Endless Ocean, Bottomless Sea

     This week we released our new album "Endless Ocean, Bottomless Sea."  This is a double disc album of the extended versions of "On the Shores."  If you have heard "On the Shores," you have only stood on the edge of what happened in the studio when this music was recorded.  We titled this new album, "Endless Ocean, Bottomless Sea" because these are the moments that happened when we stepped off the shores and into the much more.

     This album is more than just a new project for us; it is an invitation to step into more of God's heart.  The title "Endless Ocean, Bottomless Sea" is a phrase that encapsulates the passion of our lives.

      Fourteen years ago I had a dream that began with me standing on the shores of an ocean.  As I looked into the sea, I saw Jesus standing in the water with a smile on His face.  With an irresistible love in His eyes, he motioned for me to come into the deep with Him.  Before I stepped into the water, I looked over my shoulder and saw a generation of young people behind me on the shore.  They followed me into the water until we disappeared into the ocean of His love.

     This is our vision and the bigger dream of our music: That a generation would leave the shores of fear and religion and follow Jesus into His endless love.

     We are more than just songwriters and artists, for the last 14 years Melissa and I have been co-leading “A place for the Heart" with my Mom and Dad. We do much more than just travel and play gigs. We are leading schools, internships and doing kingdom community year-round. The band that plays with us are more than just musicians, they are full time staff with us, giving their lives to disciple this generation.  Every album that we have sold has gone to support this dream.

     Last summer students traveled from five nations and over a dozen states to take part in our school "The 18 inch Journey." This year we have already accepted students from over ten nations and have had such a flood of applications for our school, we will have had to turn away many potential students due to the lack of space. A generation is truly standing on the shores looking for more and we need more space to host them. Last year we built a new kitchen, worship space and art studio for our school. As of right now we have paid off over half of the $140,000 dollar budget and only have $60,000 left. We are believing that we can clear this debt quickly, so we can start building even more space for this coming generation. 

     We are looking for those who want to dream with us. We are a small ministry dreaming big dreams, and we need your support to make these dreams reality.  Every album that you buy and any support you give will go toward this vision:

  That a generation would leave the shores of fear and religion and follow Jesus into His endless love.

Click Here to Support this Vision

Click here to Purchase the New Album 

Jonathan David Helser

Getting Ready

     It is a wonderful thing to make music that you love.  It is even more wonderful to make that music with people you love.  Jonathan and I are releasing a new CD tomorrow called  Endless Ocean Bottomless Sea.  It is the extended versions of the album On The Shores that we released last February.  We are so excited about these songs getting into the hands of worshipers that long for the more.  As usual, we throw a big release party/night of worship.  We have been rehearsing in our studio these last weeks feeling the beautiful anticipation and excitement growing with every practice.  We are so privileged to have a band of musicians that have traveled to the deep with us and continue to long for the more.  Come join us at the Carolina Theatre tomorrow night as we get lost in the deep love of Jesus.

Cheers to Joel Case,  Jake Stevens, Molly Skaggs, Chris Miller, and Luke Skaggs we are making beautiful music that makes the Father smile.  The 1000 people coming tomorrow night have no idea whats in store for there hearts, waves of melodies saturated with love

New Album coming on March 2nd

     On March 2nd we release our new album, "Endless Ocean, Bottomless Sea" at the Carolina Theater in Greensboro, NC.  You can order tickets for the release now online. If you pre order a album/ticket combo you can be one of the few to receive the album two weeks before the release. Orders will ship by Feb. 11.  We only have 1,000 tickets available and last year we sold out at the "On the Shores Release." So you better order soon.  We also have one of my favorite bands in the world "Songs of Water" opening the evening.

Click here to Pre Order the Album and order tickets

Upcoming House Recording

     There are many moments over these last thirteen years at
"A Place for the Heart," where God's blessings have been so
incredible that it almost feels too good to be true.  One of those
is that my Dad is not only my physical father, but my spiritual
father too.  Over the years he has instilled many core values
into my life.  One in particular that has always pierced my heart
is this: “Home is where we live out what we like to preach about.” 
More than just words, my dad has dared to live it out.

     For the last 5 years Melissa and I have had the privilege of leading
schools and internships.  Out of the many students that have come
here, the Lord has chosen a handful to stay and partner with us.  More
than becoming staff, they have become family.  Four of them make up
our full time band.  They have literally traveled around the globe
with us making music.  This year we decided to take a few weeks in the
winter and record an album with this amazing community.  The unique
approach to this album is we are going to record all the music in our
home.  Our desire is to create more than just another album, in an
over saturated market of music.  We want to capture the beautiful
sound of a community worshiping together.  Richard Foster said "All
good books are written in community."  I think the same is true with
music.  We invited each member of the band to contribute a song.  The
songs that we have chosen are the melodies that have carried us into
the Lord's presence as a community.  For the last few years our staff
has been meeting in the mornings to begin the day with worship.  We
also meet every Tuesday evening in our home to worship and commune
with His presence.  I can honestly say that we have worshiped more in
the secret place than we have on the stages we played on around the
world.  The sounds and songs of this album are truly going to be an
overflow of the rhythms of worship we have cultivated as a community.
We also felt led to capture these songs in the beauty of video.
Youtube has become the radio of this culture, and we want a generation
to taste and see the love of God in these songs.  We want to open a
window and let the world see the remarkable presence of Lord that is
resting here at "A Place for the Heart."

