For local teen, Hillsong is alive with music

It may have been his dad’s influence from the pulpit as a preacher or his past as a singer with Christian music’s Imperials. It may have been a heavenly directive.

Either way, 19-year-old Tyler Comeaux, is packed and ready to head off to Australia to attend one of the globe’s top Christian music schools, Hillsong International Leadership College in Sydney.

The 2008 H.L. Bourgeois graduate embarks on his new journey July 12.

Tyler is the son of Brian Comeaux, pastor of Victory Christian Center in Gray.

An avid guitarist and singer, Tyler decided to attend Hillsong, which is a training school for Australia’s Pentecostal Hillsong Church, figuring it would help him on his path to minister to others through music. He found out about Hillsong through a Canadian friend, Ashton McIntosh, who is also studying there.

The fact that it is cheaper for Tyler to attend Hillsong than an American four-year institution is also appealing, his father said.

Though Tyler is just starting in the music industry, his passion is rooted in his DNA. His father’s first love was music. Brian Comeaux performed with the Christian music group the Imperials in the 1980s.

Brian was enthusiastic about music and when the Imperials offered him a gig as their lead singer in the early 1980s, he took it. At the time, the group was losing their lead singer.

“I still had that road bug in me and they were a band that I really respected and loved,” he said. “I went on tour with them. But then I got the feeling that I wanted something more permanent, where I can minister to people and see how the Lord was working in their lives. On the road, you hear stories of how the music has changed people, but as a pastor I get to see it first-hand.”

Unlike his father, Tyler’s dream is not to become a pastor that leads a flock of parishioners. He likes learning about the Bible, but he would rather minister through music or form his own Christian band.

“There are thousands of other kids just like Tyler at Hillsong, and if he wanted to start a band he could,” Brian said. “The Christian college gives him a taste of putting his talent to use. Hillsong trains its students to express their faith through music, dance, drama and visual arts. Ministry, theology and missions are also incorporated in the courses.”

No matter what Tyler chooses, Brian said he wants the best for his son. “As parents, we tend to force our children to do what we want them to do,” he said. “But to see him finally want something, it is amazing. And as his father, I will do what it takes for him to get it.”

All he needs is a mic and a guitar

Aside from his father, Tyler’s family is filled with musicians and singers. His paternal grandmother Alice Comeaux sang at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport. The Cajun country and western singer performed on the same stage as Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty.

However, when the Comeaux family accepted Christ into their lives, she decided against secular music and began singing Christian music in the church.

Tyler’s Irish maternal grandfather played the guitar and his grandmother was an avid pianist.

The music bug did not bite him until about five years ago when he started singing publicly. At 14, he joined the youth choir at his church and started participating in some of the youth worship services. Two years later, at 16, he learned how to play the guitar.

Those bold steps surprised his parents. “We never knew he could sing,” his mother Kim Comeaux said. “I was a music teacher at a couple of the elementary schools he went to and I could never get him to participate. When they came and told us he could sing, I was shocked and thrilled at the same time.”

His mother said even though he began singing, he still turns down chances to stand in the spotlight. However, Tyler said when he plays his guitar and hears the music, he is at ease.

“Everything around me sort of just goes away and all I focus on is the music,” he said. “Then if I want to talk to the crowd during an interlude, it is easier because I am at ease.”

Hillsong’s “You Deserve” is his favorite inspirational song to sing.

“This song is about no matter what you are going through in your life, God is there for you,” Tyler said. “People tend to blame God if something goes wrong in their life, but the song says that everything happens for a reason and God deserves the praise.”

His favorite song to play is “Clouds” by After Edmund. It has a similar biblical message as “You Deserve”.

“The song says even though your life is cloudy,” he said, “the cloudy days will always pass over, if you keep praying.”

In Christ’s bosom I lay my head

Tyler’s what they call a “preacher’s kid.” He said being raised a pastor’s son was not always easy for him as a teenager growing up. The fact of being a clergy’s son turned people off immediately, Tyler said.

“Whenever I announced that my dad’s a pastor, my friends’ parents would not let me be around them because they assumed I would influence their child to do something bad,” he said.

However, Tyler said the negativity just made him want to prove them wrong.

“I hung in there to show them that I am not a bad kid, I am just a pastor’s kid,” he said.

His mother Kim is thankful that he didn’t get bogged down with being a pastor’s son. She said he has messed up and done things he should not have done. But as his parents, they could only tell him that he knows how to act.

“We kept talking to him and we tried to live as an example for him,” she said. “I believe that is why most pastors’ kids go astray. Because they see one way in the church and another elsewhere.”

Tyler said it was much easier for him to follow the Christian path because of his parents. He said he first picked up a Bible and started reading it for himself about five years ago.

“Being around the church, I feel if I can read it and understand it then I might be able to help someone else understand it too,” he said. “That way I can bring them to Christ. It is not about just looking up a couple of Bible verses. You have to read the Bible to understand it.

“I believe what the Bible says and what my dad says in church. I started paying attention and reading the Bible for myself. Everything began to turn out better for me. I would pray and actually mean it. I was not praying for what I wanted, I was praying for what I needed.”

The Comeauxs were careful not to push religion on Tyler. He had to go to church with them, but they did not make him become involved when he didn’t want to be.

“We encouraged him,” his mother said. “We always asked him ‘Are you going to be a preacher or minister when you grow up?’ and he would say ‘No.’

“I am so thankful that he has chosen it now. He came to us about a couple years ago and said he wanted to be a music minister or be in a Christian band. We tried not to get too excited. But we just kept encouraging him that way. I am glad for him.”

Christian music and preaching have lead Victory Christian Center’s Comeaux family around the globe. Pastor Brian Comeaux traveled with the Imperials before settling into ministry. His son Tyler, 19, intends to do the same with music, which he’ll study at Australia’s Hillsong International Leadership College in Sydney. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF