Thursday, June 28, 2007

Freedom

Darrell Evans is the writer of many of the songs we sing in worship. Songs like Trading My Sorrows, Freedom, Let the River Flow, and Your Love is Extravagant. Darrell began his ministry training at L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles, California. Darrell led worship at Tulsa Vineyard Church while he was a student at Oral Roberts University and he served as worship pastor at Open Bible Fellowship Church in Jenks, Oklahoma which opened the door to his first of the Integrity albums.
However, for Darrell, all this information doesn’t really describe who he is. They’re just facts and don’t really give you a clear sense of the person inside.
“I want people to know who I am. I want them to know the challenges that I have experienced and overcome because there may be something in my journey that they can connect with. In sharing my walk with the Lord, they can see that it isn’t always easy and maybe they will be able to identify with me and say…Hey, someone else experienced what I am going through.”
With the busyness of travel and full-time ministry, Darrell Evans slowly began to let his relationship with the Lord take a backseat. As that continued to happen, Darrell began to experience frustration in his personal life. His relationship with his wife began to suffer and he began to struggle with an addiction to gambling.
“I had stopped cultivating my secret place with the Lord and because of it, everything else was unraveling. Gambling became my escape and it ended up affecting every area of my life and I hurt a lot of people. The vacuum from my lack of spending time with the Lord was swallowing everything in my life.”The gambling problem spiraled and eventually his marriage ended in a divorce as a result. For Darrell, that seemed like the end for him. Desperately looking for answers, he took 6 months off to re-evaluate his life. Numerous counseling sessions and advice from friends and family brought him some peace; but he needed more.
Darrell finally found freedom at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was traveling back to Tulsa from Washington State with a friend. Everything he owned was in the back of the fifteen passenger van that they were driving. Darrell was introduced to Ross Parsley(worship pastor) and this godly men helped him get back on his feet. “My connection and friendship with Ross and his willingness to be there for me regardless of what I had done was the basis for my freedom. It was their devotion to loving me no matter what, that truly reflected God’s love into my heart and I experienced, for the first time, who I am in Christ.” After that, everything began to change for him. Today, Darrell is once again traveling and ministering all over the country. Before, I would sing about freedom and my heart would be truly crying out for it but now I am walking in that freedom.

http://www.darrellevans.com/