There’s a line from CityAlight’s new EP that perfectly sums up the greatest hope of its members and the wider church of St Paul’s, Castle Hill: “So may all I do, be it great or small, bring glory to your name”.

The song, “My Labour Is Not In Vain”, is one of five tracks on the live EP, Hear the Hallelujahs Roar, which was released at the end of last month. “We pitched to our songwriters a brief at the end of 2023 for our next season of writing,” says CityAlight’s chief operating officer, Rich Vassallo. “That is, we want to lift our eyes to God in worship so we can then be looking out to the world with his perspective.”

The EP continues the music ministry’s practice of creating highly singable songs for congregational worship that run the gamut from joy to pain – but, most essentially, hold fast to the word of God, its promises, our hope in Jesus and our future with him in eternity. 

And while CityAlight’s success has grown enormously, here and overseas, Castle Hill rector the Rev Bruce Stanley says it’s important for people to understand that the focus of the ministry is to equip and bless God’s church. 

“The whole team wants that; the whole church wants that,” he says. “All the musicians are volunteers. When they go on tour, they’re in school holidays or going on leave to serve. They’re not employed. They want to see [any success] go into investing what we’re doing with songwriting to serve the wider church.” 

Growth in Asia

Vassallo says the CityAlight team has particularly felt God moving them to give of their time and skills in Asia. 

“We see the commercial church music world investing a lot in the Spanish language and South America, and so it would be very easy for us to jump on that boat as well, because all the elements are in place,” he says. “Yet Asia is our part of the world, and we see a real need for our neighbours in Asia. So, we’re looking for a way to do that and these doors have opened up for us.”

The doors he mentions have opened especially wide in Singapore, where a group of churches invited the team to visit two years ago. 

During a worship night held during CityAlight’s stay – which was also an opportunity to share about the work of International Justice Mission – they brought out Christie Kwek from Redemption Hill Church in Singapore, who led the 5000-strong crowd in a Mandarin translation of “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me”.

“It was just a magical time in the room,” Vassallo says. “People were falling to their knees in there because of what it meant to them to worship in their heart language. It was just a really moving moment, particularly for us from the West. We’d known that people were singing our songs in different places, but it was an amazing point of unity to hear them glorifying God in their own language.”

The song has now been recorded in Mandarin, and on CityAlight’s next Singapore visit in July four more songs will join it: “God Is For Us”, “Only A Holy God”, “Jesus Strong and Kind” and “There Is One Gospel”.

Says Kwek: “When I talk to friends who are bilingual, who already know CityAlight songs in English and love them, they’re really excited that when the songs are translated, they can share these really rich songs with their purely Chinese-speaking friends and know that they can also have that same impact, or receive the same kind of level of [understanding].”

She hopes that, under God, more people will come to know Christ through these increased resources and the ongoing ministry connection with CityAlight. “I also hope that the churches in Singapore can really see the unity [and] the good things that can come out of being united as a global church, working together – working for one cause.”

Adds Vassallo: God has opened doors for us through the writing and performing of songs, but we are very mission minded about how we can invest in the local churches to grow, develop and do that work themselves. 

“If we fall into the background, we’re happy with that. It isn’t about boosting our streaming numbers in Singapore! Our goal is to come alongside them, see what they need, see if we can offer service and help them get movement in the area of songwriting, so that one day they’re giving their songs into the big global melting pot of worship – because it will bless the Western churches to have their voices there as well.”