Yahweh is the first installment in the Hillsong Chapel praise and worship series by Hillsong Church

Hillsong Church

Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal megachurch affiliated with Australian Christian Churches and located in Sydney, Australia. The church's senior pastors, Brian and Bobbie Houston, began the church in 1983 as the Hills Christian Life Centre in Baulkham Hills...

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Hillsong Chapel is an intimate and devotional collection of Hillsong songs, both recent and beloved, from Hillsong Live and Hillsong United

Hillsong United

The Hillsong United band is an Australian praise and worship band that originated as a part of Hillsong Church. The band tours the world, performing at the various Hillsong church locations as well as general concert venues. They compose the songs for their own performances and for the other...

. Recorded live in the church’s chapel in March 2010, Yahweh, contains 13 organic and contemplative versions of top Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) songs such as "Hosanna", "From the Inside Out" and the No. 1 CCLI song sung by an estimated 40 million people every week in church services around the world, "Mighty to Save". Although having never recorded an "unplugged" version of their songs, Reuben Morgan

Reuben Morgan

Reuben Morgan is the worship pastor and one of several worship leaders and songwriters alongside Darlene Zschech at the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia. He has written songs such as "Eagles Wings", "Hear Our Praises", "I Give You My Heart", "My Redeemer Lives" and "Mighty to Save", which won...

, Jill McCloghry, Ben Fielding, Joel Houston

Joel Houston

Joel Timothy Houston is a musician, songwriter and pastor, best known as leader of the Sydney-based worship band Hillsong United, the youth worship band of Hillsong Church....

, Jad Gillies, Annie Garratt and other Hillsong team members crafted the brand new arrangements in response to churches around the world asking for acoustic versions of their popular anthems. The album was released in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 on 26 October 2010 in partnership with EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

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A companion, full-length DVD featuring all the songs on the CD was also released and was filmed as 300 worshippers filled the Hillsong Chapel in Sydney, Australia.

Bryan Ward, EMI CMG Label Group Director, said Hillsong Chapel's, Yahweh, was perfect for smaller gatherings and personal devotions and would help resource churches wanting more intimate worship expressions of songs from Hillsong Live and Hillsong United. He said: "Churches love the music from Hillsong Church, but are not always able to reproduce it in their local worship settings. The music from Hillsong Chapel provides another option for these churches to share these inspiring songs of praise."

Worship leaders and music fans will receive special insight to this new recording starting with a month-long Hillsong campaign from EMI CMG Publishing that culminates with a live streaming Hillsong Chapel Yahweh event on Worship Together. This first-ever live online event for Hillsong and Worship Together launched at 7:00 pm CT 2 November 2010. The event was geared toward worship leaders and features Hillsong team members playing music from Yahweh live, demonstrating how to translate these songs in an intimate setting, and pointing out elements to focus on in smaller gatherings. They will also answer questions and run select videos from the Yahweh DVD.

Track listing (CD/DVD)

1. "Hosanna" – 4:43 - Worship leader: Annie Garratt
2. "You'll Come" – 4:55 - Worship leader: Annie Garratt
3. "Run" – 2:57 - Worship leader: Jad Gillies
4. "The Time Has Come" – 5:27 - Worship leader: Jad Gillies
5. "Saviour King" – 5:25 - Worship leader: Annie Garratt
6. "Yahweh" – 4:49 - Worship leader: Reuben Morgan & Jill McCloghry
7. "Came to My Rescue" – 4:20 - Worship leaders: Reuben Morgan & Jill McCloghry
8. "Stronger" – 4:10 - Worship leader: Jill McCloghry
9. "This Is Our God" – 4:48 - Worship leaders: Jill McCloghry & Reuben Morgan
10. "You Hold Me Now" – 7:28 - Worship leader: Reuben Morgan
11. "From the Inside Out" – 5:53 - Worship leader: Joel Houston & Annie Garratt
12. "Mighty to Save" – 5:11 - Worship leader: Annie Garratt
13. "Salvation Is Here" – 4:53 - Worship leader: Joel Houston

Critical reception

Yahweh has received positive reviews from a number of music critics.

• Allmusic: "Yahweh represents the very best of what the modern worship community has to offer...A visionary and influential contribution to the modern worship canon that will be remembered for years to come."
• Gmclife.com: "The new series takes worship back to a simpler time when it wasn’t a movement or a genre but simply a way of praising our God...The new arrangements make for a more organic record, perfect as the background piece to someone’s personal devotions or for smaller congregations who didn’t find the originals a perfect fit."
• Soul-Audio.com calls the recording, "incredibly peaceful and wonderful."