A No. 1 record can create momentum. It can also create expectations.

For Sean Rodriguez, the success of “It Is Finished” featuring Disciple could have provided an obvious blueprint for what came next. The song’s collision of rock and rap-influenced vocals connected powerfully at Christian rock radio, spending 10 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Christian Music Weekly’s Rock chart. It remained in the Top 5 for 18 consecutive weeks, the Top 10 for 23 and the Top 20 for 32.

Instead of trying to recreate it, Rodriguez used the momentum to show listeners another side of his music.

That progression comes into sharper focus with the September 25 release of the Just Like God EP through WieRok Records.

Just Like God – Sean Rodriguez

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The three-track project surrounds Rodriguez’s January single “Just Like God” with two previously unreleased songs, “God Is On My Side” and “The Day He Made.” All three reflect a more accessible Christian AC and contemporary Christian direction that has increasingly become central to Rodriguez’s music.

That direction first became apparent when “Just Like God” arrived January 23.

Co-written and produced with GRAMMY and Dove Award-winning producer Seth Mosley and mixed by Michael “X” O’Connor, the song was notably different from the harder sound many listeners associated with Rodriguez following “It Is Finished.”

The distinction was intentional.

Rodriguez and his team launched an extended Christian AC radio campaign behind the single, introducing him to programmers outside the rock format. Approximately six months later, “Just Like God” had earned rotation on 20 stations nationwide and peaked at No. 51 on Mediabase.

Rather than move immediately to an unrelated release, the new EP builds directly upon that foundation.

Its focus track, “God Is On My Side,” takes a simple declaration and surrounds it with circumstances that make the declaration matter.

There are hills too big to climb. Waves continue rising. Lions wait. Goliath stands in the way.

Rodriguez’s answer is not that those obstacles are imaginary or insignificant.

He smiles.

“And when they ask why I’ll say / God is on my side.”

The song draws on recognizable biblical imagery while keeping its application firmly in the present. Its confidence is not rooted in the idea that believers are strong enough to handle everything placed in front of them. Instead, it points repeatedly toward the character of God.

“Who spoke the storms to peace? / Who has the healing hand?” Rodriguez asks.

Later, the perspective turns outward: “What’s your mountain? / Watch Him move it / What’s your challenge? / Watch Him use it.”

Long before its September release, that message was being tested in the environment for which it seems naturally suited: a live audience.

“God Is On My Side” became a set-list staple throughout Rodriguez’s extensive 2026 touring season and developed into a crowd favorite at Christian festivals around the country.

The EP’s other new track has an even more established role in those shows.

“The Day He Made” has opened them.

Inspired by Psalm 118:24, the song begins with the realization that waking up to another day is itself something worth celebrating.

“I woke up to forgiveness / A breath of brand new life,” Rodriguez sings.

The song’s origin traces back to a Christian music festival where Rodriguez performed in front of more than 15,000 people. Afterward, he began reflecting on the journey that had brought him to that moment and on the stories of God’s faithfulness he heard from others that day.

Rather than becoming a song about career achievement, the experience led Rodriguez toward gratitude.

“The Day He Made” treats redemption as a victory rather than a source of shame. Yesterday contains lessons. Tomorrow requires faith. Today represents another opportunity to live in the grace already received.

That perspective has made the track a fitting way for Rodriguez to begin his live performances throughout 2026.

Both new songs reunite Rodriguez with Mosley as co-writer and producer and O’Connor as mixer, continuing the creative team established on “Just Like God.”

There is also a notable reversal in how these songs have reached listeners.

Normally, a song is written, recorded and released before an artist discovers whether it works live.

For much of Just Like God, the live audience came first.

Festival crowds have already heard “The Day He Made” open the show. They have already responded to “God Is On My Side.” The September 25 release now gives those songs a permanent recorded home.

That road-testing occurred during Rodriguez’s most expansive touring season yet.

His touring footprint has grown steadily across 2024, 2025 and 2026, with this year bringing his greatest number of headline-stage appearances at major Christian music festivals.

His profile within the wider Christian music industry has also grown. Rodriguez appeared at NRB in both 2025 and 2026 and performed at CMB Momentum this year as the “Just Like God” campaign continued introducing him to Christian radio.

Immediately ahead of the EP release, Rodriguez extended that radio outreach internationally with a two-week promotional tour in Australia.

Viewed together, those developments make Just Like God something more useful than a stylistic pivot.

