Writing "Free To Worship You" - the full length worship album - was a unique experience. The goal wasn't to write another worship album...Christian music is saturated with worship albums that sound generally similar. Spiritually speaking: worshipping Jesus through music is a beautiful goal. MUSICALLY SPEAKING: worship-music lacks a certain...variety. But creating "creative" music for worship presents formidable challenges, many of which are largely "cultural." Some churches eagerly designate certain styles as "performance" while others embrace variety. Clearly...if a "worship project" with musical diversity was to succeed, it would require specific goals and/or be given a very specific purpose to transcend "performance." It is the heart behind the music, the why(s) that make it worship.

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First, the words needed to be OBVIOUSLY JESUS-CENTERED, communicating beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were about Jesus and would therefore be at home in church. Regardless of musical preference, it's difficult for a Christian to argue against lyrics that describe Jesus' death, burial and resurrection for the purpose of reconciliation and eternal relationship with Father God. What truly sets Christian music apart is the message; the lyrics required zero compromise. The whole project would be useless if it did not communicate a deep love of - and worship to - Jesus Christ.

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Next, "Free To Worship You" is written to be the companion to the "Worship Aware" textbook, a sister-project that legitimizes everything the book describes. It's hard to accept the advice of an author without experiencing any of their "practical" skills. It's hard to say "play like this" without providing a sonic example. It's hard to say "mix your service like this" without mixing a song myself and releasing it as a template. It's hard to give advice about songwriting without releasing an original song. Therefore the album's secondary purpose is to legitimize what is written in Worship Aware, also the reason why I completed the ENTIRE PROJECT myself: all songwriting, instrumentation, programming, arranging, mixing and mastering. I created a sonic version of the textbook so everyone could learn from both. Many of the concepts written in Worship Aware are specifically arranged in "Free To Worship You."

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Following this, the album was written to be musically diverse: hard rock, drum'n'bass, techno, disco/funk, hip hop, dubstep, industrial, even the beloved "normal" Sunday-morning CCM. Why was diversity so important despite the danger of some judging it "performance?" The reason is about reaching the unsaved who wouldn't normally find themselves in church. I represent a large culture that values a pounding beat, who love the music as much, if not more, than the lyrical message. It is for these that the music has been written to be exciting so that it would not be rejected for being "boring." This is a primary weakness of CCM: it is written largely for Christian audiences as a saleable product for Christian music labels but it cannot effectively be seen as "outreach" to people who reject the message because of the music. One of the reasons CHRISTIANS can worship to less-stimulating music is because their maturity-of-faith values spiritual connection with God ABOVE musical preferences. If the goal was ONLY to facilitate connection between God and Christians, musical diversity would be unnecessary. However, it has been on my heart to create worship-music that isn't ONLY for Christians. Thousands of songs achieve that goal already, and the Church shouldn't seek to serve its attending members ONLY. The Gospel is about reaching those that DON'T value the presence of God as Christians do. They might, if the music made them excited about Jesus.

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This brings up a question, and another goal: do we only write for people outside of the church? Of course not! Many faithful have come and worshipped longer than some of us have lived. Christian songwriters serve them to. We can't expect everyone in church to "feel the presence" listening to dubstep. Sometimes CCM is more appropriate. Therefore, it was necessary to write songs for Sunday-morning demographics, creating balance between diversity and predictability, one that is woefully lacking in current worship music. A primary goal of "Free To Worship You" was to provide both reverent and "pounding beat" songs, in equal numbers. This balance is simply unavailable in the majority of worship releases.