The Best of Nxtbook — 3.0 - 5.2

The band stakes the album’s theme on the ultimate sacriﬁce. “Love isn’t really love unless it’s backed by action. Jesus showed us this at the cross,” Jack attests. Essentially, Christ was “love on the move” personiﬁed. “Jesus was the ﬁrst to be ‘love on the move’ when He went to the cross. But when He did that, He transferred that love to us so we become His ‘love on the move,’ ” Leeland adds. While prior outings certainly hinted at these assumptions, the new record, with its Coldplay-esque melodies and depth of lyricism, takes the correlation to a new level. “The whole idea of love and action is woven through the fabric of these songs,” Jack explains. “You’ll see a real intimacy in the lyrics of this record. Our heart as a band is to have that pure worship experience with God, and I think these songs communicate that longing.” Worship in its purest sense has very little to do with the worshipper and more to do with the One being worshipped. When it comes to the band’s résumé of crafting artistic “worship” music, Leeland gets it right. “We’re at a place where all we want is to please God. You can’t measure success as a band in how many records you’ve sold or what your ticket sales are,” says Jack. “I think the question we’re always asking ourselves as a band is, ‘Where is our heart for God? Have we kept our hearts right even in the midst of success?’ We’re learning to keep that as our focus. “We try not to care about fame, money or record sales,” he continues. “We just want God’s spirit to lead everything we do. In the end, that’s all that will matter.” The new songs make it obvious that Leeland’s focus and mission has never been clearer. “We’re so excited about this new record because we believe this music is really married to the mission of taking care of the poor,” Jack says. “I hope the songs on this record will open up doors for more work to be done all over the world.” Mooring & Co. are intent on aligning themselves with endeavors of signiﬁcance around the globe, evidenced by their ongoing relationship with Food for the Hungry (FH). “Food for the Hungry is doing such amazing work all over the world,” says Jack. “It’s way more than food; it’s transforming communities with the life of Jesus.” The band recently returned from a trip overseas with the organization visiting Japan, Cambodia and Bangladesh, seeing this transformation in progress ﬁrst-hand. Leeland will be partnering with the non-proﬁt this fall on a co-headlining tour with Brandon Heath (and special guest Francesca Battistelli) titled the “Follow You Tour,” inspired by the album’s ﬁrst single on which Heath duets. Leeland actually wrote the song while attending a Hillsong United conference in Australia after being inspired by a video clip of Bono accepting his award for his work in Africa. “The song ‘Follow You’ talks about going where God goes,” Jack says. “Wherever you ﬁnd the broken and needy, you’ll ﬁnd God standing beside them. We just want to be where He is.” The tour outing will ﬁnd Leeland sharing experiences from its most recent trip abroad and putting legs to what the members speak and sing about, encouraging concert attendees to sponsor children through FH. “The tour is going to be amazing, and we want every night to be a move of God. By the end of this thing we want the world to be changed…literally. We’re hoping thousands of children will be sponsored,” Jack says. “By the end of the tour, we hope that the message of love supported by action will be written on the hearts of everyone as we worship God together.” No matter what they do, Leeland makes it clear that love and action are inextricably linked. And they are more passionate than ever before about taking this message to the world—both in word and deed. “[We’re] a part of this huge story. God wants an intimate relationship with [us] that goes way past a church service and a quiet time,” says Jack. Don’t be fooled into thinking the Texasbased quintet rarely practices what they preach. When they’re not on tour, the band members continue to lead worship at the church where the Moorings’ father pastors. In addition, the band consistently serves in its local community working in Baytown’s Gulf Coast emergency preparedness programs and at a local food pantry truly living out the album’s premise. The Mooring brothers are also using their platform to make inroads “For every worship song we sing, we should match that with an act of justice and an act of love.” — Leeland Mooring, Leeland TO LISTEN TO LEELAND’S NEW SINGLE “FOLLOW YOU.” into government-sanctioned advocacy. In fact, earlier this year, Leeland and Jack were the only artists invited to the White House for its “Compassion in Action Roundtable,” which targeted promising young leaders in developing the next generation of America’s social philanthropists. “There’s a big world out there with big problems, and the life and love of God inside of us is the answer,” Jack says. “We hope that people would be drenched in the love of God as they hear these songs. And the natural response is to get up and move so we can show the world what it really means to follow Jesus.” For more info, log on to leelandonline.com. View more exclusive Leeland videos at CCMmagazine.com/news/stories/11604975. CLICK HERE “WHEREVER YOU FIND THE BROKEN AND NEEDY, YOU’LL FIND GOD STANDING BESIDE THEM. WE JUST WANT TO BE WHERE HE IS.” — JACK MOORING, LEELAND 12 [ccmmagazine.com]

The Best of Nxtbook — 3.0

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