I have one of the best jobs in the world. Leading worship at Freedom Church is one of the best opportunities that anyone can ever accept. And even better, I get to co-lead with one of the best worship leaders on the planet, Blake Goss as well as partake in one of the best worship bands, Freedom Live.

Leading worship has been something that I have been passionate about for the past few years of my life. I was only recently introduced to leading a short 2 1/2 years ago. During my junior year of high school an old student pastor of mine invited me to lead for the middle school group since the usual worship leader wasn’t going to be there. I had never sung before. I have never played a musical instrument before. I basically had never done anything that embraced the idea of leading worship.

I went in the day of, did a very rough practice with the band and took the stage. Ever since then, leading worship has been an unbelievable passion that I have. Looking back on the day, I will never forget the opportunity that Andrew Graham, the student pastor at the time, gave me. Since then, I have begun to “evolve” as a musician but still have a LONG way to go.

A few years later, during my freshman year of college, Pastor JR Lee and Todd Lollis invited me to lunch to tell me about Freedom Church. I grabbed lunch, ended up visiting the church, and got a random phone call from Blake one day asking me if I could play acoustic guitar since their usual guy wasn’t going to be there. Ever since then I have been able to co-lead with Blake every Sunday.

I love and have embraced this aspect of worship and service to God. It is an amazing privilege to lead at Freedom Church and experience what God is doing in and throughout the church.

Blake and myself get an excellent opportunity to embrace the culture of Freedom Church and, in turn, respond to that through writing music. We have been writing songs for particular series and ideas that have sprung from Freedom Church and have incorporated them into our worship on Sunday mornings. You can check out more about writing music here.

This upcoming fall we will be entering into the studio to produce our first ever CD that will be a response to our first year as a church. This is going to be a great opportunity for not only our church to have but also for other churches to hear our songs, and hopefully utilize them within their culture. We want our music to be God-breathed, Freedom inspired, and open for others to use. We believe that God has spoken life into our music and are extremely excited about getting this CD out to the public.

If you ever get a chance, be sure to swing by Freedom Church and experience what God is doing in the church. We exist so that people who are far from God can experience life in Christ. My avenue is leading worship. Other people get an opportunity to respond through greeting, ushering, setting-up, tearing-down, etc. Everyone’s part is equally as important so that the people who walk through our doors can encounter God and pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ.

What do you currently do at your church to help people who are far from God experience life in Christ.

We here are Freedom Church our excited to announce our first ever student conference, geared towards students grades 6-12. Engage 2009 is promising to be a day that you are sure to never forget. This is more than just a conference – but a catalyst for change for the students today. A change for Christ. That He would begin to conquer our schools. Our community. Our churches. Our homes. Our state. Our nation. Our lives.

This year at Engage we will be talking through the “Power of Prayer” and the impacts it can have on our lives. If we just took a few minutes to pray each day. Boldly. Unashamed. Humbly. Powerfully. What could happen if we just asked God to intervene in our lives and our situations.

This is not an ordinary, boring, conference that many people think of. We will be providing different elements of worship, creativity, and message. Check out these guys for some of the music that will be provided:: Freedom Live, Elite, Brandon Haley, and more! The speakers at this years event will be Pastor JR Lee, Megan Strange, and Tyler Orr.

I am inviting you to join us this year at Engage 2009. Ticket price is absolutely FREE with a $5 lunch charge the day of the Conference.

You can find out more info about Engage 2009 here.

I am looking forward to seeing you at Engage 09 and am praying for you!

Incredible day at Freedom Church this week! We saw 38 people baptized and we all joined in the celebration! I always love baptisms at Freedom because they are treated like a celebration with people clapping, cheering, screaming, yelling – just plain out excited!

Also loved the song line-up this week. The 9:30 crowd absolutely brought the energy!

Let It Resound – Freedom Live
Awakening- Freedom Live
To Know Your Name (In A Valley by the Sea Version) – Hillsong United
Breathe – Anberlin
With Everything – Hillsong United
You Are Here (The Same Power) – Hillsong

Killer week and I’m pumped to kick-off the Rebel series next week!

Spent the past week developing our Freedom Live musician/singer application. It’s an extensive process that requires a lot from the applicant as well as from us on our end here at Freedom Church. We created this application to help with the process of obtaining new musicians/singers and getting them involved within the life of Freedom Church. We believe that this application will help us propel to the next level of music within our church as well as relay our culture across to interested applicants.

