Band of friends: Briercrest alums form worship band

Posted: June 10, 2014

A band of Briercrest alums is preparing to take its show on the road.

The friends have formed a worship band called Captive and Free which is made up of two married couples, Megan and Dan Jensen, Marie Helene and Daiton Vike along with Jake York, Rob Schmidtke, and Christopher Haskell.

The idea for the band happened during a casual conversation.

“We just started by joking about it and then we were like, ‘Man, we could actually do this,’” Megan Jensen explained. “We just realized all of us were sort of in the same place in life (wondering) ‘What’s next?’”

Besides loving music, Megan says the group is bound by a common goal.

“Loving God and loving people around us – and then music is the way to do that.” she exclaimed. “I feel like we are all really on the same page about that.”

Megan went on to explain the reasoning behind the band’s name Captive and Free.

“I think what we like about the name is they’re two opposite terms,” she said. “They’re actually brought together to work wonderfully through God’s love. Being captive to that actually brings a freedom. We like the name because you can share the Gospel in it. It’s all about God’s love – about Jesus.”

The band hopes to begin performing locally in September.

“We’d like to arrange an actual first tour sometime in October or November,” Dan Jensen said.

The band members will probably relocate to Alberta in 2015.

“Not to get out of Caronport,” Dan interjected. “I think we all want to start fresh – start this unknown journey as one instead of just lingering out from this place.”

Megan sees the bonuses as well as the challenges of having friends as bandmates.

“I think you get even closer when you are actually doing ministry together,” she said. “I think there will be hard things in that too especially since there are some really different personalities. God can use all those difficult things and make the most beautiful thing.”

Dan says there’s one particular way he hopes to see the band make an impact.

“Just to see people experience freedom,” he said. “That people can really have an encounter with the love of God which does bring that freedom. That’s what I want to see no matter how big we are – no matter how many shows we play.”

“I wouldn’t say my big dream is to be on the big stage,” Megan added. “It’s seeing people come to know the Lord in our travels and sharing the Gospel with people and seeing people healed emotionally and physically.”

“We kind of got this picture of constellations (of churches),” she continued. “Maybe we’d be the band that would get to travel and connect the dots of all these churches that are really pursuing the Lord and seeking Him.”

Band member Marie Helene Vike agrees.

"We feel The Lord is leading us to carry His presence in our music not only lyrically but also musically and to be vessels of the Holy Spirit to reach deep inside of the hearts of both believers and unbelievers,” she said. “We are very excited for what God is doing and where He is leading us and look forward to the journey that lies ahead"

Dan says that journey may eventually be a cross country tour.

Jeux de voiture Jogos de Carros

“We’re obviously in contact with a lot of our Briercrest peers,” he explained. “There are tons of alumni out there who have youth groups and have a church presence and say, ‘I would love to host you guys.’ That’s been really affirming. We’ve dreamt about taking a coast to coast tour because we have connections in every province and we think that’s actually not that far off of a reality. We could probably do it fairly easily.”

More information about Captive and Free can be found on the band’s Facebook page.