Paul Baloche has been writing worship songs for over 30 years, and he still describes the process the same way he always has, show up with your loaves and fishes and let God do what only He can do. The writer behind Open the Eyes of My Heart, Above All, Hosanna, and Your Name has a new live album called Yes We Believe, recorded at Christ for the Nations in Dallas with students from 50 different nations holding their home flags in the crowd.

Songwriting, the mystery of what catches on, and the prayer that started it all: Paul shares how Open the Eyes of My Heart was born out of Friday night prayer meetings, not a writing session, a cry of the heart that became a song he almost buried at track eight on the album. He also walks through how Above All sat with a different chorus for a year before a single morning with Lenny LeBlanc produced the verse that made it complete, why there is no formula for what God breathes on, and why the best advice he can give any worship leader is to stop trying to look like the YouTube version of someone else and simply be the most authentic version of who God made them to be.

Highlights

• Why Open the Eyes of My Heart was song number eight on his second album, proof he had no idea what it would become
• How Above All circulated in his church for a year with a completely different chorus before Lenny LeBlanc wrote the verse that changed everything
• Why he keeps the last page of every journal for song title ideas, and how Above All may have come from a drug commercial
• The first song he ever had sung outside his church, I Love to Be in Your Presence, which was quickly translated into Spanish and spread across Latin America
• Why a worship song, to him, is any song that feels like singing a sincere and authentic prayer to the Lord
• Why he recorded Yes We Believe at Christ for the Nations with students from 50 nations, and what it meant to see their flags in the room
• Why he tells aspiring worship leaders to be trained, skilled, and rooted in community, and above all, to be the most authentic version of themselves

Resources / Links / CTA

• 🌐 Paul Baloche website: https://leadworship.com
• 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulBaloche
• 🎵 Album: Yes We Believe
• 🌐 Integrity Music: https://www.integritymusic.com
• 🌐 Follow, share, and explore more of Crosswalk Talk
• 👉 Follow, share, and subscribe for more faith-driven conversations on Lifeaudio

Click to Listen to Signs of Life: UM News Podcast Season One | UMNews.org

Join us this Fall for Season One of "Signs of Life," an original podcast from UM News. The journey begins in Atlanta, hearing how a book from an icon of the Civil Rights movement is bringing relationship and understanding to two congregations seeking to bridge divides. Then to Belfast, learning about the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Methodist connection that was—and is—an essential part of healing and peacemaking. Finally, at the Global Young Peoples Convocation in Dublin, explore the world of translation and interpretation through diversity, language and culture.

UM News Podcast Season One | UMNews.org

Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Masey McLain was a little girl when her dad first watched Flywheel and loved it. She remembers watching him love it. Twenty years later, she got a call asking her to voice Anna, the wife, in the Brazilian remake, Flywheel: Ignition of the Soul. She said yes immediately. The challenge was matching the cadence, inflection, and emotion of an actress she had never met, in Portuguese, directed over the phone from Los Angeles while she was in Atlanta.

A movie about integrity, a breakthrough role that led to silence, and a farm with seven goats who once broke into the brand new house and turned the oven on: Masey shares what drew her to voicing Flywheel, what the film’s central message about radical obedience to Christ costs the lead character, and what it felt like when the phone stopped ringing after her breakout role as Rachel Joy Scott in I’m Not Ashamed. She also talks about the writing partner she found in COVID who is now her co-writer on Christmas movies for Candice Cameron Bure, why she believes film that changes lives outlasts film that simply entertains, and how Meredith Andrews pulled her aside and told her God was going to use the silence for something else, which is exactly what happened.

Highlights

• Why voicing a Brazilian actress in Portuguese from a studio in Atlanta with a director on the phone in LA was one of the hardest things she has done
• How her father’s love for the original Flywheel made this role feel personal before she ever said yes
• What the film says about radical obedience, putting everything on the line when God says to, even when it looks insane
• How she got her breakout role as Rachel Joy Scott in I’m Not Ashamed and still gets messages saying it changed people’s lives
• Why the phone stopped ringing after I’m Not Ashamed, what she did with that season, and how Meredith Andrews told her something she did not want to hear but needed to
• How she found her writing partner in a fellow I’m Not Ashamed actress during COVID and they have now written three Christmas movies together
• A Second Chance Christmas, her third Christmas movie for Candice Cameron Bure, now airing on Great American Family
• Seven goats, five ducks, a pony, a cat, a dog, fresh eggs every morning, and one goat who broke in and turned on the gas stove

Resources / Links / CTA

• 🌐 Masey McLain Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maseymclain
• 🎬 Flywheel: Ignition of the Soul: in theaters October 16
• 📺 A Second Chance Christmas: now airing on Great American Family
• 🌐 Follow, share, and explore more of Crosswalk Talk
• 👉 Follow, share, and subscribe for more faith-driven conversations on Lifeaudio

Click to Listen to Signs of Life: UM News Podcast Season One | UMNews.org

Join us this Fall for Season One of "Signs of Life," an original podcast from UM News. The journey begins in Atlanta, hearing how a book from an icon of the Civil Rights movement is bringing relationship and understanding to two congregations seeking to bridge divides. Then to Belfast, learning about the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Methodist connection that was—and is—an essential part of healing and peacemaking. Finally, at the Global Young Peoples Convocation in Dublin, explore the world of translation and interpretation through diversity, language and culture.

UM News Podcast Season One | UMNews.org

Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Neil McDonough plays Laredo, the man hunting the outlaw in Angel and the Bad Man, and he loves it. He is a horse guy, a lifelong western fan, a producer of now nearly sixteen films alongside his wife Ruve, and a man who says he has one boss. That boss is God, and every project he and Ruve put their names on has to be something they believe He would approve. Angel Studios, where they have a first-look deal, is where that vision has found its home.

Westerns, redemption, and why great film is supposed to make you talk after: Neil shares what drew him to this remake of the 1947 John Wayne film, why he loves playing characters who move through moral gray areas, and what it means to him that his villain Laredo gets close to redemption three-quarters of the way through the movie and then walks away from it. He also talks about why he and Ruve describe their approach as faith adjacent, amplifying light rather than preaching, and why he believes cinema is one of the last community experiences that brings people together in a room to feel something and then talk about it.

Highlights

• Why Neil immediately said yes when Angel Studios called to offer him the villain role alongside Zachary Levi and Tommy Lee Jones
• Why he loves playing morally complex characters in westerns and what the gray areas of these stories reveal about life
• How Laredo gets sympathetic three-quarters through the film before choosing not to take his moment of redemption
• Why he describes Angel Studios’ approach as faith adjacent, letting audiences find the messages rather than hammering them home
• How he and his wife Ruve have built a production company and are now producing their 15th and 16th films together
• Why he says his one boss is God and every project has to reflect that
• His upcoming slate including a film about Sister Faustina in Poland, a New York film, Rikers Ghost, and the Jimmy Stewart biopic Jimmy
• Why he believes sitting in a theater with strangers and talking about what you just watched is what cinema was always meant to be

Resources / Links / CTA

• 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neal_mcdonough
• 🎬 Angel and the Bad Man
• 🌐 Angel Studios: https://www.angel.com
• 🌐 Follow, share, and explore more of Crosswalk Talk
• 👉 Follow, share, and subscribe for more faith-driven conversations on Lifeaudio

Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.