It helps fill in the picture.

“It Is Finished” remains an important part of Rodriguez’s identity and an undeniable part of his recent breakthrough. It showed how naturally his energetic performance style and rap-influenced delivery could work within Christian rock.

But Rodriguez’s ambitions were never limited to reproducing that one sound.

“Just Like God” opened a door into Christian AC. “The Day He Made” demonstrates the joyful, accessible side of his songwriting. “God Is On My Side” combines that accessibility with the kind of bold declaration that has always suited Rodriguez onstage.

There is a throughline connecting all of them: conviction.

The production may change. The radio format may change. But Rodriguez remains most recognizable when the song gives him something he can say without reservation.

On Just Like God, that conviction is distilled into three straightforward ideas: God remains faithful, another day is worth celebrating, and an impossible circumstance does not get the final word.

After several years of increasingly larger stages and wider radio exposure, Rodriguez is not narrowing his identity around the sound that first broke through.

He is widening it.

A winding road through career and personal highs, lows and everything in between has carried songwriter and dynamic vocalist Rachel Purcell back home creatively. The Muscle Shoals, AL native offers listeners hope on her Keep Going EP.

Keep Going – Rachel Purcell

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The new music follows a devastating miscarriage and medical emergency that nearly took Purcell’s life. Holding on to her faith while finding support through therapy and from others, she began a journey of healing and eventually rebuilt her physical strength. In fact, she wrote the upbeat title track to the EP in the middle of training for a 10K run that she recently completed.

“When I think of the past two years of my life, the message to myself was always ‘Keep Going’,” remembers Purcell. “In this day and age, the world can feel really lonely, but this body of work says, ‘You’re not alone.’ My prayer is that these songs will meet you right where you’re at and lift you up.”

Along with “Keep Going,” the EP’s “You Love Me The Best” came from an impromptu writing session Purcell shared with Blessing Offor.

“I had always wanted to bring a Muscle Shoals sound to what I’m doing,” shares Purcell. “The song with Blessing was the catalyst. I grew up about two minutes away from FAME Studios. I love Gladys Knight & The Pips, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, as well as newer artists like RAYE. I’m a sucker for horns and doo-wop background vocals! We were finally able to bring this style to Christian music.”

Purcell’s EP opener “(Can’t) Trust You” relays God’s trustworthiness in a swell of big movie-screen-worthy strings and shimmering piano while her powerful EP finale, “Who I Belong To,” shares her testimony as she sings, “I belong to a perfect father who tells me that I’m not alone. I belong to a risen Savior whose love will never let me go.”

“When I step behind a microphone,” says Lauren Talley, “my most important job is to help the listener encounter the presence of God.” The singer set out to do just that on her new collection for Horizon Records, and Walls (Part One) more than meets the challenge, enlarging her musical palette to offer listeners more ways than ever to feel their connection to Him.

Walls (Part One) – Lauren Talley

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Working with acclaimed producer Jason Webb, Talley blends inspirational, worship and CCM elements with the strains of Southern Gospel to create uniquely compelling accounts of God’s grace. “In Walls (Part One),” she notes, “we can feel Him in the rhythm and soul of ‘Walls,’ and in the high energy of ‘So So Good.’ He shows up in the vulnerability of ‘Mercy’ and ‘Little Faith,’ and we can give Him all of our worship in the awe-inspiring lyrics of ‘Look At The Lamb.'”

The greater breadth of arrangements allow for Talley’s emotive power to range more freely, from the intimate moments that open “Little Faith” and “Mercy” to the boldly voiced testimonies of “Walls” and “So So Good,” to the full throated power that’s reached in the closing moments of her own “Look at the Lamb.” And as the music of Walls (Part One) varies, so, too do the songs’ lyrics reflect multiple moods and imagery — yet even so, it’s easy to perceive the twin elements of God’s power and God’s grace that underlie them:

He ain’t never met a wall
That He couldn’t tear down
Watch it crumbling to the ground
He ain’t never met a wall
That He couldn’t break through
Oh, just watch what He’s gonna do
(Walls)
Now I’m alive to tell the story
How I’ve overcome
It’s His goodness and mercy
And the power of His blood
I’m so glad that my freedom
Wasn’t based on what I’ve done
It’s His goodness and mercy
And the power of His blood
(Mercy)

As he barrels towards the release of his next full collection of songs, Christian rock mainstay Matt Moore is back with “Learning to Breathe,” a song that he calls “the emotional heartbeat of the album.”

