My Story


Hi there!

You’re obviously here because you want to know a bit more about me, so here goes.

I’m fairly young, I am married to a pretty dang incredible woman, I am daddy to two precious little girls (we’re about to meet the second one), and I am sold out and devoted to pursuing this beautiful collision of Man, God, and Spirit that is Jesus Christ. I began my journey into music at a snappy young age of four. Shortly after beginning to pick out little kids songs and hymns I would hear at Church on any nearby piano, my parents bought me my first keyboard and piano lessons to go with it. The rest, they say, is history. One of my most treasured gifts from my parents is that they put me in environments where I would learn to hear and trust the voice of God. The best thing I took away from my private, Christian school education was an exposure to true, heartfelt, passionate worship at a very young age. It was in these times of worship where I first felt God tugging me into ministry, even if I didn’t fully understand what that meant.

As a sophomore in college, I decided to pursue a career in Aeronautics and Engineering. I was all set to go when one day, in one of those times of worship, God shook up my life in a way I had never experienced before. Sitting in a mostly empty balcony of the Christian University I had not planned on going to, the Lord spoke to me clearly that I was not following Him, but following an idea of what I felt others wanted of me. Instead of Engineering, I was to pursue a business degree from that very university. In a moment of arrogance, I said to Him, “OK, well You get to pay for it.” And He did. Through a connection with a honors student I had just met a year ahead of me named Stephanie, as a matter of fact.

So I entered school with a blind trust; not knowing what my exact career would look like, but knowing that He had it under control. It was in these days of openness that He spoke a dream into my heart, and I am still learning what it means. “You are to create a home for worshipers—a safe place— where they can be trained, developed, grown in their creativity, recorded, refreshed, and sent back home with a fresh fire that spreads into the people around them.” It was and is something that is way bigger than me.

In the years from high school through college, I am truly privileged to have studied and been mentored by several fantastic worship pastors. I have been perfectly positioned to learn from worshipers and lead musicians from very different contexts of ministry. I served on staff at my home church as a Music Ministry Associate, on student staff at my University as Music Ministry Band leader through my time in college. After Stephanie and I got married her last year in school, we decided to go on the dreaded church hunt for a new place that we could call home. We found a place called the Church at BattleCreek, where we figured we wouldn’t know anyone. Immediately we knew it was a place we could call home. Several influential relationships and two years later, there came to be an opening in their staff team for a worship pastor. God opened the door, and we nervously, yet excitedly followed Him through it.

Over those three and a half years, the Lord opened doors, stretched me in ways I never thought possible, built some of the most precious and lasting friendships, and taught me so much about His heart for worshipers. I am forever changed as someone called to ministry. I have come to see worship as much less something you do and much more something you become. (See Romans 12:1 and 2)

A lot of the writing you read from me here on my blog comes from these three core values:  (1) Your value has absolutely nothing to do with how you perform, (2) the Spirit of God brings freedom, truth, and power to the life of a worshiper. Put simply, He is more, and we are less, and (3) Our job as worshipers is simply to host His presence. It’s never been about a show  or a shiny face. When people experience the power of His presence in its fullness, they are forever changed.  These are the primary things He has taught me over the last 10+ years I’ve been exposed to ministry.

Not too long ago, I felt the Lord releasing me from my assignment at the Church at BattleCreek (theChurch.at). You might ask, “what’s next?”. My high school pastor probably put it best to me; “When the Lord leads you to jump off the cliff in faith, you have to trust that He will either grow the ground under you, or grow wings on your back.” That’s where I am. The Lord has brought me back to that vision I had as a freshman in college. I so deeply want to see worshipers brought up in a place of freedom and free from pressure to perform for anyone. I dream of a fully empowered body of Christ living out their worship to the King in a style of freedom, creativity, and passion. What role I have to play in that, I don’t exactly know yet, but we will see! Thanks for joining me on this journey.