Vertical Call Worship's Elijah Runyan Chats About His Passion, Responsibilities & Their New Album

Vertical Call Worship has just released their brand new album "Only One." Vertical Call Worship is a community of worshipers based out of Vertical Call church in beautiful Sonoma County CA. Vertical Call worship is lead by Elijah and Christina Runyan. Vertical Call worship is made up of passionate worshipers whose desire is to see people saved healed and delivered through praise and worship. 

Vertical Call Ministries located in Santa Rosa, CA is an equipping center led by senior leader Carter Wood.  This is what the team has to say about their ministry:  "Our primary passion is to create a culture of revival, locally nationally and internationally, continually pursuing the manifest presence of God. Our mandate is the training and equipping of believers to see their individual and corporate dreams fulfilled. We create opportunity for all believers to answer the call of Christ's commission, to go into all the world with "signs" following."

We are honored to catch up with Vertical Call's Worship's Elijiah Runyan for this exclusive Hallels' interview.

Hallels:  Elijah, thanks for your time.  You are a man who wear many hats.  You are the owner of a label, a songwriter, a worship pastor and so much more.  Tell us more about yourself and Vertical Worship. 

Elijah: well, first and foremost I am a husband and father; I have been married to my beautiful wife Christina Runyan for over 9 years (who is also on the record). We have four beautiful children two girls and two boys ages seven, six, two and one. I was born and raised in Redding CA and grew up being involved in an amazing church, Bethel church. I have been playing guitar and leading worship since I was 14, most of that was at Bethel church in Redding. Five years ago Christina and I moved to Santa Rosa to take a position as worship pastors at Vertical Call Church. Since then we have been pouring our lives into developing the worship community at Vertical Call. Vertical Call Worship is made up of about 30 singers, songwriters, and musicians that lead vertical call church in praise and worship every Sunday and for all of our larger conference gatherings. Vertical Call Worship community has some of most passionate lovers of Jesus I have ever met and each one of them desire to see peoples lives transformed through worship and praise. 

Hallels:  You came out of Bethel Church, how has Bethel Worship influence you as a worship leader and writer?  What were some of the most precious lessons you have learnt from your time with Bethel? 

Elijah: Being raised in an environment like Bethel was amazing and it's hard to even separate where that influence begins and ends. My great grandparents were part of the original group that started Bethel in the mid 50's so you could say it's in my blood. What has been a challenge for me over the last five years is developing the unique sound and song that God has paced inside my heart. Finding the song that is mine and not just something I was raised to produce has been an amazing journey of identity for me. So I would say that Bethels influence now, is less musical but more about culture and heart. It's who I am and it comes out in everything I do. As for the lessons I learned, it's hard to say because almost everything I learned about leading worship and ministry comes from the amazing mentors and teachers I was privileged to sit under my entire life. Learning how to lead worship from Brian Johnson was such an honor and I am forever grateful for the things he sowed into my life. 

Hallels:  In your bio you said worship has a healing component to it, such that people are healed emotionally through worship. Can you tell us more? 

Elijah: For me there is nothing more healing than the presence of God, and when He shows up you can't help but be changed. Everything God did from creation to the cross was about community. Community with Him and community with each other, and when his people come together to worship him He does amazing things. I have seen so many times in worship God breath on a group of people and heal hearts and bodies without anyone even praying for each other. I truly believe we are going to see some of the greatest physical and emotional miracles happen during times of worship and praise.  

Hallels:  Let's talk about your album "Only One."  What do you hope listeners will grasp after listening to this album? 

Elijah: On this album there are all different types of songs from high praise to intimate worship. But over all my heart in this album is that people would be swept away into a deeper revelation of how passionate our Father God is for them. His desire is to be intimate with us, to be involved in every detail of our lives. Not to control us but just because he loves to be with us. Sometimes we can get carried away with what we can "do" for Him when in reality he just wants to be invited into living life with us. My prayer for this album is that people would know the vastness of His love and that they would learn to live in His lap ever resting in His presence. 

Hallels:  How would you describe your style of worship music? 

Elijah: In a word, Passionate. When I lead worship I cant help but pour out my heart on the feet of Jesus. I am and expressive emotion filled person in general, so when God shows up in a room I cant help but be exuberant. As far as our sound I would say rock melodies meets powerful worship anthems. I grew up listening to all types of music but I've always been drawn to the electric guitar so there is definitely some rock guitar in our music. 

Hallels:  I love your cover of Hillsong's "Stronger."  Why did you choose to do a cover? 

Elijah: Like I said before Vertical Call Worship is a community of worshipers and it was really important for me that this record represents that community. Janelle McMillon is one of our longest standing worship leaders. She has been leading worship at Vertical Call since before we ever got here, so it was really important to me that she was on this record. When it came time to pick what song for her to sing it was a no brainer. Janelle has such a powerful testimony and when she sings "Stronger" on Sundays you can feel her connection and heart in that song. Also it is a song that we have really made our own as far as arrangement goes. What you hear on the record is pretty much how we have been doing it on Sundays for the past 3 years. I wasn't sure at first about doing a cover but when it was finished and I heard the vocals I knew we made the right choice. It has become one of my favorites tracks on the record. 

Hallels:  You also own a record label, have you signed any artist to it yet?  What kind of music will the label be releasing? 

Elijah: About a year and half ago I felt God speak really clearly to me that we were to start a record label. Not a typical "church" record label that would produce only worship music, but one that would produce all genres of music. God spoke to me and said its time that the church has influence on the mainstream music industry, not from the outside in but the inside out. He wanted us to create a safe place where Christian artist's could come and develop the song in their heart no matter the genre. So we started VC Music, a faith based record label looking to have influence over all genres of the music industry. At the beginning of this year we signed our first mainstream artist Aubrey James. Aubrey is a R&B and pop singer / songwriter, with an amazing voice. He is in the studio almost everyday finishing up writing his first album and we will begin production on his album in late June of this year. You can hear samples of what he's doing on our web site www.vcmusic.com .VC Music will continue to produce worship albums from Vertical Call Worship and other Christian artist but the worship genre will not be our main focus. 

Hallels:  For our readers who would like to purchase your new album or find out more about your ministries, where can they go? 

Elijah: Our record is for sale digitally on iTunes, Amazon prime, Google play and Cd baby. If they want the hard copy they can purchase that on our web/site www.vcmusic.com . Cd baby also sells the hard copy if they prefer to do that. If any worship leaders are interested in leading our songs for a worship set they can get all the chord charts at www.verticalcallworship.com . 

 

 

Tags : vertical call worship vertical call worship only you vertical call worship interview elijah runyan elijah runyan interview elijah runyan hallels interview vertical call ministries