Worship Radar

Lucas + Evelyn CORTAZIO.

BY CAITLIN LASSITER

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You need to be writing, first and foremost, for your people. The moment you go beyond that and start adding these expectations to something that God gave you, it’s a dangerous road.

LUCAS Lucas and Evelyn Cortazio of Community Music join us to talk about the backstory of Community Music, creating worship culture in your church, how the pandemic has changed the future of worship music, and what it’s been like to watch their song “Make Room” become an anthem for churches around the globe.

For Lucas and Evelyn Cortazio of Community Music, worship is much more than a thirty minute set list on a Sunday morning—it’s a culture, a way of life, and a constant state of living surrendered to the Father. Brazilian natives who found their way to Naperville, Illinois, the couple currently serves as songwriters and worship pastors in their local church, Community Christian Church. Several years after the release of their song “Make Room,” the declaration began to spread and find new homes in church congregations around the globe. While it’s an honor for any songwriter to watch their work impact

Something is about to break. There is a waking up to something that God is about to do, something that’s new that we haven’t experienced before. Maybe, just maybe, this season has been preparation for what’s coming.

LUCAS

lives like that, for the Community Music crew, it was never the intended result. “We started writing to create language for our local church,” Evelyn said of the heart behind the songs that come out of Community Music. With a focused goal of creating worship culture in their local church and crafting songs specific to what their people need to sing in that season, Lucas and Evelyn recognize the gift it’s been to watch this song take off, but are also quick to say it would have been just as much of a gift from God had the song never left their community.

In this conversation, Lucas and Evelyn discuss how they’ve been intentional about creating worship culture in their church, why it’s so important for songwriters to know their “why” when they step into a writing room, how the pandemic has changed the process of creating worship music, the humbling journey of “Make Room” and what it’s been like to watch such a prophetic song take on new life in the last year, and what new things Community Music has coming in 2021. The couple also discusses how they’ve experienced the faithfulness of God in their lives, what they believe the Lord is doing in the church right now, how the songs are a vehicle to creating authentic community, and what advice they feel is most impactful for worship leaders and songwriters.

BY CAITLIN LASSITER

Caitlin Lassiter is a worship leader, writer and college student with a passion for worship ministry in the church. She is currently studying worship and journalism at Trevecca Nazarene University and lives in Nashville, TN.