There's a community of songwriters and worshippers banding together in Alabama, and in the thick of it all is Jason Dillon. The singer, worship leader and church planter has been deeply involved in writing songs and serving the local church for 15 years, and his experiences have been poured out into his new, recently released EP.

I find out just what's happening in the South, as well as about the journey on which God has taken Dillon.

Tell us some things about you--family, friends, job, etc.!

Like most people, my life is busy! I am a husband of 11 years and father of four great kids. I am self-employed and an entrepreneur to the core. In a ministry capacity, I am serving as the worship leader at Canvas Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The culture of the church is pure hunger! Being in a place full of hunger for the presence and power of God is so refreshing and we have the honor of watching God do a lot of amazing things in people's lives.
 
What's the Lord doing in Alabama and the surrounding areas? It seems to me that there's definitely a worship movement happening!

Very true! We are truly seeing something special happening here in Birmingham. We have a lot of great churches, and there is a really rare unity amongst the churches to see revival hit our city. It's actually more than unity; it's a family. We may worship at different times and places on Sundays, but we have a common heart to see the love of Jesus change lives and the Kingdom of God invade Birmingham.

The artwork on your self-titled album is amazing. Who made it, and why'd you decide to go with the sailing ship/ink blot thing?

Great question! I get this a lot actually, and there is so much meaning in the artwork. The design came from Ben J. Adams, an artist and old friend from Knoxville, Tennessee. 

There are a lot of details to the art, but the most significant detail of the artwork is the ship. The ship is the Mayflower and reminds us of a group that left their old life behind for a life of freedom and to begin forging a new identity as people and and a nation. Similarly, when we are adopted as sons and daughters from our heavenly Father we leave our old life behind to find freedom, identity, and purpose through relationship with Him.
 
You've been involved in planting churches. Tell us about that a little. Have those experiences fed into any of the songs on your album?

As newlyweds, my wife Christy and I spent four years helping The Church at Knoxville in Knoxville, Tennessee. Most recently, we have been a part of a very young church plant in Birmingham called Canvas Church. Church planting is exciting and exhausting all-in-one! I have been the worship leader through the years by title but as any church planter knows, we always wear lots of hats. 

I have learned in every season of ministry that there is always a song and I have been writing since I learned how to play and sing. It's hard to get away from songwriting because it's mostly about who you are, not what you do. I am always writing down what the Lord is doing. All of the songs of the current release were written in the last two years, with the exception of "Speak My Name." That song has transcended every season I have walked through.

Who have been some of your favorite artists in worship who've inspired you, and why?

There never seems to be a lack of inspiration from other artists for lots of different reasons. The guys from United Pursuit have such a genuine community with each other and intimacy with the Lord. I love the raw tenacity and bold missional side of Daniel Bashta and Lindy Conant. Bethel Music models an incredible culture of family and carries authority. Finally, John Mark McMillan brings an honesty and poetic brilliance to modern worship music that is really hard to find.
 
Your self-titled debut came out recently. What is your hope people come away with when they've heard it? Is this made for personal devotional time, corporate worship in churches, or both? What are some of the things you came out of this hoping for?

There are songs for both personal and corporate worship on the album. They started as songs meant for the group of people the Lord has entrusted me with (our church) and has grown from there. 

If I were to be completely honest, I didn't have a mission in mind or a demographic I was targeting for the album. My hope was simply to be faithful through a long process of writing and producing and getting the music out there. In other words, the whole experience and the end result was mainly the Lord accomplishing something in my heart. He was teaching me to be faithful, to overcome, and to know Him in a way I may never have known Him if I didn't step out in faith. I am thankful that a lot of people have been blessed by the music.

You have a song "We Are the Church," a rallying cry to believers to know that God is with us and we are victorious. Why was this important for you to put last on the record?

This song was written to be a little polarizing and a plea for the Church to wake up! The Church is God's plan to save the world and there isn't a Plan B. The Church does so many things well like preach the gospel, discipleship, worship, and community. But being Jesus to the world is hard for a lot of Christians. 

As people listen to the album, I want their lasting thought to be that God is making his appeal to the world through us, and that we are empowered to do it! The church cannot be contained by the walls of our buildings, but it is God's people empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus did - he brought the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth through love.
 
What's next for you? How can people be praying?

We are finishing writing for our next album, a full length project we are releasing next Spring! Thanks for praying for us, we are building a great community of writers, worship leaders and musicians to spread hope and revival throughout Birmingham and the Southeast. Pray that the fire spreads!