Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music (Feat. Chris Brown & Naomi Raine) – Build Your Church

Elevation Worship is a church-led band that was created in 2007.  They join Bethel Music and Hillsong as the “big three” that has the biggest reach in modern Christian music.  They released many albums and EP’s.

They also won eight awards, including two Billboard for Top Christian Artist (2021) and Top Christian Song (Graves into Gardens, 2021), and two GMA Dove awards for Spanish Language Album of the Year (Aleluya (En La Tierra), 2020) and Worship Recorded Song of the Year (The Blessing (Live), 2020).

Also, check out my other Elevation Worship reviews. 

To put it succinctly, Maverick City Music is the audience on stage.  Recently, they have collaborated with other artists such as Elevation Worship, Chandler Moore, and Brandon lake to produce music.

They released seven EP’s and eight albums, including:

• Maverick City Vol. 1 EP (2019)
• Maverick City Vol. 2 EP (2019)
• Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 1 (2020)
• Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 2 (2020)
• You Hold It All Together (EP, 2020)
• Maverick City Christmas (EP, 2020)
• Move Your Heart (EP, 2021)
• Jubilee (EP, 2021)
• Como En El Cielo (Spanish, 2021)
• Old Church Basement (with Elevation Worship, 2021)
• Jubilee: Juneteenth Edition (2021)
• Tribl I (with Tribl, 2021)
• Venga Tu Reino (2021)
• A Very Maverick Christmas (2021)
• Breathe (EP, 2022)

They won three awards last year, including one Billboard Music Award for Top Gospel Album for their album Maverick City Vol. 3 Part 1 and two GMA Doves: New Artist of the Year and Worship Album of the Year (Old Church Basement).

Also, check out my previous Maverick City Music reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Elevation-worship-and-maverick-city-music-build-your-church-lyrics.

Side Note: For the remainder of this review, I will refer to Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music as “Elevation & Maverick”.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.  I strongly encourage you to consider this artist’s theology’s potential blessings and dangers by visiting Resources.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Jesus, who died and rose again, is the foundation of our church, where Satan’s attacks will not prevail.  Though we the body of Christ have the authority to bind and loose or establish/enforce church rules and regulations consistent with Scripture (I spend a LOT of words on this in section 2), sharing the Gospel with others does not come from that.  Thus, Elevation & Maverick failed to share a Gospel that flows from binding/loosing, but intends to succeed to tell others about jesus.

Elevation & Maverick pray that Christ will continue to build His church, using us to accomplish His goal.

Side Note: To those annoyed by massive repetition, Post-Chorus essentially repeats the same line 14 times in a row, along with Bridge’s first two lines ten times, and Interlude (2) with the first line 13 times, with another repeated two-line phrase appearing three times in-between.

Score: 8/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Almost all of it agrees with Scripture, except for their claim that Gospel proclamation is a direct result of binding/loosing, which will inevitably result in failure.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: The chief cornerstone on a wall is the foundation by which all other stones orient.  In the same way, Jesus is the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20-22, and 1 Peter 2:7); the foundation by which our church orients (Deuteronomy 32:4, 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 22:47, Psalm 18:31, Psalm 28:1, Psalm 62:2, Psalm 94:22, Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 7:24-27, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:19, and 1 Peter 2:6).

Lines 3 and 4: Draws from Jesus’ Parable of Two Foundations (Matthew 7:24-27) to describe foundations apart from Christ.  They will crumble.

[Chorus]

Lines 1-3: Quotes from bits of Matthew 16:18-19.  While many people believe that Peter is the rock by which the church is founded (particularly Roman Catholics), Elevation & Maverick places it directly after declaring Jesus as the foundation.  Which is it, Peter or Jesus?

I don’t go into long explanations in my Berean Test reviews, but in this case, I think it’s necessary in order to answer three important questions posed by Elevation & Maverick’s line, “When we bind and loose, we proclaim Your truth”  These questions are:

1. What is binding and loosing?
2. Do we as believers have the authority to bind and loose today?
3. How does proclaiming God’s truth outflow from binding and loosing?

Binding and loosing means to declare something forbidden or allowed.  This rite was given to the Twelve Apostles and Paul, exampled in Acts 15:1-31 and the Epistles in the New Testament.  However, such binding and loosing should agree with the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus to carry out the will of God.  This also includes church discipline, as stated in Matthew 18:15-20.

Given all the passages I stated in Verse 1, it seems difficult to believe that Christ would hand over His foundationalship (my word) to a mere man, Peter.  Yes, Peter was instrumental (dare I say, foundational) in spreading the Gospel of Jesus to others, as recorded in the book of Acts.  However, so were the other Apostles, including Paul.  Thus, the early church fathers are “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5); little stones (petros) that orient themselves around the chief cornerstone (petra), which is Christ.  The rock by which Jesus builds His church is Himself (see Got Questions article).

