It’s wild how much can change in a year. In the summer of 2023, a group of friends based in Seattle released a live worship album, The Table, without any expectations. It was a project born out of obedience, not ambition. But it would go on to change everything.
“None of us saw this coming,” said Cole Hastie. “It’s been awesome seeing the response from people online but we didn’t imagine this is what our lives would be like. We wanted to make authentic worship music — and I hope that’s what people hear when they listen to it.”
Hastie is a co-founder of One Voice Worship, the Seattle-based collective that has exploded online since their debut. What started as friends gathering to worship has transformed into millions of listeners around the world, a record deal with Tribl Records and now a follow-up album, The Remnant, releasing March 28.
“We didn’t really set out to become a company or a worship team,” Hastie said. “We literally got together and said, ‘Hey, let’s get some more of our friends and worship.’ We happened to record some of it and it just kind of blew up online.”
Hastie and Gospel Chidi founded the collective alongside Canaan Baca, Kiara Edwards, Priscilla Trejo, Elijah Winston and Jake Archer — a group that first met as college students at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington. After staying connected through local churches in Seattle, they began gathering again in recent years, this time with a deeper sense of purpose.
That spirit of authenticity resonated. Without any major promotion, their worship videos quickly gained traction with followers commenting that it felt like the kind of real, unfiltered worship they’d been longing for. The buzz eventually caught the attention of Tribl Records, the label behind Maverick City Music.
“When Tribl Records calls, you answer the phone,” Hastie joked. “And that’s when we started thinking, ‘Oh, maybe this is bigger than we think.’”
From the start, the group knew they had to be intentional about how they navigated the sudden momentum.
“We realized early on that God was doing something here and we knew right away we needed to steward this well from the start,” Hastie said.
That grounding has come largely through their deep friendships — the kind forged in choir rehearsals and church basements — and a shared desire to keep worship centered on Jesus not themselves.
“We’ve all been friends for years so we’re comfortable with one another,” he said. “It’s so authentic and genuine just for us to be together and worship and get back to that old crew of all those people we went to school with. It’s cool to look back on our college days and realized God ordained this group to become what it is today.”
That original group has remained at the core but they’ve made a point to regularly include other voices — from local choirs to guest artists — as part of their sessions.
“I love that we have a smaller, core group that makes up One Voice but we all think it’s important for our audience to see other people singing along and worshiping,” Hastie said. “We just love having a choir in the background or worshipers because that’s what we had in college when we were all a part of a choir.”
They’re also committed to staying diverse, believing it reflects a more accurate picture of God’s Kingdom.
“One thing you will always see from us is a lot of representation across our group,” Hastie said. “We have a really cool color palette. There’s some Spanish people, Asian people, African-Americans and white people. We want to encourage people of all races that we can be a worship leader. That’s big for us.”
Their first album, The Table, set the tone for their vision — a space where everyone belongs and no one’s story disqualifies them from experiencing God.
“The heart of our group and our mission is no matter who you are, where you come from, what your story is, your background, none of that matters, because you have a seat at the table,” Hastie said. “We want to be a place where anybody can come experience Jesus.
“We’re in Seattle so it’s not a super churched or religious area as you can imagine but we have the heart and the mindset of letting people know everyone is welcome to the table,” he continued. “We want to reach people and we want to glorify Jesus and what we do. We want to make him famous. It’s not about us at all.”
That mission continues with The Remnant, their newest project. The songs build on the same heart as their debut but with an even greater sense of urgency and depth. The album points to a generation rising up — not for platforms or praise — but to worship in Spirit and truth.
Behind the scenes, One Voice has been deliberate about staying grounded. The group is structured with shared leadership and collective decision-making.
“The way we’ve structured our company is that it’s not really focused on one guy,” Hastie explained. “There’s really a bunch of different people who are involved and we all have the mindset of getting out of the way to seek what the Lord is going to do. It definitely helps keep us in check and focused on our collective mission.”
That mission is showing signs of real impact in their city.
“God’s doing really something special in the Pacific Northwest,” Hastie said. “People are coming to church. People who don’t know Jesus are starting to read their Bible and starting to accept Jesus. We all feel this shift.”
Hastie is quick to clarify that what’s happening isn’t about One Voice — “at the end of the day, it’s for sure the Holy Spirit doing all of this” — but they are embracing the opportunity to help fan the flames.
“We spend time during our week praying for revival, praying for people to come back to church and for people that have never met Jesus,” Hastie shared. “And honestly, that’s been the craziest part of this entire journey so far. I’ve recently met so many people in their 40s or older who have never been to church or don’t really know what the Bible is or who Jesus is. And they’re coming to church for the first time and they can’t tell why they’re here now but they just know it’s where they’re supposed to be — it’s crazy. God’s really doing something.
“It’s not just our typical church people,” he continued. “It’s people that are unchurched and they’re coming in and they get radically saved. They just get hit by the Spirit in an undeniable way. It’s been cool and humbling to be a part of that.”
Those encounters have helped the group stay laser-focused.
“One Voice is trying to just reflect that movement,” Hastie said. “We want to make sure people know they have a seat at the table.”
As for what’s next? They’re still figuring it out.
“Honestly, there’s been a lot of amazing things that have happened in a short amount of time, we’re still figuring out what to do next,” Hastie admitted.
They’ve continued hosting worship nights around the Pacific Northwest and are exploring new creative ideas — from in-studio albums to a potential podcast — but their posture remains open-handed.
“Right now, we’re waiting to see what opportunities the Lord opens for us,” Hastie said. “It seems like all of a sudden, especially these last few months, a lot of doors have opened up, which has been an answer to prayer, so we really want to keep this thing going. But ultimately, we’re just trying to be good stewards with whatever platform God gives us.”
That mindset is what started One Voice in the first place. And it’s what they’re holding onto.
“We came together in the first place to give praise to Jesus,” Hastie said. “No matter what, we want our music to glorify Jesus and to speak the things of Jesus — to give him the due glory, the due praise and all the things that He deserves.”
For Hastie, keeping that perspective is everything.
“There’s so many great worship artists out there right now that we definitely look to for inspiration,” Hastie said. “And we’ve gotten to speak to a lot of these artists who have been so kind and encouraging for us to stay true to our unique calling and vision. It can be tempting to try and do what someone else is doing but we know that we’re here for a reason to do things this way. And we’re sticking to that plan as best we can.”
Because from the beginning, One Voice didn’t try to manufacture a moment — they just created space for one.
“I always tell people that if we had sat down and really mapped this thing out, we would have screwed it up somehow,” he said. “Like if we really tried to get in God’s way, we for sure would have screwed it up. No question. Thankfully, we didn’t do that and God was doing something all along. Now we just get to be a part of it.”