If you are intersted in applying for a role on the Freedom Live Worship Team or getting a copy to incorporate into your churches culture, please shoot me an email at tyler@freedomlive.net with all of your info so we can get this info to you as quickly as possible.

New segment of my blog about whatever song I have been listening to/relating to/loving during the past week (as well as songs that Blake and I have talked about potentially doing at Freedom Church).

Hope it helps provide inspiration if you are looking for songs to simply listen to or lead in your church.

Feel free to leave comments regarding songs that are currently moving you.

Enjoy!

VERSE 1:
Tear down the walls see the world
Is there something we have missed
Turn from ourselves
Look beyond
There is so much more than this

PRE CHORUS:
And I dont need to see it to believe it
I dont need to see it to believe it
Cause I cant shake this
Fire deep inside my heart

VERSE 2:
Look to the skies hope arise
See His majesty revealed
More than this life there is love
There is hope and this is real

PRE CHORUS 2:
Cause I dont need to see it to believe it
I dont need to see it to believe it
Cause I cant shake this fire burning
Deep inside my heart

CHORUS:
This life is Yours and hope is rising
As Your glory floods our hearts
Let love tear down these walls
That all creation would
Come back to You
Its all for You

CHORUS 2:
Your Name is glorious
Glorious
Your love is changing us
Calling us
To worship in spirit and in truth
As all creation returns to You

BRIDGE:
Oh for all the sons and daughters
Who are walking in the darkness
You are calling us to lead them back to You
We will see Your spirit rising
As the lost come out of hiding
Every heart will see this hope we have in You

Best tabs and chords I have found so far:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/h/hillsong_united/tear_down_the_walls_crd.htm

http://guitarpraise.blogspot.com/2009/06/tear-down-walls.html

I love it when God brings people back to him. It’s an unbelievable experience watching the people find hope and joy that they have been longing for. It’s incredible observing old and young completely surrender and worship God. It’s phenomenal that we celebrate the return of the lost. The return of the broken. The return of the weary. The return of the burdened. It never gets old. It never gets boring. It never gets repetitive. It never gets constant. It never becomes ordinary.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

In 2 weeks Freedom Church will be experiencing baptism at a new level. That we have never seen before. It will be incredible. Revealing. Eye-Opening. Life-Chaning. Celebratory. Fullfilling. Outloud. Authentic. Unashamed. This is the point in which people will publicly proclaiming their faith in Christ like they have never done before. God will be  creating the recreated. Phenomenal.

If you are interested in being baptized during one of our services, shoot Corey an email here and we will get you hooked up!

This is going to be a day that NO ONE is going to want to miss. God’s name WILL be lifted high!

Registration is now live!

Be sure to swing by Freedom Generation’s website to get yours! (ticket price is free!)

http://www.freedomgeneration.tv/engage-09/

This is an event that you DO NOT want to miss!

Tomorrow.

It begins.

I promise you that it  is going to be life changing. Life altering. Life defining. Life  bringing. Life giving.

3 weeks.

9:30AM and 11:00AM

Prepare for change.

Change is scary.

Change is different.

Change is awkward.

Change is hard for some.

Change is easy for others.

Change is necessary.

We are in a growing society. Growing nation. Growing world. The things that were effective yesterday are no longer effective today. We are in a constant state of change.

Myspace to Facebook. CD’s to iPods. Desktops  to Laptops. Cell Phones to iPhones.

Change is constant.

If we don’t learn to embrace change at the rate that change takes place, then we are choosing to not embrace that which is necessary. The books of Acts is full of change. The church changing. The people changing. The culture changing. (all for the glory of God!)

Change is still around today (as it was then. and God is still calling us to this change) yet we seem to miss it and overlook it. We get comfortable. We lose insight. We forget to follow God.

We just recently changed our structure of student ministry here at Freedom. It isn’t conventional student ministry. It isn’t student ministry from 10 years ago. 5 years ago. 1 year ago. It’s different. New. Changed. Some people will dismiss it while others will embrace it.

Our desire as a staff at Freedom is to follow God’s heart and to change when called to change. To move when called to move. And that’s what we have done. We have changed.

I’m excited to see what God has in store. The student ministry isn’t about the production. It isn’t about the band. It isn’t about the music. It isn’t about the speaker. It’s about the heart. The heart of Freedom. The heart of God.

We’re all in this together. Changing. Moving.