While there’s much division on this issue, particularly on the Roman Catholic position that only the Pope has this authority and amongst Protestants on cessation/continuance of this, my view is that:

1. The Pope does not have singular authority to bind and loose.  Although there was a replacement of the Apostle Judas in Acts 1, one of the requirements is that they must be an eyewitness from John’s baptism to Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1:21-22).  Nobody today qualifies.
2. While I agree that Apostolic Succession is part of Early Church Father tradition (see Catholic article on Apostolic Succession), I noticed that the position “Bishop” is in the plural, not the singular.  This includes Linus, who according to Irenaeus in his book Against Heresies (see Book III, Chapter 3) is given the office “episcopate” (or Bishop), the alleged “second Pope” of the Roman Catholic Church.  Yet, there’s nothing in Scripture that necessitates successors in this capacity.  Yes, one could argue that these Bishops are leadership changes that aren’t different from a local congregation where a pastor retires and another one succeeds him.  I’m fine with that.  I don’t agree that an unbroken chain from the Apostleship is necessary for leaders to bind/loose in terms of congregational rules and regulations.
3. Lay Christians can borrow from the principles of Matthew 18:15-20 to bind/loose in terms of church discipline, resulting in unrepentant Christians who either repent or declared an unbeliever.  However, church leaders have the authority to set congregational rules and regulations consistent with Scripture.  There’s no limitation on who the “two or more” are, whether lay Christians or church leaders.

This answers our second question: yes, we have the authority to bind/loose in the sense of church discipline.

While elevation states that proclaiming God’s truth of the Gospel (contextualized by Verse 2) flows from their binding/loosing, this expression isn’t found anywhere in Scripture.  It’s more about establishing rules and regulations in the church than preaching the good news of Christ to those who don’t know Him.

Line 4: Fail to do what?  Proclaim His truth from their binding/loosing?  If so, then since preaching the Gospel doesn’t flow from binding/loosing, their efforts will result in failure.  However, if “failure” means failing to proclaim God’s Word to others, then Elevation & Maverick won’t allow that to happen.

Line 5: Combines parts of line 4 with a call to Casper the friendly ghost.

Line 6: Further evidence that Elevation & Maverick believe that Jesus builds His church.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1 and 2: Jesus died by crucifixion, paying for the captivity of our lawbreaking and holding it hostage (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15-26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9).  he also resurrected (Matthew 28:1-20, Mark 16:1-20, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-29, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8).  The phrase “it is finished” comes from the word “Tetelestai”, which means, “paid in full” (John 19:30).

Line 3: That is, the keys to the Kingdom of God (Matthew 16:19).  As part of the Great Commission, we are to make disciples of all nations by telling them about Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20).

Line 4: As stated in Romans 8:17, Galatians 4:7, Titus 3:7, Hebrews 6:17, and James 2:5, we are co-heirs with Christ, with Him as the supreme authority and glorification.

[Post-Chorus]

Lines 1-14: Essentially repeats Chorus, line 4.

Line 15: No.

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: Elevation & Maverick prays that God will continue to further His Kingdom (See Chorus, line 6).

Line 3-20: Essentially repeats line 2.

[Interlude (1)]

Line 1: Repeats part or Bridge, line 1.

Lines 2 and 3: Elevation & Maverick are confident that God is powerful (Genesis 1:1-31, Job 11:7-11, Psalm 33:6, Jeremiah 32:17, Romans 4:17, Hebrews 1:3, and Jude 1:24-25).

Lines 4 and 5: That is, to proclaim the good news of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).

Line 6: Repeats line 5.

Line 7: Indeed, the Kingdom of God is larger than one person or group.  It consists of many nations, tribes, and tongues (Revelation 7:9).

Line 8: Repeats line 7.

Lines 9 and 10: Borrows from Romans 10:14-15, which itself borrows from Isaiah 52:7.

Lines 11-15: Repeats lines 9 and 10.

Lines 16 and 17: Elevation & Maverick encourage us to follow suit, that we would proclaim the good news about Jesus to everyone.

Lines 18 and 19: Repeats lines 16 and 17.

[Interlude (2)]

Lines 1-17: Either essentially repeats Chorus, line 3, or Interlude, lines 16 and 17.

[Outro]

Lines 1 and 2: Essentially repeats Interlude (1), lines 9 and 10.

Lines 3 and 4: Essentially repeats Interlude (1), line 16.

Score: 8/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will conclude that Christians believe:

• Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith, who builds His church.
• All other foundations will lead to ruin.
• Jesus died on the cross and rose again, giving Christians authority to tell others.

I’m not confident that they will understand binding/loosing or in what sense Christians will not “fail”.

Score: 7/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that Elevation & Maverick proclaim the Gospel, Jesus as the foundation for faith, and that we should do our part to further God’s Kingdom, they are incorrect that proclaiming the good news about Jesus results from binding/loosing.

Score: 8/10

Closing Comments

Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music’s Build Your Church is decent.  It elevates Jesus as the chief cornerstone and foundation of Christianity, whom He builds His church and the gates of hell will not prevail, bringing Him glory.  Though He gives us authority and commandment to proclaim His Gospel to the nations, it does not come from binding/loosing.  Unbelievers should come to similar conclusions, though likely not understanding the meaning of binding/loosing.

If you’re considering this for corporate worship, remove the word “when” from “When we bind and loose, we proclaim Your truth”.  This breaks the connection between binding/loosing and proclaiming God’s truth, meaning that they can operate separately.

Final Score: 8/10

Artist Info

Track: Build Your Church (listen to the song)

Artist: Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music (Feat. Chris Brown & Naomi Raine)

Album: Old Church Basement

Genre: Gospel

Release Year: 2021

Duration: 9:12

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.