The flagship campus of Gateway Church was unusually active for a Friday evening on May 24, 2024. Camera operators zipped back and forth throughout the 4,000-seat auditorium in Southlake, Texas. An enthusiastic crowd buzzed with energy in front of the main platform, which was packed with vocalists, instrumentalists and a choir of worship staff from Gateway’s 10 campuses (nine of which are located across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex). For more than two hours, thousands of voices erupted in a thunderous offering of praise as 12 brand-new, homegrown songs came to life in real time. A live album was born.
But just three weeks later, whether that album would ever be released became uncertain.
On June 14, shocking news came to light that shook Gateway Church to its core. A flurry of narratives swirled in local media as the church suddenly found itself without its senior founding pastor or clear direction for its future. Plans that were well underway for the remainder of the year came to a grinding halt–including a rollout for the freshly minted album.
Launched on Easter Sunday in 2000, Gateway Church has a long history of writing and releasing original music through Gateway Worship, a collective of worship staff and writers who call Gateway home. Former members include several beloved Air1 artists, such as Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes. A few years ago, Gateway Worship–as well as its publishing arm, Gateway Music–entered a new era with a double-album recording that yielded songs like “Crowns Down” and “Who Else,” the latter of which has reached far beyond the walls of Gateway.
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While new to many, “Who Else” has been on regular rotation in Gateway services for the better part of three years–but it continues to feel fresh in spite of its familiarity. Penned by Abbie Gamboa, Josiah Funderburk and Zac Rowe, the Scripture-laced song was unique from its inception.
Rowe recalls the day “Who Else” was written with visible emotion: “Sometimes there are those songwriting sessions where, while it’s happening, you realize that the Lord is giving you a gift. ‘Who Else’ felt like that from the beginning. I think there are certain phrases that, in the deepest part of us, we know we were born to sing. We were born to give that praise to the worthy One.”
“If your local church loves the song, then that should be the first sign that maybe there’s something on this,” shares Gateway Church Executive Pastor of Worship Mark Harris. “[The song is] not new information, but it does say something in a new way because the chorus both asks and answers the same question.”
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The May 2024 recording was intended to bring forth an album that would build upon its two predecessors, both of which were released in 2023. Gateway Worship had written dozens of songs since then–melodies and lyrics they were eager to bring to the Lord at their respective campuses. The group hoped the songs would bring healing and breakthrough; what they didn’t anticipate, however, was those songs becoming battle cries in a time of trial.
Soon after the news broke, Harris recalls Gateway’s head elder declaring that worship would “lead the way” through the most difficult season the church had experienced in its nearly 25-year history. Still, the future of the live album remained to be seen. A sobering question circulated in meetings: “Will people want to listen to what Gateway has to say right now?” But while attending a worship conference a few months into the crisis, Harris was advised by a pastor whose church had recently walked through a similar season.
“They told me, ‘When everything fell apart, we stopped writing, recording and releasing,’” Harris recounts. “‘That was a mistake. We should have continued to release what the Lord was doing. Don’t let what just happened silence the songs of the church. Let the songs of the church tell the story of what God is doing there, not just the secular media.’”
That was a pivotal moment for Gateway Worship. In order for worship to “lead the way,” practical changes were implemented. Services that had previously centered around the speaker’s message now shifted the emphasis on to worship. Time allotted for setlists was extended, and the response was overwhelming. A revival of worship began to break out across Gateway, and the songs from the live recording became its soundtrack.
After a year of experiencing its impact internally, the album–dubbed “Greatly To Be Praised” after the track co-led by Leeland and Jessie Harris–was released into the world on April 4, 2025.
“God gave us [the new songs] before we knew we were going to go through this,” says Harris. “They’re songs that we’ve been able to put into the mouths of the people that go to Gateway to say, declare this. This is the way we make it through.”
Rowe adds: “You could almost insert ‘still’ in front of the title – ‘Still Greatly To Be Praised.’”
In the absence of a senior leader, Gateway appointed notable speakers Max Lucado and Joakim Lundqvist as interim pastors while the elders conducted a nationwide search for a permanent replacement. That search recently concluded with the selection of Daniel Floyd, senior founding pastor of Virginia-based Lifepoint Church, for the role. And while this marks a significant milestone in its healing journey, Gateway Church is in a process of restoration.
“For all of us, on some level, there’s been a reckoning in our own hearts of, ‘What do I really believe?” Rowe shares. “What do I need to sing whenever it feels like institutions and big names are shaken? Everything else is stripped away, and what you’re left with are the things that are real. There’s been a realignment and a return to simplicity that the Church overall has gone through, but especially Gateway Church.”
Even in the midst of deep disappointment and hurt, a resilience has formed in the people of Gateway that echoes Isaiah 40:31: “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” As Gateway Church continues to humbly move forward in that strength, so does Gateway Worship.
“Never underestimate what God can do with something that’s broken,” says Harris.
Looking forward, Rowe shares his hopes for the future of Gateway as a whole:
“My hope would be that Gateway Church would continue to look at Jesus and not look away; that all people who hear these songs would be pointed to Jesus; that there would be a purity and a singularity of focus that would point people to the One who is worthy; that the songs from this house, and the house itself, would continue to be marked by the presence of God, to the glory of Jesus Christ forever.”
