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Red Rocks Worship

 

Tyler Roberts felt a surge of excitement as he took his seat in the balcony at the Paramount Theater to see one of the world’s best-known Christian worship groups, Bethel Music. That show in February 2016 was his first at the venerable venue in downtown Denver, and instantly he envisioned his own worship group on that stage.

“I texted my team as soon as I got there,” recalled Roberts, ministry leader of the music team at Red Rocks Church, a rapidly growing non-denominational Christian church with “campuses” in four Jefferson County suburbs.

“I was like, ‘One day we’re going to do a worship night here.’ A dream, a bucket list.”

That dream became reality faster than he could have imagined. This past February Red Rocks Worship signed a deal with Sony Music/Essential Worship, which publishes some of the best-known bands in Christian music, including Casting Crowns, Tenth Avenue North, Matt Maher and Steven Curtis Chapman. And only 15 months after Roberts saw that Bethel show at the Paramount, Red Rocks Worship recorded a live album there before a sold-out audience.

 

That album, “Here,” will be released Sept. 22, and Red Rocks Worship will play Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Sept. 19 as part of Worship on the Rocks with Jesus Culture, United Pursuit and Josh Garrels. The album was produced by Jeremy Edwardson.

“Any time you have a strong partner come in like Sony Music Group, you know you’re on to something,” Edwardson said. “I think they probably saw the same thing I did: just a huge community in Denver that’s growing so fast and an amazing worship team that is growing along with the church and awesome songs being written.

Red Rocks Worship previously self-published two EPs for distribution within the church, but the Sony deal has the potential to take it national. It’s an opportunity Roberts couldn’t have foreseen that night he allowed himself to dream at the Paramount.

“Back then we thought, ‘Oh, if we could just do that,’ ” Roberts said. “Now, we’ve got to the point where it’s like, ‘This is the catalyst to whatever God has for us,’ how he wants to use Red Rocks Church through worship and minister to people who are maybe un-churched, unfamiliar with God, maybe bring a fresh and really authentic sound to the world.”

Red Rocks Church has seen spectacular growth since it was founded in 2005, with just 107 people at its first service in a rented room at Heritage Square. The church now attracts up to 13,000 worshipers weekly at its four campuses, with attendance at Easter services this year topping 24,000. It also has satellite campuses at two Colorado prisons and another in Brussels, Belgium.

Red Rocks recorded the album at the Paramount on May 11. When the show was announced on March 26, 2,800 tickets sold out in two minutes.

“Music is the universal language. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what language you speak, you can feel music. When you couple that with the presence of God, there’s just nothing like it.”