Monday Memories is our chance each week to look back at a song, artist, album, or moment in Christian music history that still has something to say to us today. Sometimes a great song is simply a great memory; other times, its message suddenly feels remarkably relevant to where we are right now. For the first edition of Monday Memories, we’re looking back at two songs whose messages seem almost tailor-made for the adventure FishWorship is beginning.
“The Great Adventure” by Steven Curtis Chapman is a particularly fitting place to start. Released in 1992, the song is an exuberant invitation to step beyond the familiar and follow God into whatever comes next. Its sense of anticipation, movement, and willingness to embrace the unknown makes it feel almost like a musical mission statement for anyone beginning something new with a sense of purpose.
That’s certainly how we hear it at FishWorship. Building a Christian music website from the ground up is, in its own way, an adventure. We don’t know exactly where this project will take us, how many people will discover it, which artists and songs will become part of its story, or what opportunities may appear along the way. But that’s part of the fun. The goal isn’t to have every mile of the road mapped out before we begin; it’s to start moving, keep our eyes on the destination, and be willing to see what God does with the journey.
For the FishWorship founder, “The Great Adventure” is more than a nostalgic favorite from another era of Christian music. It is a reminder to approach this project with enthusiasm rather than hesitation—to build, explore, discover, and keep going even when the road takes an unexpected turn. FishWorship may be a website, but the hope behind it is much bigger: to create a place where people can discover Christian music, rediscover old favorites, encounter artists they haven’t heard before, and perhaps find a song that means something completely new to them.
So as we begin this particular adventure, we’ll gladly borrow a little inspiration from Steven Curtis Chapman. We may not know exactly where the road leads, but that’s no reason not to take the next step. The adventure is the point.
The Great Adventure – Steven Curtis Chapman
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Shake Heaven – Montel Jordan & Beckah Shae
“Shake Heaven” is a particularly fitting song for the first Monday Memories because its story is almost as unexpected as the sound of the song itself. Montell Jordan had already established a major career in mainstream R&B before making a dramatic turn toward Christian ministry, eventually serving as a worship pastor at Victory World Church and helping lead the church’s Victory World Music project. Beckah Shae, meanwhile, had been developing her own distinctive blend of pop, R&B, and worship, bringing an energetic, genre-crossing sound to Christian music. Their paths came together on the title track of Shake Heaven, released by Victory World Music in 2011.
The collaboration makes even more sense when you know the story behind it. Jordan had come to the conviction that he was being called away from his mainstream music career and into full-time ministry. He wanted to take the musical skills and energy that had once been used to make people dance and celebrate and redirect them toward the worship of God. His meeting with Beckah and her husband, producer Jack Shocklee, helped shape that new direction, and “Shake Heaven” became the kind of energetic Christian anthem Jordan had envisioned—music that could cross generations and cultures without sounding like it had to apologize for being contemporary.
That’s a big part of why this song speaks to us at FishWorship. “Shake Heaven” is ultimately about making some noise, gathering people together, and using music to get God’s attention and give Him glory. That sounds like a pretty good mission statement for a Christian music website, too. FishWorship isn’t trying merely to catalog songs—we want to create something energetic enough to make people stop, look, listen, discover, remember, and perhaps find themselves wanting to share the music with someone else.
And there’s something especially appropriate about beginning our Monday Memories journey with a song born from a musical career changing direction and a new ministry taking shape. Montell Jordan and Beckah Shae weren’t simply making another record; they were taking the gifts and experiences they already possessed and asking how those gifts could be used for something bigger. That’s an idea we can certainly get behind as we build FishWorship. We’re on our own little musical mission, and we’re hoping that the songs, stories, artists, and discoveries collected here will make a joyful noise of their own.
Let’s shake heaven.
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