Dove Award-Winning Singer Jonathan McReynolds to Drop Sophomore Album ‘Life Music: Stage Two’ Featuring India Arie, Warryn Campbell

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Dove Award-Winning Singer Jonathan McReynolds to Drop Sophomore Album ‘Life Music: Stage Two’ Featuring India Arie, Warryn Campbell

Jonathan McReynolds (Photo: Courtesy/Brydge Media Collective)

Christian Post Report – Dove award-winning singer Jonathan McReynolds will release his sophomore album “Life Music: Stage Two,” on Friday Sept. 18, 2015.

Nearly three years after making his mark on the Gospel music scene with “Life Music,” Stellar Award-nominated singer, Jonathan McReynolds, is gearing up for the release of his sophomore album “Life Music: Stage Two.”

“I wrote my first album as a college student. This second album, as a college teacher,” the “Pressure” singer said in a statement on Tuesday. “My life has changed — different pressures, more revelation, more musical ideas. The one thing that hasn’t: my approach to songwriting. Still aiming to be transparent and genuine. Message first.”

The Chicago native, known for his pensive lyrics and soulful sound, teamed up with big names including India Arie, Warryn Campbell, PJ Morton and Derek Minor for the highly anticipated album. The project infuses acoustic, gospel and pop sounds and features his hit singles “Gotta Have You” and “Pressure.”

The Dove award-nominated artist will drop “Life Music: Stage Two” on September 18, the day after his 26th birthday.

McReynolds previously spoke with The Christian Post about working with Campbell, an acclaimed music producer, on his lead single “Gotta Have You,” which continues to receive airplay across national radio stations.

“It was incredible, he’s a legend, he’s absolutely a machine. I didnt know how he was going to do it and he just did it with great ease and quickness,” McReynolds told CP.

“That song, we were able to put it together very quickly. It was the quickest, easiest song I’ve ever done in my entire life … the process was quicker than any process I’ve ever had. I’ve heard many artists say that sometimes the song that takes the littlest amount of time are sometimes the best songs you ever do. It was very fun and a great, creative experience and great to learn from the best.”

His song “Pressure,” which he performed at at the Stellar Awards earlier this year, previously landed at number 2 on iTunes Christian/Gospel Charts. McReynolds shared why he believes the song has resonated with his fans.

“… It’s transparent, it’s genuine, it’s an actual experience for Christians,” he said. “This is not music that I just kind of make up and imagine or fantasize about, its like a diary/journal to music. So I pray that when people hear it, they say at the very least ‘man I’m glad that someone else feels that way too.”

Source : Christian Post

U.S. Women’s Soccer Team World Cup Champion Thanks God for Win; New York City Thanks Team With Massive Parade (Photos)

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U.S. Women’s Soccer Team World Cup Champion Thanks God for Win; New York City Thanks Team With Massive Parade (Photos)

Tobin Heath (Photo: Reuters)

Christian Post Report – United States midfielder Tobin Heath (17) drives the ball against Japan midfielder Aya Miyama (8) in the first half of the final of the FIFA 2015 Women’s World Cup at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on July 5, 2015.

One member of the World Cup Winning U.S. Women’s soccer team regularly thanked God on her Twitter account during their road to the championship and acknowledged Him after their win in the Finals against Japan this past Sunday.

Tobin Heath, 27, a two-time Olympic gold medalist is a professing Christian that acknowledged God several times on Twitter this year, and even lists the scripture verse Ephesians 2: 8-9 in her description on her account.

“WWC FINAL!!!!!,” tweeted Heath on July 5 after winning the championship game.

Heath thanked God at least three other times in the month of June alone on Twitter. She also shared a tweet from Florida VOUS Church pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. early on Friday that seems to address her relationship with her teammates.

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Championship Parade in New York City (Photo: Vincent Funaro/ The Christian Post)

The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Championship Parade in New York City took place on July 10, 2015.

 “Life is really all about the people you spend it with,” said Wilkerson.

Heath scored one of the goals in the team’s 5-2 win over Japan in the championship game on Sunday. The game was the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history.

The World Cup winner discussed her relationship with Christ and others in an interview with BeliefNet in 2011.

“It’s more than just winning or losing. There are so many relationships that go deeper than that. He has a plan in it all. You have to trust that… Everybody wants to be winners – you have to trust that God has a greater plan for this even when you can’t see it,” said Heath.

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Championship Parade in New York City (Photo: Vincent Funaro/ The Christian Post)

The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team championship parade in New York City took place on July 10, 2015.

 “My platform might be a little bigger than someone else’s, but everyone has a purpose. For me, that purpose in my life right now is soccer. There’s a cool, personal testimony that goes along with it. You spend so much time with your teammates in environments where they see how you live. It’s one of the coolest ways to just love people,” continued Heath.

Heath joined her 22 other teammates for a special ticker tape parade to celebrate the U.S. women’s soccer team World Cup win in New York City on Friday morning.

“WOW NYC YOU ROCK!,” wrote Heath on Twitter this morning.

Their squad is the first women’s sports team in history to be given a parade in lower Manhattan in the city’s famed Canyon of Heroes which has been graced by the likes of the New York Yankees, Giants and Rangers.

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Championship Parade in New York City (Photo: Vincent Funaro/ The Christian Post)

The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Championship parade in New York City took place on July 10, 2015.

The last time female athletes paraded down the Canyon of Heroes was in 1984, when gold medalists Mary Lou Retton and Cheryl Miller joined other U.S. medal winners after the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“This is a huge moment not just for women’s soccer but soccer in general,” said Greg Lalas, a former U.S. soccer defender and editor-in-chief of MLSsoccer.com to CNN. “I don’t know of a ticker-tape parade for soccer at all… It’s amazing what this team did to really bring this entire nation together – not just for women’s soccer but soccer in general.”

