'Being the Only One of Your Culture in a Room is a Powerful Experience' -Worship Band, 'United Pursuit's' Incredible Spirit-led Journey

Josh Shepherd : Sep 20, 2018
Stream.org

"...A lot of our songs are created on the spot and we end up continuing to sing it. We have always celebrated the simplicity of that..." -Will Reagan

[Stream.org] They've never been signed to a record label. Yet the worship collective known as United Pursuit have had their songs broadcast on The Voice, recorded by several top artists—and even won a Grammy Award for "Break Every Chain" (as performed by Tasha Cobbs). (Photo: Will Reagan (center) and members of United Pursuit lead worship at the outdoor prayer gathering OneRace Stone Mountain in Atlanta, Georgia on August 25, 2018/via The Stream)

Will Reagan and his team were among several diverse music artists at OneRace Stone Mountain, a prayer gathering of over 20,000 people in Atlanta, Georgia, centered on spiritual revival and racial unity. In an interview, he shares how they began, their discovery of racial divisions, why reconciliation matters and having ears to hear.

It's been quite a journey for these friends based primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee. Reagan, his wife Andrea Marie, Brock Human, Michael Ketterer, Nathan Fray and other team members started making worship albums in 2008. Then the release Simple Gospel, ranked by Billboard as a top Christian album in 2015, spread their distinctly improvised, fluid style to a national audience.

"Most of us come from pretty conservative church environments," frontman Will Reagan tells The Stream. "Then we started hearing this house of prayer spontaneous worship where it goes for hours. When you run out of worship songs to sing, it's ok to actually make something up!"

Connecting with God and Each Other

The Stream: What was the impetus for United Pursuit?

Will Reagan: It's funny because we're here at Stone Mountain Park. A decade ago, a friend got us this little change-over 10-minute worship set at a Christian music festival here. At the time, we thought it was the biggest deal ever. There wasn't a band name at the time, but we had started writing songs.

We first met each other spending a summer in Mozambique at the Iris Global mission's training school. It wasn't a band. We just worshipped with a bunch of 20 year-old African pastors who were learning how to lead their churches in the bush. The first songs we ever wrote were there in that experience.

During that time... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here.

Click here to continue reading.