For the last few years we’ve been talking about finding a name that encapsulates our desire to use music and other creative outlets to help people connect with and respond to God in worship. The first name we tried was Project 12:1, which quickly evolved into Project Zaõ. Zaõ is the Greek word for ‘living’ and is used in Romans 12:1 (hence project 12:1) which talks about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. Neither of these names particularly stuck, especially as none of us really knew how to pronounce the latter.

Our name search moved up a gear when we went into the studio to record our first single ‘Reigning Most High’. We realised that if we were going to share the song with people we probably needed a name, so we took to the internet to ask for help. The four names that we offered in our online poll were ‘Project Zaõ’ (despite our misgivings about pronunciation), ‘The Good Trees’ (based on the ‘Oaks of Righteousness’ of Isaiah 61), ‘Streams Make Glad’ (from Psalm 46) and ‘Thousand Cubits’ (from Ezekiel 47). ‘The Good Trees’ was by far the internet favourite but we still weren’t 100% sure. You only need to hear the recent story of ‘Boaty McBoatface’ to realise that online surveys aren’t the best way to come up with a name (click here if you haven’t come across the story).

Our favourite was ‘Thousand Cubits’ because we love the passage from Ezekiel 47 and find it such an inspiration on our journey as we grow as worshippers. ‘Thousand Cubits’ faired badly in the poll so it was clear that not everyone got as excited about the obscure biblical reference as we did. After lots of deliberation we decided to pick another, hopefully less obscure phrase from the same passage. THROUGH THE WATERS captures our heart to grow in depth and intimacy as worshippers as well as carrying the wonderful picture of baptism, echoing so much of what we love about Romans 12.

Rather than just being a band, our vision is for THROUGH THE WATERS to develop into a collective identity that provides space for increasingly diverse expressions of worship. Our commitment is to journey together deeper into the river of God and to call others to do the same.    

“And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me THROUGH THE WATERS; the water came up to my ankles. Again he measured one thousand and brought me THROUGH THE WATERS; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.” – Ezekiel 47:3-5 (NKJV)