The team was greeted by thousands of New Yorkers lined up along Broadway, in lower Manhattan.

Floats carried the players, who were showered with confetti from nearby buildings, from Battery Park to City Hall. The parade was capped off by a rally to celebrate the team’s win.

The parade reportedly cost $2 million and was mostly funded by New York City. $450,000 came from private donors.

Contact: [email protected]; follow me on Twitter @vinfunaro

Source : Christian Post

Franklin Graham Says Christians Are ‘Suffering Beyond Belief’ in South Sudan’s Civil War: the ‘Whole Region Is on Fire With Bloodshed’

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Franklin Graham Says Christians Are ‘Suffering Beyond Belief’ in South Sudan’s Civil War: the ‘Whole Region Is on Fire With Bloodshed’

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  • Sudan(Photo: Reuters/Stringer)
Illegal immigrants who were abandoned by traffickers in a remote desert area wait inside a military base in Dongola town, after being located by Sudanese and Libyan forces, May 3, 20Christian Post Report – 14. The desert area between Sudan and Libya is a major route for illegal immigrants trying to escape Sudan’s war-torn regions, with many of them transiting in Libya before trying to flee to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.
  • South Sudanese fleeing an attack on the town of Rank rest upon arrival at a border gate in Joda, along the Sudanese border, on April <b>Christian Post Report</b> – 18.” title=”South Sudanese fleeing an attack on the town of Rank rest upon arrival at a border gate in Joda, along the Sudanese border, on April <b>Christian Post Report</b> – 18.” src=”http://images.christianpost.com/full/8489<b>Christian Post Report</b> – 1/south-sudanese-fleeing-an-attack-on-the-town-of-rank-rest-upon-arrival-at-a-border-gate-in-joda-along-the-sudanese-border-on-april-<b>Christian Post Report</b> – 18.jpg?w=6<b>Christian Post Report</b> – 15″ class=”imgPhoto” width=”6<b>Christian Post Report</b> – 15″ /> <div class=(Photo: Reuters)
    • South Sudanese fleeing an attack on the town of Rank rest upon arrival at a border gate in Joda, along the Sudanese border, on April Christian Post Report – 18.
  • Sudan(Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)
    • A southern Sudanese man wears a T-shirt reading, “Vote For Your Freedom,” as he holds up a cross during a Christmas Eve procession in Juba, December 24, 20Christian Post Report – 10. The referendum on southern independence was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war and analysts have warned disagreements over the vote could reignite conflict.
  • Sudan(Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)
    • Ishtyyag, Christian Post Report – 1Christian Post Report – 1, holds a 4-month-old baby girl whom she says is her child, is pictured inside the Center for Training and Protection of Women and Child’s Rights in Khartoum, Sudan, October Christian Post Report – 12, 20Christian Post Report – 14. Ishtyyag was married when she was Christian Post Report – 10 and is now divorced.
  • Sudanese refugees(Photo: Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
    • A migrant shouts a slogan as he wears a Tee Shirt with the message, “Open The Way” as he stands on the seawall at the Saint Ludovic border crossing on the Mediterranean Sea between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France, June Christian Post Report – 14, 20Christian Post Report – 15. On Saturday, some 200 migrants, principally from Eritrea and Sudan who attempted to cross the border, were blocked by Italian police and French gendarmes.

    The Rev. Franklin Graham noted Thursday that the country of South Sudan marked its fourth independence day since it separated from the Republic of Sudan, but warned that people caught in the ongoing civil war that has torn the nation apart are “suffering beyond belief.” Some shocking reports from the war have shared stories of children burned alive, or castrated and left to die.

    “I was there when this new nation was born, but sadly their stability and peace was short-lived. Now a civil war is raging, and it is largely instigated by Sudan in the north,” Graham said in a Facebook message.

    He pointed to a recent article in the The New York Times that reported on a number of the personal tales of daily struggles and death that South Sudanese people face, and said that the horror of these stories “will open” people’s eyes.

    Among the many tragic stories reported by the Times’ Nicholas Kristof stand out a few particularly gruesome accounts in which South Sudan government soldiers reportedly tied up Christian Post Report – 15 children belonging to a single father. The father said he watched his children placed in a grass hut, which the soldiers torched and burned his family alive.

    Another man said he witnessed three young boys, aged 3 to 7, castrated alive by government soldiers, and left to bleed to death. The same man said he also saw two infants bludgeoned by soldiers against a tree in a separate incident.

    Graham, who leads humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, which has been active in Sudan for over 20 years, called on President Omar al-Bashir “to put a stop to his military’s violence and brutality against their own people.”

    “I also call on him to open the areas of the Nuba Mountains and the Southern Blue Nile for humanitarian assistance. These people are suffering beyond belief, and on top of that they are being bombed by their own government,” he added.

    “The continued fighting in Nuba and Blue Nile is destabilizing all of northeast Africa and devastating South Sudan — the whole region is on fire with bloodshed.”

    Kristof and Graham both called on President Barack Obama to make the civil war in South Sudan a top priority issue during his visit to Africa later in July.

    While the U.S. has donated $Christian Post Report – 1.Christian Post Report – 1 billion in aid to South Sudan since 20Christian Post Report – 13, Kristof argued that what is most needed is hands-on diplomacy to broker in a peace deal.

    Bashir’s government is also known for persecuting Christians under its strict interpretation of Shariah law, and has been charged by the International Criminal Court with committing war crimes.

    Sudan’s president is accused of committing crimes against humanity and genocide in the ongoing war in Darfur in Sudan, which has led to over 300,000 deaths since 2003.

    Source : Christian Post