Elevation Worship set to bring night of exuberant worship to Nashville's Ryman Auditorium

Chris Brown, leader of the Christian worship band Elevation Worship , said massive tours and stacks of awards, ranging from K-Love and Dove awards (including nine nods this year) to a Grammy and two Billboard Music Awards, was never the intention of the team that began writing songs together a decade ago.

"We started writing songs to sing in our church on Sundays, but for years, we didn't sing most of the songs we were writing because we were just cutting our teeth," Brown told The Tennessean.

But they kept writing and have just released their 17th album, "When Wind Meets Fire."

Despite the awards and the sold-out crowds across the entire tour, Elevation Worship still leads worship at Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, most Sundays. That regular schedule prompted the team to amp up their writing so that churchgoers could have new music more often.

"Some artists might release an album every two or three years, and it's got 12 songs on it," Brown said. "We can't really do that because there's 52 weeks in the year and our people show up every weekend. So for us, there's a little bit of a drive to sing a new song."

Bringing worship to Nashville's Mother Church

The group will close out their current tour on Monday at the Ryman Auditorium , a venue they are very familiar with but have never played before.

"We are ecstatic," Brown said. "We're thrilled. There's obviously a lot of excitement around your final show, and it will be really nice to be playing the Ryman at the end, too, because we'll know good and well what we're doing by that point. Hopefully, it feels like just good community and a cool night."

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Brown said he and the band have friends in Nashville, so he's tying to figure out if he wants to bring some different friends on stage for the night. He said although he doesn't know what the night will look like, the opportunity is there.

"That's the beauty of being in Nashville," he said. "When you go see a show, you just never know who might pop on stage and that makes it fun."

Changing the face of worship

Worship was once singing hymns quietly in church with hymnal in hand, but it has evolved into a full-blown party with electric guitars, drums, clapping, dancing and singing at the top of your lungs thanks to Elevation and other touring worship bands such as Maverick City Music , along with Christian artists like Brandon Lake who have helped elevate the worship landscape.

"We've all been completely changed by Jesus' resurrection and his salvation work in us," Brown said. "As a result, why wouldn't we want to shout about that? Why wouldn't we want to be excited about that? As crazy as the world is, there is a hope and you can feel free and not caught up in anxiety."

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com , on X @HurtMelonee or Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Elevation Worship set to bring night of exuberant worship to Nashville's Ryman Auditorium