Pierce Church’s worship team has expanded its reach from those in its Sunday morning services to anyone who has a device to stream music on.
Pierce Church Worship released its first studio album “Radiance” on January 19 this year. It has 13 different songs, one for each chapter of Hebrews.
The album transpired when the worship team wrote songs for the book of Hebrews to pair with the pastor's sermon series.
The idea for writing songs came the previous summer in 2022 when the group wrote several songs focusing on the Psalms.
The book of Psalms started a songwriting frenzy for the worship team. They took it more seriously the next summer when they decided to write a song for each chapter of Hebrews.
“Last summer, once a week, we would get together to work on the songs, and then on each Sunday, we would perform the song that we had written for that particular chapter,” said Jeff Aupperle, worship leader at Pierce and associate dean of calling and career at Taylor.
Audrey Felger (‘08), the worship director for Pierce church, graduated from Taylor with an art degree, and she and her husband Jacob decided to stay in the area because it felt like home.
As her husband received a job teaching with Mississinewa Community Schools, the two got plugged into what was then Upland United Methodist Church.
Felger grew up performing music, so when the opportunity to join the worship team arose, she took it.
Over the years, the team grew to include additional members of the Taylor community, such as Aupperle.
Aupperle started attending Pierce around 2014, after completing his master’s degree at Taylor. The director of operations at Pierce Church, Connor Reagan (‘17) also graduated from Taylor and joined the worship team recently.
“We all are Taylor alumni, but we're also kind of connected to Taylor as teachers,” Aupperle said, “so that's been kind of a fun way to stay connected.”
Most of the alumni at Pierce have maintained a connection to Taylor over the years. Aupperle serves in the CCO, Felger has begun teaching classes as an adjunct professor and Reagen has helped out in the theatre department.
While they all are connected to Taylor, the church is what connected them and blossomed their relationships to be able to write music together.
“I think, for all of us (on the worship team) to be so open and candid with what we made and sometimes we've adjusted each other's work, it seemed like we're better for it,” Felger said.
While it can be daunting to collaborate with others on creative projects, the team has found it to be a joyful process.
In preparation for performing the song on Sunday, each week, the group met on Wednesday night. They would get dinner together and dive into the scripture, praying through it, reading it, and looking up commentaries.
This process started the previous year during the Psalms and they did this to ensure they created a song that truly resembled the chapter of Hebrews they performed that given week.
“I mean, it was like a community in its fine form,” Felger said, “those people are all top-notch people.”
As they performed song after song each week, the congregation often asked to hear the songs again.
Thankfully, Felger was connected with the former youth pastor of Pierce, Mike Walter who had experience as a producer and could help them record the songs, so they decided to create an album.
They then recorded it in a studio and released it as their first album: “Radiance.”
The title track is inspired by Hebrews 1:3: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
“What our hope is, is that, you know, that the songs that were a real blessing to us could also be a blessing to others,” Aupperlee said.
For those who are interested in listening, they can find it on any streaming platform, including this link, available on Spotify: Radiance.
