CityAlight, the Australian worship group best known for the song, “Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me”, is back in Singapore for a much-anticipated night of worship on July 12.

The ticketed event, Called for Mission, will be held at The Star Theatre. The evening will feature tracks from the group’s latest EP, Hear the Hallelujahs Roar, released earlier this year.

A special highlight this year is the group’s performance of the Mandarin translations of four of their songs – “God is for Us”, “Only a Holy God”, “Jesus Strong and Kind” and “There is One Gospel”. These Mandarin translations will be performed live for the first time and recorded with the congregational participation of the audience.

“This year, the Church singing will form the biggest part of the live recording because these songs are for the wider Church,” Rich Vassallo, Chief Operating Officer of CityAlight Music, told Salt&Light.

Nearly 30 members of CityAlight’s band and production team will be involved. 

As the music ministry of Sydney’s St Paul’s Castle Hill Church, CityAlight will also be accompanied by 30 members from St Paul’s, including a group of young adults who will subsequently head to the Philippines for a ministry trip with missions partner Compassion International.

Heartbeat for Asia

The four Mandarin songs at this year’s event builds on CityAlight’s translation of “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me” into Mandarin, recorded live during the group’s inaugural worship night in Singapore in 2023. 

Singapore worship leader for the 2023 Mandarin recording, Christie Kwek (pictured), will be joined this year by James Ng, Sarah Chan, Ng Jia Rui (all from Redemption Hill Church), and Niki Spencer from Grace Community Church. All photos from the 2023 Singapore worship night are by Joash Lee, courtesy of CityAlight.

“In recent years, especially post-COVID, we began re-evaluating our songwriting ministry and how God might use the gifts within CityAlight,” said Rich. 

He added that many churches – especially those with smaller congregations – have limited access to skilled musicians. Taking this into account, the group began focusing on producing songs that are biblically-faithful, highly-singable and musically accessible for congregations of all sizes, especially those that are under-resourced.

CityAlight’s first translation of “Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me” into Mandarin was recorded live during the group’s inaugural worship night in Singapore in 2023.

They have even made their lyrics and music chords accessible to everyone, free of charge, on their website cityalight.com.

While there have been requests for Spanish translations of their songs, the group felt that God was calling them to their area of the world.

Rich said: “So we started looking at Asia and asking, ‘In what ways might God use us in our region to do similar things to what we’ve seen in North America – particularly in relation to South America and the Spanish-speaking communities?’

“A number of us were praying, seeking advice and guidance on how we might go about it.”

CityAlight’s band and production team are all volunteers with careers outside of the ministry. They include school teachers, lawyers and professionals from the arts and media industries.

Around the same time, the door to Asia opened when Redemption Hill Church, Adam Road Presbyterian Church and the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC) of The Methodist Church in Singapore invited them to Singapore to lead a worship night in 2023, recounted St Paul’s Castle Hill Senior Pastor, Rev Bruce Stanley.

The 2023 recording that came out of CityAlight’s first worship night in Singapore was released in the week that Ps Bruce joined St Paul’s. He had previously pastored another church in Sydney where half the services were conducted in an Asian language. Up to 50% of the congregation in that church spoke Mandarin and Cantonese. 

“Walking into St Paul’s the same week they released their first Mandarin translation felt like a pretty big sign to Rich and me that God had His hand in it,” said Ps Bruce.

That sense deepened when members from RHC visited St Paul’s and a multilingual version of “Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me” was sung.

“It was amazing,” said Ps Bruce. “We sensed the Holy Spirit moving powerfully in that moment. Our church really grasped how profound it was to have worship music across language groups. It was deeply impactful.”

Following the release of the Mandarin version of “Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me”, CityAlight received “an overwhelming amount of feedback” from Mandarin-speaking congregations about how much the translation meant to them.

Many of the messages came from communities across Asia who could not worship or stream services openly.

Rich said: “We had emails saying, ‘Thank you so much. We meet as a very small group of Christians in Asia, where it’s illegal for us to meet. Being able to sing these amazing truths about our God in our native language has really inspired us and helped us to feel connected and united with our brothers and sisters abroad.’

“It’s responses like these that show how meaningful and needed these translations are. That’s what fuels us to do more in this area.”

