Nashville, Tenn. (Nov. 1, 2011) - Popular worship leader/singer/songwriter Jason Bare and his fans have met their Kickstarter goal to fund Bare's new Christmas EP, Have You Heard, featuring the No. 1 radio single "For The First Time." Bare is one of a growing number of musicians who have used Kickstarter, the popular "crowd-funding" platform, to produce creative projects.

"God amazes me. At the last minute things exploded," says Bare of the Kickstarter funds pledged near the deadline. "When God calls you to something, He makes it happen. I am grateful for all the people who were willing to put their finances toward this project so that we met our goal."

Bare, who released his debut CD, Beautiful Design, earlier this year, has been in the studio for several months working on the new Christmas record of all original holiday music. The project features "For The First Time," which has already become a Christmas favorite, claiming the No. 1 spot on the Christian Music Weekly Worship chart and making it into the Top 30 of Billboard's Soft AC/Inspirational chart during December 2010.

"I wrote my first Christmas song almost 20 years ago," Bare says, "and since that time it has been a vision of mine to release a Christmas project. Because of my fans' belief in my music and their pledges through Kickstarter, the Christmas CD I've dreamed of for so long will be reality."

Have You Heard, a special limited-edition five-song EP, is available starting today through Bare's website and iTunes. Bare's full-length Christmas CD will release in 2012 through Madicah Music and New Day Distribution.

Bare's evocative, emotion-laden vocals imbue each song on the project with a unique sense of familiarity, like meeting old friends in unexpected places. He employs a haunting minor key piano line to ask the age-old question, "What Child Is This," before segueing into joyful orchestration to underscore the answer — "This is the child of hope and wonder, the Savior of the world!"

Few things are as beautiful as Christmas through the eyes of a child, and Bare tells the story with childlike awe in "Have You Heard," accompanied by a lilting children's choir. The sounds of acoustic piano and chiming bells unite in anticipation of the foretold miracle in "The Night When Hope Was Born." The soaring praise aria, "For The First Time," reverberates with the incredulous amazement of that first Christmas morning as seen through the eyes of creation looking down on a young mother and father holding their firstborn son.

Bare now joins the ranks of a growing number of musicians who are utilizing Kickstarter for new projects, including Dove Award winner Cheri Keaggy and Gospel Music Hall of Famer John Schlitt, formerly lead singer of the classic mainstream rock group of Head East and lead singer for award-winning Christian band Petra during the era when the band won four Grammy Awards and 10 Dove Awards.

Using a system of pledges and rewards, supporters worldwide exceeded the project's goal of $8,500 by the October 27 deadline. Pledges were taken on Bare's personal Kickstarter site (kickstarter.com/jasonbare ) and powered by Amazon, enabling backers' credit cards to be charged via a secure website.