As the lights dimmed and the opening notes rose through the auditorium, worship began at Heart of God Church – but this time, we were instantly transported to what looked like a boundless night sky filled with an ocean of stars.
Every lyric, visual, and sound was synchronised to reflect God’s magnificence – this was a worship experience by youths, for youths, to glorify God:
If you thought that the worship experience and visuals were incredible, imagine our response when we realised that it was done completely in-house by a group of young creatives in just under a week!
We just had to find out what went on behind the scenes, so we caught up with the HOGC Creative Team – the group of young people who brought this worship cover to life!
Hi Creative Team! Thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions. We heard that you worked really hard for this project and we just had to find out more! Could you tell us about it?
Creative Team: This worship cover was conceptualised and created by two youth-led teams, made up of creatives between 15-25 years old! The Production Team selected and paced the footage, and the Motion Graphics Team was in charge of animation-related graphics and lyrics.
The creative team also worked closely with the Lights Ministry for the live atmosphere and coordinated with the Worship team to deliver the best sound experience. The teams were all led by a 21-year-old Creative Lead, who guided the vision for each part of the song!
That sounds like a dream team. What inspired all of you to create this worship experience with ‘So Will I’?
We were brainstorming ahead of a weekend service that was going to be focused on using our creativity to glorify God; we had tied down all the praise songs, but couldn’t seem to find the right worship song.
Then came a lightbulb moment when a team member suggested Hillsong Worship’s “So Will I (100 Billion X)”!
We collectively knew it was perfect because we wanted all the creativity to point back to God.
Wow, how did you bring your ideas to life in under a week?
After deciding to do “So Will I”, we immediately sprang into action by creating a visual moodboard and storyboard that included the kind of visuals and imagery to be shown on screen with every line.
By Tuesday night, we’d only conceptualised and storyboarded. The team stayed up late the rest of the week sourcing for the best footage and creating assets that perfectly matched every lyric.
We sourced for every visual one by one because each line of the worship song was very specific (for example “The wind goes where You send it” and “The mountains bow in reverence”). It wasn’t enough for the visuals to just look nice. They needed to encompass the essence of every line!
We also heard that MANY assets were used to create this experience…
That’s right, in total, we had about a hundred selected assets individually sourced and pieced together by the team. No one was doing only what they were responsible for. We were all helping each other out. The Production team also came to help. Even people from the Creative team who were only in charge of sound gave ideas on where to find visuals.
The night before the first weekend service, we stayed up till 5am to ensure everything was perfect so that it would reflect the excellence of our Creator!
That’s something we find super special about doing creative work in HOGC. It’s never a one-man show – instead, all of us worked together as a team and aren’t limited by our job scopes!
Now that’s what I call the power of teamwork! Last but not least, do you have any personal takeaways from working on this?
It’s so surreal that the gift of creativity can be used by God to impact people!
Working on this worship experience gave the team a deeper revelation of why we do what we do in church. It reminded us that at the core of creative work in ministry, we are simply stewards and God is the true Creator.
“So Will I” pointed us back to the truth that all creation begins with Him and our work is a reflection of something far greater than ourselves. There was a deep sense of fulfilment in creating something that carries such eternal weight.
By: HOGC Stories Team
