Before Maverick City Music filled arenas and changed the sound of worship, it started somewhere quieter…

In a recent post, Naomi Raine opened up about her deep love for gospel music, CCM, and the wide musical spectrum that shaped her. She grew up dancing with her father to the Five Blind Boys, singing Hillsong choruses, and being moved by the voices of both Tasha Cobbs Leonard and Sandi Patty. Her upbringing wasn’t bound to one genre, and neither was her worship.

That’s the heart behind Maverick City.

Naomi said it best:

“All the song leaders in Maverick came together, bringing our authentic worship and praise and lyrics and perspectives and upbringings and backgrounds to form what Maverick was. That wasn’t created by an executive or a branding deck or a business strategy…”

It Wasn’t a Brand Strategy. It Was Ministry.

It was artists with real stories and real faith gathering to write songs that told the truth about who God is and what they were walking through.

Maverick City became a movement because it made space for people who didn’t always fit the mold. People who sounded different. Worshiped differently. Wrote differently. And instead of being told to tone it down or blend in, they were invited to bring all of it, their full cultural expression.

Naomi Raine Shares Her Testimony

Naomi shared on a TBN show called “Better Together” about becoming pregnant at 18 and the difficult journey that followed. In many spaces, that story might have disqualified her. But not here. Now, she sometimes shares the stage with her daughter, who sings beautifully just like her mom.

Chandler Moore on Maverick City’s Purpose

When Chandler Moore joined us on Songs From a Mug, he shared that Maverick City was created for people from all walks of life, those who didn’t always feel like they had a place in the worship music world.

Built in Surrender, Not in a Boardroom

So while the world might see a music collective topping charts and touring the globe, what you’re really witnessing is something that was born in prayer, creativity, and the Spirit of God breathing on songs no one expected to go global.

Maverick City Music wasn’t built by business plans. It was built by surrender.

Watch Maverick City’s Tiny Desk Concert