Gas Street Music

Gas Street Music is the sound of Gas Street Church; a community with a deep desire to worship God and see His Kingdom come. They believe every area of life should be woven in worship, leading people wholeheartedly into an encounter with Jesus. With worship leaders and songwriters such as Tim Hughes, Taku Mudere, Nick Herbert, Michael Shannon, Millie Ferguson & Zo Ross-Waddell. Gas Street Music collectively continues the legacy of writing and leading songs that fuel personal devotion and gathered expression.

Tim Hughes shares how their new songs reflect the antithetical expressions of faith in response to all God is doing in their church and in the heart of the UK.


Thank you for sharing some of your story with us today and congratulations on the release of Adonai! Gas Street Church began almost 10 years ago. What was the original vision and how has that evolved over the years?

Gas Street was planted as a church ten years ago with a vision to see a worshipping community impact the city of Birmingham, in the UK. When we started the church, we found an old disused warehouse. The building's history involved transporting coal via Birmingham's canal network to generate gas, which was then used to light the city's street lamps.

We loved this image and took the metaphor and claimed it as our vision that we, as a church, would be light for the city. That as the people of God we would bring joy, hope, peace and comfort in the way we lived and communicated the gospel message of Jesus. 

Over the last 10 years, the vision has stayed the same, but we've adapted our approach in various ways as our community has grown and diversified, as we've witnessed God move in specific ways, and especially as many young people have come to faith! We're hugely encouraged and excited by all that God is doing and love the adventure of carrying worship into the city of Birmingham. 

How do you all intentionally embrace your congregation's diversity with the songs you write and in the ways you arrange and produce Gas Street Music?

A whole bunch of different songwriters were involved in writing these songs for this album Adonai. The best way to capture the diversity of a church is to ensure that this diversity is represented in the songwriting, production and musical process of the recordings.

We would organise songwriting retreats where we would have opportunities to chat and pray, talk about the vision of the church and create space for each other to bring our ideas. Over the years, we've had lots of conversations around how we best capture a more diverse sound.

It all still feels very much like a work in progress, but the intentionality of who we draw in, who helps produce and play on the songs, all helps us to capture the diversity within our church. 

You all have said: “these songs are the soundtrack to all that we are seeing God do.” Can you expand on that? How do these songs encapsulate what your church has encountered collectively and personally in their walks of faith?

These songs capture the vision of the church in many ways because they have been written in community. It's not just individuals going off to write music. We write in teams. When we gather together, we're praying together; we're sharing all that God is doing in our lives, in our church. When writing, we're always considering the congregation. 

For example, the song “Let Everything That Has Breath” is trying to capture the idea that when we gather now, we have 81 different nations represented in our church. We're all drawn together, heaven and earth joining as one, worshiping the name above every other name. 

A song like “Fresh Encounter,” captures the longing we have as a community to see more of God. One of our key values is that we'd be expectant. So, we believe that when we gather to worship, we're not just singing theology or a few songs; we're stepping into the presence of God Almighty. In His presence, lives are changed, people are healed, and remarkable things begin to happen. This song captures that longing that is so at the core and heart of what we're trying to grow in as a church!

You also say: “these songs aren’t simply about melody and lyrics; they capture praise and desperation, gratitude and longing, faith and doubt, hope and fear. All written by a group of friends who belong to a normal, messy and glorious church known as Gas Street.” We love that! How do you all lead in such a way that recognizes the messiness and imperfection of being human, while pointing to the one perfect God? 

When you look at encounters with Jesus, particularly in the New Testament, you see the emotion of humanity encountering the divine. You never get the sense of it being slick or polished; it's raw, heartfelt, and deeply profound. 

In our worship, we always want to create space for the congregation to shape the direction of our worship. We lead in a way that isn't just singing four or five songs, but we create space, encouraging people to sing out. At times, we encourage songs from the room, people to sing out melodies or refrains that we can then join in with as a band. Some of our most profound moments are when the musicians aren't playing anything, but the congregation begin to sing. 

For example, part of our community is made up of a hundred or so men and women from Iran who predominantly speak Farsi. Just the other week, at the end of the worship, they began to sing this song in Farsi. The rest of the congregation wouldn't have understood the words, but you could feel the passion and the heart and the honoring of God in their singing. The whole room erupted, joining with them worshiping the name above all names, Jesus. 

At times when you create space for the congregation to add their voice, add their song and melody it can be messy. We've had many musical train wrecks, but I'd rather have engagement with the whole congregation than musically slick produced sounds that encourage consumer engagement in worship. 

I love the picture of the early church in Ephesians where it talks about everyone bringing a psalm, hymn and spiritual song. Often people say when you have hundreds of people in a room, that's impossible, but actually I disagree. I've seen gatherings with thousands of people, where people begin to pray out, sing out, bring a prophetic word, lead a song of worship from the ground rather than the stage.

In my opinion, the church needs to be way more bold and open to mess in our gathered expression of worship. 

How do these songs carry and honor the paradoxical nature of being a believer? (The praise and desperations, the faith and doubt, etc.) 

At different points in our journey as Gas Street Music, we've had songs such as “Broken Hallelujah” which express lament and the reality of doubt in our journey as worshipers. Whilst these new songs might not necessarily specifically articulate that theme, a number of these songs are songs that can be sung in both moments of praise and heartbreak.

A song like “Worship You Forever” is so simple. I've seen people sing it on a Sunday from the overflow of joy and gratitude. I've also watched people going through dark, challenging circumstances singing these words, proclaiming 'Holy is the Lord God Almighty', with tears streaming down their faces. 

That's the beauty of gathered worship. We all come with our journeys, carrying our hopes and dreams, and in the midst of all of that, we centre our hearts affection and our minds attention on Jesus. 

Adonai” is the title track and also the longest song on the album. Tell us why this Hebrew word highlighting the authority and sovereignty of God became the anchoring theme of this project?

As we were choosing songs for the project, we noticed a strong vertical theme running through so many of them; prayers, worship, and declarations directed straight to God. Adonai felt like the right name because it captures who He is: sovereign, holy, above it all, and yet still so near. In a time when so much feels uncertain or out of our control, it meant a lot to ground these songs in the truth that God is still Lord over everything.

The title track really gives that truth room to breathe.

What other songs from Adonai are you all most excited for the global Church to hear and start incorporating into their setlists?

The three songs that are really connecting at church are “Let Everything That Has Breath,” “Worship You Forever,” and “King of Hope.” 

“Let Everything That Has Breath” is a strong declaration of praise. It's a great song to open up a gathered time of worship with. We've loved using the song “Worship You Forever.” It's so simple, but it really connects deeply with people's hearts and spirits, unlocking worship in a room. It could work brilliantly in a small setting as well as a large gathering of thousands. The song lyrically that seems to connect deeply and releases high praise is “King of Hope.” This brilliant gospel song journeys through the narrative of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, and inspires a responsive worship and praise. 

We've loved using these songs at church and really hope and pray they're an encouragement and blessing to many!


Lead songs from Adonai with your congregation.

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Seph Schlueter