With an all-star cast production cast that included Josiah Prince of Disciple (cowriter), Lester Estelle of Pillar (drums), Dane Allen of Disciple (backing vocals), Nick Radovanovic (mixing) and Sam Moses (mastering), “Learning to Breathe” is truly a breath of fresh air to anyone who listens.

Learning to Breathe – Matt Moore

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“‘Learning To Breathe’ is a defiant statement about refusing to stay down after repeatedly having the wind knocked out of you,” Matt Moore explains. “The lyric, ‘If I am bleeding, this heart is still beating,’ became one of the central ideas that shaped the rest of the album.”

It’s a message that is sure to resonate with any listeners going through similar life challenges — whether it’s internal battles with mental health or external battles with endless circumstances outside of your control.

Matt continues, “I think in those moments, it’s so important to cling to any signs of life you can find, any indication that there’s hope in the middle of this and that things are going to get better. If you woke up again today, God’s not done writing your story. You’re still in the fight, there’s still a reason to hold on, and there is still hope.”

That message is a beautifully redemptive follow-up to recently released “Burn it to the Ground (feat Nick Detty),” Moore’s first single from this new set of songs. Where “Burn it to the Ground” focused on relational hardship and rebirth through forgiveness, “Learning to Breathe” offers a place to ground through those hardships. It continues a tradition Matt Moore has established through songs like “Darker Waters,” “Tether” and “Broken Pieces,” showing up alongside listeners when they need it the most.

Matt concludes, “It’s really my hope that this will connect with people who also feel like they’ve just been knocked down by life. A reminder that first, you’re not alone. This season doesn’t last forever. It does get better. And second, there is still beauty in the brokenness. There is still hope in the devastation. And sometimes signs of life look like big, loud indications; sometimes it’s just a gentle pulse when everything else seems dark.”

For many, this song may be that gentle pulse.

“Learning to Breathe” is streaming everywhere now, as is “Burn it to the Ground,” which is currently making inroads at Christian rock radio.

Trent Harmon deepens his journey into Christian music with the release of his second project, Give Me Jesus – a soul-stirring collection that reflects both his heart for worship and the faith that grounds him.

After winning American Idol, Harmon quickly rose in the country music scene, landing a record deal, touring with Rascal Flatts and Dan + Shay, and scoring a hit with his debut single, “There’s A Girl.” Yet, even amid commercial success, he felt a steady pull back to the church roots where his voice first found purpose and power. This new project follows Scars & Sins, Trent Harmon’s first Christian EP, which marked his initial step into faith-driven music and set the stage for his continued journey in worship.

The latest 5-track EP opens with “Randy Harmon,” a stirring sermon from Trent’s father that sets the tone with a powerful message on the importance of prayer. It leads into “Right On Track,” a heartfelt testimony of encountering Jesus and discovering divine purpose through His love. The momentum continues with “I Love It Here,” a worshipful expression of longing to dwell in God’s presence.

Also featured is a moving cover of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which captures the restless yearning of the soul – a spiritual journey marked by desire, doubt, and belief. The project closes with the title track, “Give Me Jesus,” putting his own spin on a classic hymn – a profound declaration of faith, reminding us that no matter what the world offers, nothing compares to the presence of Christ.

Give Me Jesus – Trent Harmon

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“My first Christian EP opened a door I didn’t even realize I’d been waiting to walk through,” shares Trent Harmon. “With Give Me Jesus, I’m stepping fully into it  – and I can’t wait for everyone to hear where this journey has led.”

Earlier this year, the singer-songwriter hinted at this shift with a poignant social media post of a video he filmed after a “particularly great” show in 2018 that still left him feeling unfulfilled and with the overwhelming urge “to point a light towards heaven.” Life slowed down and priorities shifted after Trent Harmon got married in 2020 and welcomed his first child in 2023.

Through it all, worship kept calling him back, and Trent Harmon couldn’t shake the feeling that he was meant for something more. “I’ve reached thousands through Idol and touring, but every time I led worship, I felt fulfillment I never found on a country stage.”

PLATINUM-certified, GRAMMY-nominated artist and songwriter Anne Wilson continues to share her message of hope and healing with her new four-song EP, God Story, out now. Named after her soaring single, the project arrives as Wilson heads into her second weekend on the road opening stadiums for Morgan Wallen on his I’m The Problem Tour.

