I was designed to understand grief. Sometimes I wish I weren’t because it comes with special burdens. But it also allows me to see others’ grief quickly, which creates opportunities to offer comfort. Here are a few things I’ve learned:   For some reason, we seem to associate the word “grief” with death. There are…

There’s something that’s been on my heart for at least three years now – probably longer. With the exception of a few friends, I’ve mostly kept it to myself. There are just so many opinions in the world; social media has made it easy for us to vent ALL the opinions ALL the time! We…

I’m somewhat of a nonconformist by nature. If everyone is going one way, I’ll often try another path. So when call and response music became trendy in the modern worship scene recently (thanks to Andrew Peterson’s megahit “Is He Worthy”), you’d think I would stick to my nonconformist ways and avoid the trend. But against…

The older I get, the more I learn that positive change happens when I become intentional in my actions. Weight doesn’t just happen to fall off, and muscles don’t automatically tone. Not only that, but sometimes intentional behavior is necessary to simply maintain the status quo: my house doesn’t stay clean, and my car doesn’t…

Probably the most meaningful gesture shown to me is when someone prays over me. Not just an “I’ll pray for you,” and we both go our separate ways; but when someone stops and actually prays over me, it becomes intensely personal. I feel like my fellow-believer is actually carrying my burdens up to the throne…

In a world that seems so divided right now, music is a beautiful vehicle that brings people together regardless of lifestyle, politics, race, your Coke/Pepsi preference, etc. Unless you go to church, where music has been the divider of unity for decades. We all watched in agony as Satan used one of God’s most beautiful…

I travel to churches of differing denominations frequently, and I’m hosted by some of the best people around! In each church, the music leadership have various titles: music director, worship arts pastor, choir director, worship minister, etc. From time to time, I even still hear people refer to “the music guy” as “the song leader.”…

I opened my Bible app one day while traveling (one of the beautiful things about technology – a Bible, concordance, and study notes all on the same small, hand-held device as my phone, camera, map, computer, to-do-list, music library…. you get the idea). As I opened the app, the Bible Verse of the Day popped…

This is my friend Fanny. She is one of the strongest, most remarkable women I have ever met. A few years ago, she and her husband won the American Lottery (yes, that’s a real thing!) where people are carefully vetted and given the opportunity to move to the US. She had to quickly learn American…

I know I speak for all of us when I say “good riddance!” to the Church Music Wars of the 1990’s and early 2000’s! As musicians, our hearts broke when the beautiful gift we were given was used as a tool that divided the Church. Now that those times are mostly behind us, we are…

I live in an odd juxtaposition of church music worlds. Much of the music I write would be most at home in a traditional or liturgical church. Some of the music I write lives best in a blended service, and some of the music I arrange is performed best by contemporary musicians. When I’m on…