My Story
Thanks for taking some time to hear my heart and learn about me, the calling on my life and my family. My hope is by spending some time on my site you’ll learn who I am. I love God, my family, music and the church.
When I was 15 God called me into ministry and I have lived in that calling for many years. For a few years I struggled with comparing myself to others and feeling like I wasn’t good enough to serve in ministry. God got my attention in 2016 when I was at a church service and the pastor’s message was tailored perfectly for me. The pastor’s message was about being an original design by God set aside with a unique purpose. I’ve had the honor of serving in ministry for 15 years as a musician, music director, worship leader and interim worship pastor. God has done some incredible things and I’ve heard some powerful messages but none that rang more true to my life in that moment. I asked God to forgive me for being disobedient in following His call on my life.
I am currently the worship pastor at First Baptist Church Tomball. I plan, schedule and lead services every week. I am involved in the creative planning for future services church wide as well. I love to create services that feel like one seamless experience. I love working through the details of a worship service. It’s important to me to pursue excellence because what we do on stage is secondary to what God is doing in the room. If we can minimize the human element we can maximize the focus on God in our services. I love musicians/creatives. It is important to me to keep musicians spiritually strong and creatively inspired. The lack of spiritual growth and a creative outlet can cause a musician to feel used instead of loved and that can lead to burn out. Right now, I meet with musicians both individually and as a group weekly to study God’s word with them and live in community with them.
My Calling
Like I said before, when I was 15 God called me into worship ministry but I didn’t really know what that looked like at that point. Many years later God has refined that calling on my life into three parts:
Worship God
Strive For Excellence
Raise Up Leaders
Worship God
Before I do anything else I need to first worship God. It is important for me to walk daily with God because I believe worship is an outward expression of what God is doing inside of a person. In preparation for a worship service I often reflect on the monuments of faith in my life that serve as place markers in my past that remind me of all that God has done for me and encourage me to continue pursuing a deeper relationship with Him.
Strive For Excellence
I played trumpet in the high school band and on the wall across from my chair I saw these words everyday;
“Excellence is where passion and precision meet.”
At the time I didn’t really think much about the weight of that statement but as I’ve gotten older and my focus has shifted from the pursuit of perfection to the pursuit of excellence I am reminded of this quote. I approach worship as a constant pursuit of excellence. It is important that we pursue excellence because what we do on stage is secondary to what God is doing in the room. If we can minimize the human element we can maximize the focus on God in our services. My desire as a worship pastor is to create a space and environment for people to worship God without distraction.
Raise Up Leaders
I know there are people just like me in every church who God has called to serve and maybe they are acting in disobedience like I was for one reason or another. I also know there are people who God has yet to call into ministry but will and I want to be able to offer both the opportunity to grow and to serve where God is calling them. I am grateful for the opportunities and the pastors God has given me to help grow in my faith, giftings and skillset. I believe the church can sometimes do a poor job of caring for musicians/creatives. Sarah and I have a huge passion for musicians/creatives. We want to see them thrive in the Church. We also want to see them grow spiritually and creatively. Burnout is a huge issue for musicians/creatives and we can help avoid that in being intentional with their time, offering them opportunities to grow and plug them into a community of people who will love them. I love every opportunity I have to sit down with people to hear where they are and what God is doing in their lives. I want to know what’s happening in them and what I can be doing for them to help them.
From meeting with a student who wants to get plugged in, to leading a worship service I love worship ministry.
My Family
When I was 14 I prayed a prayer like this, “God, send me the girl you have for me at a young age so we can go through our whole life together…”. Little did I know that two years later I would meet Sarah. We met in 2002 at a marching band camp and started dating shortly after. We got married in 2009 and can’t believe it’s already been ten (almost eleven) years. We have two beautiful, amazing girls (Olivia, 3 & Eleanor, 1). We love traveling, food, coffee and music but the thing our family loves most is people. We love sharing our life with others. It doesn’t matter if we’ve known you 15 years or 15 minutes, if “Can’t Stop The Feeling” comes on, you will be dancing with my girls.