Artist Spotlight: Caleb Froese

By John McJunkin, GCU Center for Worship Arts | October 1, 2022

Caleb Froese, Senior, GCU Worship Arts

Caleb Froese’s path to becoming a worship leader/artist has been anything but straight, level, or smooth.  It has not always been obvious that this career path was his destiny.  At a young age, Froese (rhymes with “praise”) was concentrating much more on basketball than music. His hope was to attend college on a basketball scholarship, and his efforts were focused in that direction.  That all changed during the second semester of his senior year of high school, when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  “I was frustrated. I was sad. I felt so hopeless. I couldn’t do anything,” he said of missing two weeks of school and the last few games of his high school basketball season.  The powerful medication made his face swell and he lost 30 pounds, effectively ending his high school basketball career.  His team fell short of winning the state championship by one point, and he felt as if his contribution might have been the difference between winning and losing.  “I was really angry with God at that time because basketball was my life.  I loved basketball -- I was going to play in college”, said Froese.

But he also understood that maybe God was trying to say something to him.

Caleb grew up in very rural Kansas.  The home in which his family still lives is eight miles from the nearest incorporated municipality, McPherson - “the middle of nowhere,” as he describes it.  McPherson offered enough opportunities to nurture and feed Froese’s second love -- music -- despite its lack of a metropolitan symphony orchestra or concert arena.  He had taken piano lessons, learned a little guitar, and his father taught him to play drums.  Caleb’s father, Dale, grew up playing drums, and the younger Froese recalls sitting on his father’s lap at the drum kit as a toddler and developing a penchant for playing.  The drums were a good outlet for his disappointment and frustrations during this season of discontent.  “I’d put some Newsboys in my earbuds and go beat on the drums,” he said.  During his darkest days, he sat at the piano and drum kit or strummed his guitar, something he also did as a volunteer at church.  He merely was playing songs written by other artists and writers, but that was about to change.

At 3 a.m. one night, Caleb was awakened by a song in his mind.  He tells the story: “I was lying in bed, and all of a sudden melodies sort of started popping into my head.  Next morning I woke up and I had words in my head.  I grabbed my phone, opened up Notes and started typing them down.”  He was surprised by the way the music flowed out of him.  “I had the melody, I had the words. I was like, ‘What in the world just happened?’” he said.  And this was only the beginning.  Later in the day, there was more to come. “I opened up Voice Memos, put my phone on the piano and played and sang this song.  OH MY GOODNESS! I just wrote a song!”  The song he wrote appeared on his most recent album and was performed during a chapel service at his school. “I’m like, ‘God’s here. Something’s going on. This is a song I wrote -- first song I ever wrote.  I just wrote this in the span of, like, five minutes!” 
 
The sudden whirlwind of songwriting success didn’t completely dislodge Froese from his basketball pursuits -- he still planned to play ball for a community college in the autumn.  But his school was visited by a representative from Grand Canyon University, and soon Caleb was on an airplane bound for Phoenix.  He did not see the GCU Recording Studio on that visit, but on his second trip to Arizona, this time with his parents in tow, he got a glimpse of GCU’s professional recording facility.  The studio figured prominently in his decision to attend GCU.
 
Still, Froese started out as a cybersecurity major with a minor in worship arts.  But after one day in cybersecurity classes, he made worship arts his major. It was clear to Caleb that God’s plan was at work.  He has since recorded numerous singles, and his second full-length LP - “Prodigal No More” was released at the end of May.  And his musical focus is not limited to recording -- he still is deeply involved in playing live worship music in church and elsewhere.  Another opportunity emerged during the recent pandemic. “When Covid hit and we got sent home [from college] early, my church didn’t know what to do. … I said, ‘Hey, I’ll lead worship for your online service.’ I could not have done that if I’d gone off to play basketball,” he said.  By this time, it had become clear to Caleb that God had leveraged a human frailty to nudge him into a worship-oriented career and life path.  “It was amazing how a sickness led to a career,” Caleb said. 
 
Musically, Froese colors outside the lines a bit.  “I don’t write Christian music only -- I write a little pop country, too”, he said, laughing.  But he takes care to ensure that this secular music does not dishonor the Lord.  “I like George Strait, Alan Jackson, but I also really like Dan + Shay, even though many people think they’re not really country.  Right now I’m really focusing on my ministry, but who knows what I’m going to do with that [country music]? It’s just sitting in a folder on my computer.”

He has a clear picture in his mind when asked about worship in general.  “If you would have asked me when I was in high school, I would have said that worship was expressing yourself to God through music.  Now I would say that worship is giving God glory, no matter how you do it -- it doesn’t have to be through song.  My classes here have really opened my mind to what worship really is.  Each year I gain knowledge here, I look forward to being able to use that knowledge to share the Gospel. I’m always excited for such opportunities.”  And those opportunities are not limited to the United States.  He was a worship leader on a mission trip to Kenya and plans to do the same in Peru.

 Caleb says he wants people to hear a message of hope in his music. “There is hope even when it seems like there is no hope,” he said.  “I’ve gone through dark times in my life, and I’ll share just one line from one of the songs on my most recent album … ‘How can I be worth enough to walk beside the King of kings?’  The struggles and disappointment he suffered during his illness had a profound impact that may not have been evident to him initially, but ultimately he became aware of the machinations of the Lord’s plan.  “During that time that I was sick, I wasn’t really happy with the situation God had let me fall into.  He doesn’t like us suffering, but He sometimes lets us suffer in order to grow.  I really used that story in the "Prodigal No More” album. A lot of the songs are focused around that story.  I’m using those things now to bring glory to His name.”

Prodigal No More by Caleb Froese is available on all streaming platforms.

The album strongly glorifies the Lord, but so does Caleb’s previous album, released on Christmas Day, 2021.  It was a gift for Caleb’s father Dale, who had written a few songs in his younger days but never had them recorded because of a lack of time and technology. Caleb started recording them in the GCU studio in the spring of 2021 and finished when he returned in the fall. 
 
The album was co-produced by Caleb and John McJunkin, who produces and engineers most of the music recorded in the studio.  With the exception of a handful of electric leads contributed by noted GCU guitar slinger Tim Remy, every instrument on the album was played by Caleb, who also contributed 100% of the album’s vocals.  The eight-song release, titled “Thank You, Pops,” was completed between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break -- just in time for release on Christmas Day.  It was the perfect surprise gift. “There were more than a few tears shed on Christmas morning,”, he said.  “I wanted to not only thank my dad for bringing music into my life, but to thank him for countless life lessons and for bringing me up in the Christian faith.” Only one physical copy of the album exists -- the compact disk that was created so Dale would have something to unwrap on Christmas morning.  It’s also available online. 
 
We asked Caleb what advice he would offer freshmen entering the GCU Worship Arts Program.  “God’s placed you here for a reason. Don’t wait until your second semester sophomore year to get involved, like I did.  Get involved,” he said. I “It’s not a scary place -- friendly faces and hearts are willing to help you out on a project.  If you need somebody to talk to, they’ll talk to you. They’ll just be there as a friend.”  He was asked what is coming next for him.  “I graduate in December and I get to do an internship my last semester.  Who knows?  After I graduate, maybe I’ll head back home.  Or maybe stay here.  I’ve just got to trust the Lord.  The one thing I know is that I want to be a worship pastor.  I’d love to be able to travel the U.S. and just perform songs all the time -- just minister to people that way.”