
Many of the worship songs from the 1990s were memorable for those of us old enough to remember them. What do you think makes these songs so timeless?
What really makes that decade special, are the amazing supernatural stories. Danny (Chambers), for instance, had a song called “Let the Rain of Your Presence”. That was just a supernatural story of how he ended up writing that song. Brian Doerkson with “Time to Worship” and “Refiners Fire”, was the same sort of thing.
Having a divine visitation, and then having a song that forms out of nowhere in a matter of minutes. There's one thing that's been said amongst worship leaders for a very long time. There's a good song and there's a God song. If there's talent involved and good collaboration, it's not hard to put a good song together. You could only have a God song when the Lord puts his fingerprint on it. A lot of times on paper, you wouldn't even be able to tell. These God songs, it's just something about when they start being sung and you're in a room with other believers, you can just tell something's really special with it.
Probably one of the best examples of that would be the song “Breathe”, by Marie Barnett. That's just a mind blowing story of her writing that song and being in a time of desperation and grief. And the Lord gave her that song as a way to bring healing, but it translates to whoever's singing and listening as well. It’s just the spirit of the Lord to bring peace. You can just feel it. It’s so tangible.
Do you have a favorite song from the record? If so, what is it and why do you like it so much?
That’s a really tough one. Let me answer the question first by saying that going into this album, I had no track listing in mind. You know, I pretty much just kept it completely open and let God inspire us to make this what He wanted it to be. That was really my approach and my prayer. And it was just so fascinating to see it all come together, because it took so many twists and turns along the way. So,it's really difficult for me to pinpoint just one. But if I was forced to highlight just one it would probably be “Take My Life”.
My good friends David Guerrero and Scott Underwood, they did a duet together. Scott's the original writer of that song. And it was a big Nineties worship song. I'm sure you've probably heard it a time or two. But I just love the content of it. It's so simple. The majority of it comes straight from Scripture. But I really look at it as a prayer and a request of the Lord, to surrender. And I love what my friend Jonathan did with the production with David and Scott leading it. But that track probably means the most to me, just because of how it came together and how the Lord spoke to me specifically about that song and its content.
After people have had a chance to listen to Break Through the Stars what would you like to see your listeners get out of the experience? What is your greatest hope for the album?
That's a great question. I always say that we have two hopes. We want the whole Nineties worship night project to really help call some of the prodigals home from that era. Chris, you've been involved with ministry for a long time. as well, and I’m sure you can relate to this and know that so many of the folks I went to church with who I would consider them to be “on fire with God”, back in that time period.
So many of them have either completely walked away from the faith, or they definitely are not in the same place that they used to be in their relationship with God. And I'm really hoping these songs and these narratives will renew something within them or maybe get them to start asking themselves difficult questions about where they stand in their faith. That's my biggest hope and prayer for this. I think the other side of it is just as you kind of hinted at, is there a possibility for this subject matter? I definitely hope that it educates the newer generation as far as providing an accurate historical narrative, because I think that's important. If you want to know where we're heading, you have to look at where we've been.
Being able to look back at that time period for anyone who's in worship ministry in particular, would be a very valuable thing. Do I hope that some of the methodology of what happened in that time period as far as writing songs, doing ministry, could we stand to benefit from some of those approaches in the modern time here? Absolutely. So, hopefully that will be a consideration. We'll see what the Lord has to say about this. But at some point in time, within the relatively near future, I could see the Nineties Worship Night project putting out original content as well.
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