Awaken Music Rouses Hearts

Praising and honoring God with music has a way of deeply touching the hearts of your congregation in unique and powerful ways. Campus Pastor Mike Yeager and the worship team at Awaken Church in San Diego strive to write the kind of music that reaches people beyond the walls of their church and challenges them to strengthen their faith.

“We want to write music that resurrects Christian courage,” said Pastor Yeager.

In this month’s Moving Mountains Podcast episode, Pastor Yeager joins Pushpay Host Pam Flanery to share the inspiration behind their recent album, “Lionheart.”

The Church

Lead Pastors Jurgen and Leanne Matthesius started Awaken Church in San Diego with their first service on August 20, 2005. Today, the church has grown to five campuses in California and one in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to their ministry in California, the couple have a long history of growing churches in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.

Mike and Katy Yeager were active members for ten years before they were asked to lead the Eastlake Campus in Chula Vista, California. He hadn’t planned on becoming a pastor, but in January 2020, the husband and wife team began their ministry.

“The previous pastor had a big heart to have original music come out of our church,” said Pastor Yeager. “The church had been around for 16 years but it was never the season for it. Right before COVID hit, I was in a meeting with our pastor and he felt the season was now.”

Mike had a career as a musician and songwriter and left it behind to start a family and pursue a career and doctorate education. The pandemic and his new role offered the perfect opportunity to revive his music and songwriting skills.

The Music

The sound of an electric guitar and the slow raspy voice of their lead singer opens their original track, “Lionheart.” It builds up to an explosive trio of sounds from the drums and keyboard and a powerful chorus – “You come at me with a sword, but I’ve got a sling, just one stone is all I need, you’re in for a rude awakening.” It’s not the typical worship song that one would hear at a Sunday service, but rather a gritty, bold sound that pulls the listener into their core message: “You can’t shake this lionheart.”

The California ban on indoor gatherings and restrictions on churches in 2020 in part inspired Pastor Yeager to write the music you’ll find in their eight-track album. His church was one of the few that opened their doors in 2020 and fought to remain open. From “Lionheart” to “Authority” to “We’ve Already Won,” he wanted the lyrics to resonate profoundly with Christians who felt discriminated against from practicing their faith.

“It carries a message that emboldens people who call themselves Christ followers,” said Yeager.

The Tech

In the podcast, Pam and Mike talked about how so many worship teams have songs within them, borne out of their experiences, and that they just need the ability and chance to write. Pushpay is passionate about creating tech that helps you better serve your people. That’s why we created our Lyric and Chord Chart Editor.

It provides worship leaders with the ability to write chord and lyric charts, easily customize song arrangements, transpose chord progressions,and attach the files to your worship service plan for your team to access. They can also easily import songs into the song library using Song Select from CCLI, or with the PCO Integration. It’s the perfect solution for any church that wants to create great songs while streamlining ministry management.

Together, We Make Music That Touches Hearts

“I want to challenge Christian artists and worship leaders to not just make music that’s good for Christian music, but make music that’s good for music,” Yeager emphasized.

Is there a song in you? Draw inspiration from Pastor Yeager as he chats through more of his inspiration for the album with Host Pam Flannery in our latest Moving Mountains Podcast here.

Interested in listening or purchasing the “Lionheart” album? Visit their website.