Victory - the overcoming of an enemy; the achievement of mastery or success in a struggle against odds or difficulties.
No one is a stranger to struggles and difficulties. Every one of us have come face to face with a giant, one that is standing tall and taunting us, attempting to convince us that what we are facing is impossible. These giants can take the form of fear, doubt, circumstance, and uncertainty. When staring these giants in the eye, we all have but one desire: to be victorious. We long for the moment when we overcome. We pray for the day when our fear is surrendered. We ask God to give us strength to continue fighting and we stand firm in the hope that God will come through. But what do we do when the staring contest with these giants lasts longer than we could have imagined?
For Kellie and Kristen, this is a very familiar question. The twin sisters’ lives have been marked by the process of waiting. Originally from Louisiana, Kellie and Kristen traveled the southern region of the country for nearly ten years proclaiming the gospel through music until they began feeling restless in their spirits for what was next. After gaining wide recognition from their debut EP entitled We Receive, they felt the Lord calling them into a new season of writing songs for the church, but they didn't know exactly what that was supposed to look like. “We knew God was asking us to step into something new, but we were afraid,” says Kristen, who leads from piano or guitar. With prayer and many affirmations, the sisters relocated to Nashville, TN, in the fall of 2017 where they began writing songs for the new season. As the sisters settled in to their new home in Nashville, they both came face to face with the reality that God was wanting to do something personally new in them, something that required deep seeded fear to be uprooted in order to move forward. “While we were excited for this new season, we both began experiencing the rising of giants in our separate lives. For me, it was depression,” says Kellie, the lead vocalist of the duo. She adds, “There was a period there where I couldn’t see the end in sight. But God had given us new songs to be able to sing in the midst of our own battles for victory before we even needed them.”
The songs on Kellie and Kristen’s first full length album entitled In The Name contain the very words the sisters used as their own battle cries against fear, doubt, and shame. The album begins with declaring the unending goodness of God then immediately hits the title pop track “In The Name” where the lyrics boldly declare that victory is already and always found in the name of Jesus Christ. “This is our only hope to stand on,” says Kristen, “and we always have the victory in every battle because Jesus is victorious forever.” The fourth track on the album “Let Them Fall” has become an upbeat anthem for Kellie and Kristen as they travel and lead worship, giving listeners fighting words to sing against the giants that try to terrorize their faith in God. The ballads “Awe and Wonder” and “Better” serve to remind listeners that Jesus is much more beautiful and always better than our greatest desires. The entire album lands on one song entitled “Details Of Grace,” of which the last lyrics state that every doubt and fear is gone in light of God’s love toward us. “It’s a beautiful picture of what God’s love has done. It’s taken broken stories and made new endings. It’s erased every stronghold of evil. It made a way for grace to be ours for the taking. The Bible says two things will last. The blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Because of His blood, we have a testimony. And so we sing and we write today about that which will last for eternity. Our hope in worship is that it is always less of us and more of Him,” says Kristen.
In The Name released on May 24, 2019, landing at #12 on the Christian & Gospel iTunes chart. Nashville, TN, is where both live, work, and serve their local church body Church of the City.
In The Name - Kellie & Kristen
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