Sonicflood Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Modern Worship, Lead Singer Says ‘Jesus Is the Way’
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Published Aug 15, 2024
The pioneering Christian band who helped popularize modern worship and high-energy praise music is still singing about the love of God as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. Sonicflood, which launched in 1999 and won a Dove Award the following year for Praise and Worship Album of the Year, will embark on its "One Nation Under God" tour this fall. The band will perform well-known hits alongside newer songs in multiple cities.
The band performed and popularized some of the most well-known songs within contemporary Christian music, including I Want to Know You, I Could Sing of Your Love, Open the Eyes of My Heart, Cry Holy, and Here I Am to Worship.
Lead singer Rick Heil joined the band after leaving another CCM group, Big Tent Revival. Originally formed as a touring band to open for DC Talk, Sonicflood quickly distinguished itself and became a prominent name in the contemporary Christian music scene.
"They put an album together of cover songs from the songs that were being sung acoustically, usually in church," Heil told Crosswalk Headlines. "They were like, 'We like rock and roll music. We cut our teeth on drums and loud guitars and that sort of thing.' So they just morphed that into songs that we grew up listening to."
Heil grew up in a non-instrumental Church of Christ congregation and says he didn't develop a passion for modern praise music until he joined Big Tent Revival as its bassist.
"I joined Big Tent, went on the road, and God expanded my understanding of who He was in these different denominations," Heil said. "... I didn't see denominations. I just saw the church as a whole worldwide -- the church. And I had a paradigm shift."
Heil learned that he could "put my two loves of music and worship together."
"And God uses that to glorify Himself and to change people's hearts. And music is quite an amazing gift as a tool. …Music takes the message right to the heart, you know, right past the brain. …Any way that we can get the message out that God is hope, God is love, needs to be broadcast."
"God continued to open the door."
This fall's tour, he said, will have 2 Chronicles 7:14 as its theme. That verse reads: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
"This country needs to be healed by Jesus. And we believe the best way to facilitate that is through prayer and worship."
Heil hopes the Sonicflood tour leads Christians to be bold in their faith.
"Jesus is the way, and He's the only way. …Once you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, get in the Word and let it transform your heart and mind," he said. "... We don't have time these days to be flaky. We need to know what the Word says and be wholly, be set apart from the world -- not kind of dipping our toe in this and that. This is no time to be on the fence."
WATCH: 'I Could Sing of Your Love Forever' (with Lyrics) by Sonicflood
Photo Credit: ©Sonicflood
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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