On the heels of two critically acclaimed, genre-bending albums, worship leader William McDowell prepares for the November 5th release of a groundbreaking new CD/DVD that takes the audio-visual worship experience to a new level.
Appropriately titled Withholding Nothing, the project contains over 60 minutes of passionate, extemporaneous worship in the form of songs, choruses and instrumental interludes that reverberate with themes of surrender and thanksgiving.
With 14 tracks recorded on CD and 20 on the DVD, including standouts from his chart-topping albums Arise and As We Worship, Withholding Nothing highlights 2,000 people immersed not in a recording, but in worship.
“These people don’t know they are being heard by anyone but God,” explains McDowell. “We don’t get pre-claps, we don’t stop for any reason. The focus is 100 percent on God and what He’s saying, and the songs just happen the way they happen…we rehearsed, we prepared, but in the end, the Holy Spirit led the evening.”
So how does one go about capturing that shift in the atmosphere, that moment when the order of service takes a back seat to the work of the Holy Spirit? According to McDowell, who is also the lead pastor at Orlando’s Deeper Fellowship Church, you simply “get out of the way.”
“The best you can do is to prepare your heart and be obedient,” says McDowell. “…you have to be willing to become invisible. It’s never about you. Nothing in the service is about you. People aren’t coming to see you. They are coming to experience God.”
And throughout the two-hour-long DVD, viewers are captivated as the presence of God takes complete control of the room while McDowell introduces a plethora of new worship anthems and songs of praise for today’s church. These include “Can’t Live Without You,” featuring guest vocalist Nicole Binion, “Are You Ready?” featuring guest Aaron Lindsey and “My Heart Sings,” in which McDowell cries out, “My worship is too deep for my words…I’ve got to cry from the depth of my heart… my vocabulary is too limited when it comes to God.”
The complete tracklist for the CD portion of Withholding Nothing, including guest vocalists, is:
1. Releasing A Sound
2. Bring Me A Minstrel
3. Expecting
4. Are You Ready (featuring Pablo Villatoro and Aaron Lindsey)
5. Through Christ
6. We Will Prevail
7. Sovereign God (featuring Danny Gokey)
8. When I Call Your Name
9. There Is Something About That Name
10. My Heart Sings
11. Can’t Live Without You (featuring Nicole Binion)
12. Withholding Nothing 13. There Is A Sound 14. Withholding Nothing (Radio Edit)
Withholding Nothing, which is distributed by Entertainment One Music, will be available in stores and through iTunes and Amazon beginning November 5.
