Darrell Evans
Twenty-nine-year-old musician and songwriter Darrell Evans is witnessing a fresh move of God that is changing the face of contemporary worship. As a result, freedom in worship is breaking through barriers of age, race, and denomination.
Evans’ new album, appropriately entitled Freedom, captures the heart of this movement. "It’s a documentation of my fellowship with Jesus," said Evans. "The recording time was like a retreat where God came and touched us. It was Jesus in this room with us while we played our hearts out to the Lord."
According to Evans, Freedom is crafted to draw people who haven’t developed a passionate lifestyle of worship, leading them into the presence of God. This is the very foundation that Evans has laid for his ministry -- to minister worship to the Lord while helping people experience God through passionate worship. Evans also seeks to create an atmosphere for the lost to accommodate what the Holy Spirit wants to do in their lives.
Evans accepted Christ into his life at age 11 and began writing songs when he was only 14. By age 16, he had begun leading fellow youth in worship. Later, the former Oral Roberts University student went on to serve as youth pastor and worship leader for churches in California, Washington, and Oklahoma.
It was while serving at a Vineyard church in Tulsa that Evans made his professional songwriting debut with "Let The River Flow," which was published by Mercy/Vineyard Publishing in 1995.
Later, while serving at Open Bible Fellowship in Tulsa, Evans began a relationship with Integrity Incorporated writing songs for the Hosanna! Music label and recording his first album, Let The River Flow. The project later garnered a Dove Award nomination for Praise and Worship Album of the Year. Shortly thereafter, Evans recorded songs for other Integrity albums such as Songs From The Message - The Way Of Love, Because We Believe, and Our Heart.
Darrell eventually left his position at Open Bible to launch River Flow Ministries, a full-time worship concert ministry that is taking him into hundreds of churches around the country. He also participates in various worship seminars and Christian music festivals.
In late 1997, Evans transitioned to Vertical Music, a newly launched Integrity label created to reflect emerging music trends among teens and young adults in the Church. According to Danny McGuffey, Chief Marketing Officer, Integrity Incorporated, "Darrell perfectly represents the audience we want to reach…young people who are looking for more than entertainment, passionate young adults who want to know God intimately and desire music that leads them into His presence."
Chris Thomason, Vice President of Integrity Creative Group adds, "Vertical Music is God to man -- man to God, a vertical relationship musically and spiritually."
Evans’ debut album on the Vertical label was You Are I AM (January 1998), an interactive CD that contains video clips, interviews, and multi media content. Freedom released in September 1998.
Evans says that the new album is about "stretching out boundaries that we put on ourselves, not the boundaries that God has put on us."
With this release, he hopes to see "praise and worship music extend from the Church perimeter and go out to the streets… and grab a whole new generation of worshipers."
"Musically, it goes out there a bit more," says Evans of Freedom’s adult alternative, guitar-driven style of praise and worship. Highlights include guitar solos by Vertical Music label mate and newcomer, Lincoln Brewster. In addition to lending his guitar, Brewster also contributed vocals on several songs.
Evans wrote or co-wrote all of the lyrics for Freedom, which was produced by Paul Mills, multiple Dove Award winner. Mills is known for his work with artists such as Twila Paris, Aaron Jeoffrey, and Wayne Watson, as well as Hollywood soundtracks.
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Darrell Evans
Darrell has been involved in worship ministry for the past 14 years. He began his formal ministerial training by attending L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles, California. During this time, Darrell led worship and served as the high school and college leader at Studio City Foursquare Church in Los Angeles. Later, Darrell moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he led worship at the Tulsa Vineyard Church. It was during this time that he wrote the song "Let the River Flow." While in Tulsa, he resumed his formal education at Oral Roberts University, where he studied evangelism. During his stay at ORU, Darrell traveled with the school's music ministry program which took him to Holland and across the United States. Soon after this, Darrell went on to become involved in worship ministry at University Family Fellowship in Reno, Nevada.
Most recently, Darrell served as the worship pastor at Open Bible Fellowship Church in Tulsa/Jenks, Oklahoma. While serving this church, Darrell received numerous songs of celebration and passionate, intimate worship from the Lord. Many of these songs have since been recorded by the Vineyard Music Group and Teen Mania ministries. The worship leading experience at Open Bible Fellowship culminated in the recording of the Hosanna! Integrity album Let the River Flow. Since that recording, the Lord has called Darrell out to minister to the body of Christ at large both as a recording artist and as a traveling worship minister, visiting local churches throughout the US and abroad.
Darrell is currently a recording artist for Vertical Music, a newly launched Hosanna! Integrity label. His latest releaseFreedom is changing the face of contemporary worship. Through forthcoming albums and ministry tours, Darrell hopes to "wash the feet" of the body of Christ as the Lord ministers healing and renewal to His people and they go deeper in the experience and lifestyle of worship.
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