Josh and Amberley Klinkenberg On Working with Jesus Culture, Their New EP & Their Ministries

Starting in the small town of Te Aroha, Josh and Amberley's ministry began in a little baptist church with an acoustic guitar and a gathering of hungry hearts. They met in bible college and spent the first seven years of their married life in the small town called "The Love"​ (Te Aroha) where the Lord taught them about ministering to Him and leading others in worship. Partnering with Jesus Culture, the couple have just released their new EP "Our Love."

Hallels:  Tell us more about Josh and Amberley Klinkenberg.  How did the two of you meet?  And how did God ignite within you a passion to worship Him through music?

Amberley and I met in bible college here in New Zealand. She was 16, I was 18. I ended up pursuing (some may call it stalking... haha) her. I knew she lived a little way away from the college so on her breaks she would spend time in the cafeteria. So I found out her timetable and made sure I "just happened" to be in the cafeteria at the same time... We became good friends and then start going out. A few years later we were married and have never looked back! We have both always had a passion for worship. The bible college we went to was also a music school. We both studied music, Amberley was a singing major and I was a drum major. As our relationship developed we began to sing together and started to explore worshipping together. Later on when we were married we moved to a little town called Te Aroha where we began to lead worship together regularly and it was there that we began to learn how to move as a couple in ministry. 

Hallels:  Your new EP is release with Jesus Culture Music.  How did you get to work with Jesus Culture?

Amberley and I run a worship school called "InFlame School of Prophetic Worship." This began as a three month worship school that we held out on a little island off the coast of New Zealand. It was here that we first had Kim and Skyler Walker-Smith from Jesus Culture out to our school. We got to build a great friendship with them and during our second school they talked to us about doing an album with them. We were totally shocked and surprised by this. To be honest we weren't even thinking about doing an album, it wasn't something that was even on our radar. Mainly because we had so many excuses as to why we couldn't do it. i.e. to expensive, to hard, etc etc... So after sorting out the logistics of it all, we headed to the USA to record in Redding, California with Jesus Culture. 

Hallels:  How would you describe your style of worship music on this EP "Our Love"?

Our heart is to give the church songs and language that articulates what we feel the Lord wanting to stir in His bride during this season. So with the EP we felt a stirring to deep intimate love. Thats exactly what we feel "Our Love" is about. We called it "Our Love" simply because that is what these songs are. They are our own personal love songs that we would sing to Him as we would worship Him in our lounge at home.  

Hallels:  Tell us more about this EP.  What is it about these three songs you are most excited about?

We love these songs because they seem to say exactly what we want to say. As I said, these were songs that were birthed out of our own time with the Lord. So we have a special connection with these songs. They represent special events and moments in our life that we shared with the Father. Some of these are gut-wrenchingly deep, and others are joyfully fun. But in essence, they are songs that spring from our life and journey with Him. 

Hallels:  Are you planning to follow it up with a full-length album?  If so, when will it be released?  Will you be recording it with other artists associated with Jesus Culture?  

We sure are. We are hoping to complete the full-length later this year. We are currently planning to head to the USA and record with JC again in Sacramento. We are planning to have a couple of Jesus Culture Special Guests on there so watch this space! 

Hallels:  You are also involved in two other ministries -- InFlame and Songs of Aotearoa--can you tell us a little more about what they are?

InFlame Ministries is the ministry that Amberley and I started 6 years ago when we ran our first worship school. We have a heart to train, equip, and release the artists in our nation. Specifically, we long to see the indigenous art forms of our land redeemed, restored, and released in worship. We have had an absolute blast partnering with the Holy Spirit over the last number of years to see this happen. Songs of Aotearoa is a part of InFlame. We have a number of projects that we run under the InFlame umbrella. SOA is a project that we began in an effort to capture and release worship songs written by New Zealanders. We wanted a way to release the sound of our land in a raw, un-compromised way. This project is what we call our nation sound, and it is a collaboration of artists from throughout our Country. The EP is our Global Sound. We love that we get to do both! 

Hallels:  For our readers who would like to purchase your music and/or find out more about you, where can they go?

Our personal website is joshandamberleyklinkenberg.com we have everything available there. We are also on iTunes and JesusCulture.comConnect with us on Facebook, we love being able to meet and connect with worshipers all over the globe at the different events we minster at. Facebook.com/joshandamberleyklinkenberg--

 

 

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