When brothers Tim and Jon Neufeld, along with their bandmates made their way to Music City in 2004 as Starfield, they were just four bachelors dying to live on a tour bus. With great expectations and an arsenal of catchy songs, the band was ready to hit the open road and dedicate every waking moment to ministry and the pursuit of a successful musical career. Before long, the group’s hard work and persistence certainly paid off. With a slew of radio hits, tour dates and accolades, the stuff that makes for great press release fodder, Starfield seemed well on its way. But underneath the shiny surface of success was an ever-increasing tension. “For one in a million bands, the experience is exactly what they hoped for,” says Tim. “But for most artists, you’re forced to reconcile your dreams with reality. We were battling through the insecurities of this new level of influence and not feeling like we were always measuring up.” With a full tour schedule eating up Sunday mornings, the band found it increasingly difficult to find a church body they really connected with. Starving for solid teaching, fellowship and a place where they weren’t required to be “on,” the group realized more than anything it needed to be planted. Simply playing music, no matter how encouraging, just wasn’t cutting it. The band knew it had been made for something more. “We didn’t want to be a commodity that was bought and sold, we wanted to be sent,” Tim explains. “To be sent is to be commissioned, to be supported and held accountable by a group of people. To be sold is to be rogue agents following the largest paycheck and biggest opportunities.” It was time to regroup and reevaluate. Part of that process involved where the band would hang its proverbial hat. While the band knew that Nashville was where it needed to be in the beginning of its career, the guys ultimately pined to return to Canada. “We eventually made our way back home to Canada with a calling, a hope and a prayer that God would intervene for our desire to have a community to be sent from and to be mentored by,” Tim shares. “Of course, we didn’t know where we would end up.” Thankfully, God did. The pastoral team at The Bridge, a new church in Abbottsford [a suburb outside of Vancouver], and the worship leader, Vineyard artist Brian Doerksen, had been praying. “They felt like God had been prodding them to support the band in any way we needed,” Tim says. “That was such a direct answer to prayer and a special moment for us. To really love and serve the global Church as a band, we desperately needed to be serving and walking with our own local church as individuals. And that finally was happening.” With a growing foundation of support, teaching and accountability, the band felt recharged. Inspired by the congregation they were a part of, Starfield’s new songs are accessible enough for corporate worship. Instead of relying on stale, too-pristine arrangements, however, the top-notch production of I Will Go captures more of the band’s dynamic live sound, offering listeners a potent combination of substance and style. “The biggest theme of the record is really what the title says—I will go. It’s about the sense of entitlement that we’re born with in North America and fostered through our childhood and really until the day we die,” Tim says. “We’re so privileged, yet we’re so dissatisfied with our lives no matter how well we’re doing. There’s always this underlying pressure to be doing better, when the exact opposite should be the case. The pressure and call on our lives should be to live with less and give away more.” While Tim is the first to admit that he doesn’t have it all figured out, he wanted to offer up a worship song that “commissions people to go out and do something—not to just give money to those in need, but our time and energy.” “That idea gives a worship song a different agenda,” Tim continues. “‘I Will Go’ is a difficult song to sing and not act on.” Other tracks from I Will Go including the Psalms-inspired “Hiding Place” and the universal declaration of praise in “From the Corners of the Earth” are also worshipful in scope, but provide listeners with plenty of food for thought. “‘Hiding Place talks about suffering and how it’s not the opposite of blessing,” Tim says. “God’s hand is still moving through our times of suffering and developing our character by pushing us on to a deeper, more intimate understanding of who God is. And that’s exactly what we want not only as a band, but as followers of Jesus.” Instead of being sold, Starfield wanted to be sent—and now with I Will Go, their musical mission has never been more clear. Instead of offering the masses yet another CD, the band ventures out into a hurting world with an intentional message that encourages listeners to step outside the confines of comfort for a life of faith that’s truly extraordinary.