This Heartfelt Worship Movement Crosses Genres: ‘Prayers You Can Listen To’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Joel Houston is changing the way Christians worship.
The artist, who’s part of Hillsong UNITED, recently started AMXN Radio — a kind of initiative that essentially creates “prayers you can listen to.”
“AMXNRADIO is the culmination of years of thinking and dreaming, and trying to imagine where worship could go if there were absolutely no boundaries — no expectations — and for sure, where it’s landed is still barely scratching the surface of what that could,” the initiative’s description reads.
“I wasn’t trying to write songs for church services,” Houston said. “I was just making music again for the love of it.”
The initiative was birthed out of Houston’s desire to freely explore music without a solid purpose in mind. He got the idea during the COVID pandemic.
“I was sitting in a studio by myself, messing around, pushing buttons, trying things. For so long, I had relied on others—people far more talented than me — to bring my ideas to life. But suddenly, it was just me,” he explained.
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After some deep thought, he had a revelation.
“There are only twelve notes, right? And yet every song that’s ever been written comes from that finite set of possibilities. That was a revelation for me, even as a teenager.”
“It made me realize that my own limitations didn’t disqualify me. If God could use twelve notes to create something infinite, maybe He could use me too,” he said.
AMXN Radio is nothing like UNITED. The sounds are lo-fi, whispering, electronic and moving.
“The Psalms are full of songs that probably wouldn’t work in a church service,” he notes. “They start in one place, wrestle through doubt and struggle and then end in another. That’s what I wanted this music to be — a journey.”
“Most of a person’s week isn’t spent inside a church building,” he says. “But there’s no reason worship music can’t be the soundtrack to all the other moments— the car rides, the late nights, the everyday mundane.”
Nothing about AMXN Radio is mundane — from its wacky website to its abundant hypno-neon Instagram posts.
“It’s UNITED, but on drugs,” Houston joked, clarifying, “Except I’m not on drugs.”
Stepping away from traditional worship is a small, growing trend among artists, and Houston admires it.
“There’s this whole movement happening,” Houston said. “You’ve got people like Josiah Queen, Forrest Frank — guys who are just making great music, without worrying about whether it fits the ‘Christian’ box.”
“There’s a whole generation of artists who grew up in church but listen to everything — country, hip-hop, EDM, indie rock,” he said. “They want to make music that reflects all of that. But a lot of them think the only way to do that is to leave Christian music entirely.”
But Houston says you don’t have to “pick a lane.” “What if the Kingdom is big enough for all of it?” he says.
Houston says the emergence of the new project doesn’t mean there’ll be a UNITED disconnect.
“UNITED’s not going anywhere,” he insists. “We’re just in a bit of a limbo, waiting for clarity on what the next chapter looks like.”
Houston is holding it all with an open hand. “If we fail, let’s at least fail in the most beautiful way possible. I don’t have to know the end of the story. I just have to be faithful to the part I’m supposed to play.”
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