Daystar Worship On How God Led Them to Record Their New EP "Light Will Find"

Daystar Worship is the worship ministry of Daystar Church based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Currently Daystar Worship is comprised of around 75 musicians that lead worship for ten services per week. Although Daystar Worship serves many hours a week, the worship staff, comprised of Eric Freeman, Chris Heeter and Kierre Bjorn Lindsay, are passionate about writing original music for Daystar Church and other worship ministries around the country.  

Recently, Daystar Worshiphas signed with DREAM Records. They plan on releasing their new EP  "Light will Find" on Friday, March 24th. That will be followed by a full album, which will be released in early 2018. The full album will be from a live recording scheduled to take place in the fall of 2017 at Daystar Church's new Hunter Hills Campus in Greensboro, NC. 

Q: Tell us a little about Daystar Church.

A: Daystar Church started around 16 years ago with a handful of college students, a small building and huge dreams to impact the world. Over the years Daystar Church has grown and expanded, which has also expanded Daystar Worship's ministry. Daystar Church has been named one of the fastest growing churches in America by Outreach Magazine in previous years. In the last five years, more than 4000 people have accepted Christ and more than 1000 have been baptized during Sunday services.

In February of 2012, Daystar decided to become a multi-site church. Daystar's second campus launched at Northern Guilford High School and Daystar's third campus launched in September of 2013 at Kernodle Middle School. Two years later Daystar launched their Spanish campus, Daystar En Español. Becoming a multi-site church allowed Daystar to double in size without over extending themselves financially. Because of the continual growth and subsequent space restrictions, Daystar has recently purchased two properties in order build permanent facilities. The new Hunter Hills facility will open in the September of 2017.

Q: I have read that there are about 75 worship leaders involved in your worship team. This is a huge team. Are they mostly volunteers? What do you look out for when you were choosing your various worship leaders?

A: The majority of our musicians are volunteers. We have three full-time staff members in our Worship Ministry. We created a development process to assimilate musicians into our teams. The name of this process is Cultivate and its purpose is exactly what the name implies, to cultivate our musicians both spiritually and musically. Once a musician has auditioned and has been approved, they enter Cultivate and are assigned a Cultivate Leader who helps develop them on their perspective instrument and in their relationship with the Lord. Each musician is required to lead worship on a Team Night where their performance is videoed and they and their leader critiques their musicianship and leadership. Once a Leader approves the musician to graduate they are assimilated into our teams. Our Cultivate graduations and a huge celebration in which all of Daystar Worship joins together to celebrate this huge accomplishment of each individual.

Q: How did the Lord lead you to record your own music?

A: Daystar Worship originally had no aspirations of writing and producing their own music. The first songs were written in the fall of 2013 for a Christmas series called, A Christmas Carol. The team took traditional Christmas carols and added new arrangements, instrumentation and bridges. It was so well received that videos were made, CD's were produced and the music was released on iTunes. The next year Daystar Worship commissioned a similar project called "King of Glory." This album contained six traditional Christmas songs with new arrangements and lyrics, two instrumentals and two original songs. The overwhelming response both inside and outside the church encouraged the team to continue writing and performing original music. That led Daystar Worship to release another EP, "Changed Forever," which released March 22, 2016. "Changed Forever" contains four original songs performed by Daystar musicians.

Q: How then did you end up working with Dream Worship?

A: In the fall of 2016 Gat 3 Studio in Charlotte, NC, contacted Daystar Worship. After meeting with the ownership, Gat 3 then recommended Daystar's music to the Dream Label Group. After receiving the recommendation and listening to the music and vision behind Daystar, they offered a contract to Daystar Worship. Dream will be releasing Daystar's newest EP, Light Will Find on Friday, March 31st . Throughout the rest of year Daystar Worship will be writing and rearranging music for their live album recording in the Spring of 2018. This album will be released by Dream later that year.

Q: Since there are so many worship teams out there releasing their own music, what sets your music apart?

A: Our music is written primarily for our church. We are trying to capture the heart and vision of our church in music. We want to create our "song" to sing over our ministry and city. Our music is unique to Daystar Church. However, we know from past experience our music has also resonated with other churches and artists. Our desire is to distribute our music to as many who want to sing these songs both personally and congregationally. The main unique quality of our music is found in its diversity. When listening, you will hear many influences, which is our desire. Daystar Church is committed to being a diverse church and we want our music to appeal to as many people as possible.

Q: Let's talk about "Light Will Find," your new EP with Dream Worship. Why are you excited about this collection?

A: First, I must say that we are humbled and honored to be considered by Dream. We believe God brought about this partnership because we did not seek it out. God brought it to us. Our desire is to be the most life-giving artist group that Dream works with. This partnership has pushed us to excellence something that is worthy of the Dream record label.

Q: 2 out of the 4 cuts here have the word "light" in its titles. Is this done on purpose? If so, why is this motif of "light" important?

A: Yes, the song titles and album graphics capture a theme. The box on the album represents the walls of Christianity. Our music is getting out of the box and the light within the church body is radiating out to reach the world. We are excited about these songs because they capture the heart of our church and many churches. We are in the process of moving into two large buildings in new areas of our city. We are bringing light to new locations. We know that is not possible outside of the power and light of the Holy Spirit. The concept of shining bright in a dark culture is a theme that resonates with many believers all over the world.

Q: What's next for you? Are you going to follow up with a full length album soon? If so, when?

A: Yes, Daystar Worship songwriters will be writing new music through the remainder of 2017. Our plan is to record a new live album in early 2018 with Gat3 Studio at our new 1,000 seat Hunter Hills campus. This will be our first live album and we are excited about capturing live worship from within our church. 

Tags : daystar church daystar worship light will find daystar worship light will find ep review dream records daystar worship interview