On a beautiful summer day in the mountainous area of north Idaho, a group of musicians came together. What blossomed from that gathering is what you see on this website. We gathered with no agenda other than to make music and practice being in oneness with Yahweh. We talk about that experience in this video and how it led to our first album...
Several years prior to our gathering at Del's north Idaho home in the summer of 2021, we'd each experienced a season of leaving corporate worship because we wanted more. What is that "more?" It's a yearning for the fullness of who God is and how we partner with Him in governing all of creation. For us, that's through music - music that's not put into a box of the typical worship standard. You know how that works... three fast songs followed by two slow songs that allow people to get hyped first up so they can then "soak" in the presence of God. It was a time where worship teams were charged with leading others into the presence of God. However, we began to understand that we can live in the presence of God 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
With a new mindset before us, we purposed to let go of what we deemed the standard model for worship, allowing our entire beings to entrain and entangle with the very nature of God. Our intent started out as an exercise in learning to "play nice" with one another musically so we could come into that place of oneness. As you'll notice in the video, God had other plans. From that point on, we became the Mystic Frequency Collaborative.
What Caused our Mindsets to Change?
Remember that the standard model for worship is that a single leader directs the flow of the music portion of a service. Everyone else on the team generally follows the direction of the leader, who is often a singer/instrumentalist. We expect a lead singer because that's what we're used to.
For me (Del), I was on a retreat in 2013 where the group wanted to worship. There was only one problem - we had no singer. You learn to make do so I brought my keyboard and a bunch of percussion instruments along with my flags. I taught everyone how to play all the percussion instruments and said, "OK everyone! Let's just begin to play and listen to one another and worship that way." Out of a group of more than ten people, only two of us were musicians. At first, the sound was a bit chaotic but by the final night of the retreat, an amazing thing happened. As we synced with one another, there was a heavy presence of the angelic in the room. Everyone felt it. Had we stuck to the standard worship model, we would have missed the opportunity.
Fast forward three more years and I found out that NW Ekklesia was doing the same thing! Again, they had no worship leaders in the group. They simply gathered every Saturday night in a large drum circle and let things occur naturally. Eventually, I joined the ekklesia where we continue to musically explore what we've deemed as a "new sound" in worship.
I sense that many are being led out of the standard worship model into something more spontaneous and intuitive. As with all things, not everyone is called to that place. But for those who are, this is an opportunity to explore what that looks like. As you continue to follow our website, enjoy our adventures!