     The core value of my parent’s journey has become the beautiful
foundation of all of us here, whom we affectionately call, “The Farm
Family.”  This place that the Father has carved out for us is where we
are getting to sing the songs of our lives.  I believe that our
ministry is really successful when it looks like family.  Remember the
words of Jesus. "I only do what I see my Father do."  Everything the
Son of God did in his ministry was an overflow of his relationship
with Father.  Please watch our website in 2013 for the release of this
new project.   ––– Jonathan David Helser

New Podcast Series- Abba's Furious Love

     In the next three weeks we are really excited to release a three part podcast called "Abba's Furious Love." We have had so many people ask us "what happens at the 18 inch Journey" This message is a great window into what happens during some of our teaching sessions on the journey. I shared this message on the first week of our school. On the first podcast I am reading a passage from Brennan Manning's book "The Furious Longing of God. " At the close of the first and last podcast you can hear and feel the sound of a generation calling out to the Father in worship. We hope you enjoy these podcasts and encounter more of His furious affections for you.

To Download Podcast from itunes go to this link
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/abbas-furious-love-intro-pt./id370241266?i=122589288

New Chord Charts Online

     Thanks to the talented Joel Case (drummer and musician extraordinaire) we have updated all of our chord charts online for your musical pleasure! We have also updated all of our lyrics with powerpoint and word files.  You can download them all for free at this link

http://jonathanhelser.com/jonathanhelser/media.html


Enjoy!

"On the shores" review

     I found this review on itunes about "On the shores." Hope you enjoy it

"I’m aware that commenting on this CD can be construed as oddly self serving. But I don’t care. I adore this record. Which can be considered somewhat narcissitic. But hear me out. I loved where this project was going from the beginning. Only Johnny and Mel could make what this specific album would become. A blend of art and spiritual depth that can only come through steeping in something that cannot be bypassed or faked. Kinda like the passage of time. It’s almost as if all they did was document who they are and what they go through everyday, with the colors of the relationships they had already cultivated. And let me say this, a record like this is not an easy onion to peel. It required tears. And like all albums I work on and love, at some point I hated it. You would too if you listened to the same album for about a year straight. In fact, that is considered a form of torture in some places. But after I’m done with a record, I don’t listen to it for a long while. Call it postpartum depression if you like, but I need time to forget the details of making it to come back a while later and see if I really like what was birthed. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I still hate it, and sometimes it’s a wash.

This is one of the few I adore.

The emotion and genuineness behind “Explode My Soul” and “Redemption Rain” can make me slip out of my musical-jadedness before I realized it happened. The joy behind “On the Shores” and “Wreckingball” is self evident for all the right reasons. “Love Song” is an amazing song, much less ridiculously amazing worship song. {Springsteen fasns will get it} The truth behind “Abba” can prop up the song itself. But even more that that, the overall feeling of the record is one of hope. Which for a worship album is next to impossible to do whilst singing “Empty My Soul,” but yet there is. A real cry of desperation that leaves you more filled than you were before you heard it and somehow you know that a CCLI check had nothing to do with the motivation for writing it! And maybe that’s part of it, I just can not imagine a worship leader in a mega church singing “…let heaven fall, like a wrecking ball, and crush every plan of my enemy” and me not doubling over from nausea-o-pretense.

But with Johnny… I actually believe him. And if that doesn’t spring hope in you, then what will? A couple of fun facts; the opera singer on “Faith is Rising” is a chopped up diddy from the good ole Library of Congress that took six hours to dig up and I still ended up using the melody half backwards to match a melody I heard in my head while playing the song live with Johnny in Dubai. {geez I hope she’s not singing something unbecoming in Italian}

Before you go knocking what sounds like a drum machine loop on “Earth like Heaven” you should know that the loop is actually the mic bleed from the Ooooouuuu background vocalist mc (performed by the lovely Molly Skaggs) who was singing in the same room as the drums during the tracking and ran through a tape delay whilst performing the Rhodes part in real time. Molly, “You’re a monster!” {spoken with the Gingerbread Man’s voice from Shrek}

One tambourine did in fact die in the making of the song “On the Shores” (in terms of longevity, wood tambourines make bad high hat replacements)

The choir for “Just One Drop” was recorded 5 years ago for a benefit album called “Zao Water” You should look it up.

“Threshingfloor” and “Abba” almost didn’t make the album. Heh funny.

There is what some people call “a new sound” coming to worship music. And I will tell you that the “new sound” is defined more by the hearts of the people playing it than the sound itself, but it will indeed create a new sound! And this album is on the shores of it."

The producer