CityAlight is a music ministry from a church in Castle Hill, Sydney, called St. Paul’s Castle Hill. The vision of CityAlight is to write songs with biblically rich lyrics and simple melodies for the Christian church to sing. We’re very pleased to admit there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking in what we do. There’s nothing especially new or unique or fashionable. We’re not on the forefront of anything and don’t pretend to be. (It’s probably better to be three hundred years out of date than three…)
Most churches around the world aren’t large. Some figures tell us that the average number in Australia is about 70. That means these are churches without large music teams or complicated sound equipment. These are churches with one guitar, or no guitar, one organ, one trombone, two singers – something like that. And we want to partner with those faithful congregations. Our vision is to resource them with simple songs. There is nothing on earth like the sound of a church singing, big or small, ancient or modern, skilled or not. The sound of a church singing has preceded almost every great revival in church history. The church is God’s witness and representative on earth. And is there any wonder that a tremendous power comes about when the representative voice of God in the earth is singing?
We have been writing songs together for about five years. The band isn’t fixed. It’s made up of whoever is available when the request comes in! We really see ourselves as a local church, first of all writing for our people, and also praying that God might take these songs out to any of His churches that might be helped by them.