Restoration Project is a songwriting and recording collective dedicated to writing new hymns and restoring old, taking old hymn texts and poems and writing new music and melodies for them—for God’s glory and the building up of his Church.
Restoration Project‘s core consists of a handful of volunteer songwriters and musicians who live all over the country, but most of us live in Chicago. We’re committed for the long haul. Along the way, we invite our friends with, too – to contribute musically to our recordings, share our songs, contribute financially to our work, and pray for us. Want to join us? Host a hymn-sing and invite us to lead it, buy a record on iTunes, or contribute monthly to our work.
Ultimately, the main goals of Restoration Project are to glorify God, edify the church, and share Jesus with those around us. (Read a bit more in our Core Beliefs post.) We seek to live these out in numerous ways; but for us, we feel uniquely blessed by God with the privilege of giving the Church beautiful, new songs to sing – songs you can sing on the subway, in your living room, or with your local congregations. Those who are a part of Restoration Project have discovered what many other hymn-writers around the world have:
There is an outstanding historical catalog of beautiful Christian texts that most of the Church will never hear sung in their lifetimes.
Though not Scripture, these words, when set properly to music, can lift our hearts in praise to God-both corporately and individually, as melody and harmony intertwine with Gospel-rich lyrics.
We want our recordings to engage and attract people and share with them the joy that we have in Jesus. This one is pretty simple. We want you to invite your friends, family, and neighbors to take a listen to our songs or check out one of our hymn-sing events. We want to live out what Jesus has commanded us to do in Matthew 28:18-20.
Restoration Project started in 2007 as a ministry of College Church in Wheaton’s College Group, under the direction of then College Pastor Jay Thomas.
The following is a list of a few people who have been a major part of what Restoration Project has become today: Cole Armerding, Tim Avery, Lisa Batchelder, Brock Bobbitt, Aaron Boynton, Oliver Bujdei, Agnes Chen, Jared Cochrum, Paige Cunningham, Josh Cutherell, Kathryn Eggert, Megan E., Andrew Fulton, Daniel Hautamaki, Andrew Hopkins, Marissa Hunt Cunningham, Ivan Ishkov, David Jordan, Lora Libby, Brian and Heidi Malcolm, Chet Mancini, Jay Mathes, Rebecca McFarland, Curtis McParland, Cheryl and Heinz Mkrtschjan, Megan Mkrtschjan, Michael Mkrtschjan, Danielle Muhlena, Munchie Mutchler, Jason Perez, Brian Picken, Tiffany Prignano, Phil Rau, Heidi Rogers, Chris Rud, Eric Schad, Ben Schmanke, Jason Schrock, Dannie Seaman, Ben Shivers, Ryan Sikorski, Tim Smile, Clara Stam, Gary Stanton, Carolyn Stipp, Eric Strong, Jonathan S., Andrew Tebbe, Jay Thomas, Donna Van Cott, Kara Vance, Chris Walke, Jake Wegner, and Jason Young.
Looking ahead, we are particularly sensitive to our need to create a sustainable ministry which will allow us to write and record album after album. If you haven’t done so already, please consider buying any number of our available products to help support us in this cause. Or, you can set up a recurring, monthly gift. For more info on giving regularly, please click here. You can visit our webstore for more information.
Soli Deo Gloria.