While streams of the Mandarin version may account for less than 2% that of the English version, “the missional value of these translations far outweighs the time, cost and effort involved”, he added.

The team is currently exploring translation partnerships with churches in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Helping churches grow

Fast forward to July this year, and the four songs chosen for Mandarin translation were selected through feedback from Asian churches and data from CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International).

“We weighed up what they want to sing, and what church leaders felt would help their churches to grow,” said Rich.

The translation process has been 18 months in the making and has involved a collaborative team of Singapore-based, Mandarin-speaking pastors and musicians.

“Writing a song in one’s natural language is one thing, but translating it while still capturing the original meaning and intention of the song is a very complex process,” said Rich. “You also have to balance that with issues like, ‘Is it still singable? Does it still work melodically and make sense musically?'”

The Singapore team would propose a translation and send CityAlight a form with three columns: Original English lyrics, the Mandarin translation and the literal back-translation into English.

“That allowed us to read through and check whether the core meaning and intention of the song are still intact,” Rich told Salt&Light.

“We looked out for things like, ‘Is this still a Christian song, or could it now be interpreted more genetically – like something that could be applied to any god?’

CityAlight’s worship team, though not Mandarin speakers, have been rehearsing the four songs in Mandarin in preparation for the Singapore Night of Worship on July 12.

“There are also discussions around whether the translation still conveys holiness or the spiritual nature of the song, or if it’s drifted into something more mystical. So there’s a back-and-forth conversation between the writers and the translators to try and land the translation in the best possible place.

“In many cases, the translation work becomes more about checking the thematic and theological meaning than about melody or phrasing.

“We’re really excited to bring these translations to the people in Singapore – and to have them participate in resourcing Mandarin-speaking church communities.”

In harmony with missions

The July 12 event, Called for Mission, will also include a special segment featuring mission partners from faith-based social justice ministries Compassion International and International Justice Mission (IJM).

Compassion International is a child sponsorship organisation that works through local churches to release children from poverty by addressing both their immediate and long-term needs.

IJM is non-profit organisation that advocates against modern slavery, exploitation and abuse of women and children.

“We’re going to pose the question: What does it mean to live missionally — personally, within your church community and culture and even in global missions?” said Rich.

“We’re always opening our hearts to see where God is leading people to serve next,” he added.

“Coming and singing songs and leading people in worship is great. But our heart’s desire isn’t to put on a concert per se. Everything we do is about resourcing the Church,” said Rich.

Rich explained the deeper purpose behind Called for Mission.

“Coming and singing songs and leading people in worship is great. But we feel that there is a deeper calling on us to engage people with God’s call for us.

“Our heart’s desire isn’t to put on a concert per se. Our heart’s desire isn’t to promote CityAlight, gain streams, or sell tickets. Everything we do through this event is about resourcing the Church. That might mean encouraging churches to grow, develop and take on the work themselves – or helping them shape how they think about missions.

“Our hope, above all, is that God might choose to use what we offer – like the translations – as a resource to grow His Kingdom.

(In addition to the worship night in Singapore, CityAlight will hold a songwriting conference on July 7 at the Methodist School of Music. Tickets for this have been snapped up.)

“We felt we could offer a different way of thinking about God’s call to mission — and invite everyone attending to consider what that means in their own lives,” said Rich.

He emphasised that the aim isn’t to be prescriptive.

“Wherever people are on their journey — within their churches, families, or communities — we hope this night reminds them of the calling God places on each of us.

“In modern society, especially in Australia, there’s a subtle apathy — a sense that missions is done by paid staff or someone else. But Scripture tells us this calling is for every believer. Each of us is invited to participate and to listen for what God might be asking us to step into in faith.”

Called For Mission – A Worship Night with CityAlight – will be held on Saturday, July 12, 2025, at The Star Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here. 

The event is jointly organised by Redemption Hill Church, Adam Road Presbyterian Church and the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC) of The Methodist Church in Singapore. 

RELATED STORIES:

Novel Coronavirus: China’s pastors go digital to spur flock on to faith and prayer

Her parents sold her to traffickers when she was six: Hagar Singapore calls for “urgent” donations amid rising number of victims