“The God Story EP marks the beginning of such a special new season of music for me,” Wilson shares. “These songs
are rooted in my story, in God’s faithfulness and in the hope He gives us in every moment. This is just the beginning.
There’s so much more ahead, and I can’t wait to share!”

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The EP opens with title track, “God Story,” an inspirational anthem rooted in personal testimony. Her vocals soar in
“Til The Road Runs Out,” a powerful, all-in plea dedicated to living life to the fullest. “Devil Is Too” intertwines the
Kentucky native’s southern sass and bold faith. Closing the project with “Twenty Three,” she offers complete
vulnerability in this gut-wrenching tribute to anyone who has lost a loved one.

A co-writer on each track, God Story is Wilson’s first project release since her critically acclaimed sophomore album
REBEL, which earned praise from Billboard for “fully fusing the two genres” and was hailed by People as a
“trailblazing album​​.” The record became a defining moment in her burgeoning career, blending country and Christian influences with a bold, authentic voice that resonated with fans across both genres. Now, with God Story, Wilson
builds on that foundation – weaving together country grit with Christian conviction to deliver songs that are both
authentically her and universally uplifting.

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Next up, Anne Wilson will be returning to her home state of Kentucky on August 11 for a special benefit concert at Corbin Arena to help raise funds for families and communities impacted by the deadly tornado that struck Eastern Kentucky this May. Tickets for the one-night-only event are on sale now.

Muscle Shoals, AL native, songwriter and dynamic vocalist Rachel Purcell releases her first, six-song Centricity Music EP, Mercy & Me, today (Aug. 1). Available at digital and streaming outlets globally, the EP features Purcell’s soulful pop debut, “Show Up,” the catchy, up-tempo “New Name” and sunny singalong “Have Church,” which is going for adds at Christian radio Sept. 26.

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Mercy & Me – Rachel Purcell

With songs produced by Jeff Pardo (TobyMac, Katy Nichole), Andy Skib (Kenny Chesney, Brett Eldredge), Colby Wedgeworth (Jordan Feliz, Jeremy Camp), and Chuck Butler (Tauren Wells, India Arie), Mercy & Me captures Rachel Purcell’s passionate journey of creating music inspired by her real life experiences that are deeply rooted in her unwavering faith.

“Looking back at how I dove into writing all these songs, I realized how the theme of salvation is found in every lyric. This EP is a reflection on the miracle of salvation and the final track, ‘Mercy & Me,’ captures the beautiful moment Christ opened my eyes and filled me with belief, awe and repentance,” says Purcell. “I pray that wherever you are on your journey, God gives you exactly what you need from these songs.”

Multi-Platinum songwriter and worship leader Mack Brock releases his Beloved EP, which is now available at digital and streaming outlets. The EP features two newly recorded originals along with two acoustic performances of “Christ or Nothing” and “Bless the Lord” from his debut Centricity Music album, This Is Holy.

Produced by David Liotta (Elevation Worship, Jeremy Camp, Kari Jobe), Beloved includes the never-before-released title track that Brock wrote with GRAMMY and Dove Award-winner Mitch Wong and GRAMMY-nominated, Dove Award-winning Hank Bentley. The EP also highlights “Christ Our King,” a newly recorded version of the track co-written with Brett Younker, Jacob Sooter and Rachel Hallbach and originally released by Passion.

Beloved – Mack Brock

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“The heart behind the project is a simple, intimate reminder that we are beloved children of God,” says Brock. “He adores us, He pulls us close. Receiving that unconditional love is HUGE. And our response to his love is worship.”

The Beloved EP follows Brock’s full-length studio album This Is Holy that features the hit radio single “Time and Time Again.” The album is a sacred collection of original anthems intended to remind listeners, and Brock’s own heart, that there’s an all-knowing God who is completely sovereign, trustworthy and deserving of all praise.

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River Valley AGES shares their latest EP Prayer Journal II. 

An extension of River Valley Worship, AGES is the sound of the young people of River Valley Church. AGES came to life in many separate hearts. You could sit down with any given member of the band to listen to their piece of the story, and you’ll see God’s hand in its making.

AGES is a band, but their dream is for it to be so much more than that. They believe that God is doing something special in the next generation and desire to be a part of it. The heart behind their music is to inspire and empower young people to create.

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Patrick Mayberry releases Give It Back (Live).

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