when it all started

“What made you want to become a worship leader?” a friend of mine asked me earlier today.


“It’s a great story,” I replied. 


“When I was 17 I was in a band of “budding” musicians (that’s a nice way of putting it).  We loved music and we hung out at church a lot so eventually we picked up a few guitars, drums, a keyboard and whatever else we could get our hands on and formed a worship band.  We learned a few songs and then tried to get gigs – and if you’ve ever tried this before you know how difficult that can be!


Eventually we got booked to play in a little “coffee house” (or so they called it) in the basement of a very small church that was about an hour away, in the middle of nowhere. The ceiling was about 7-feet high depending on which side of the room you stood, the floor was concrete and there were 4 metal support beams in the middle of this tiny room.  After driving forever in the pouring rain and almost getting lost, we pulled into the muddy, gravel parking lot and unloaded our gear.


There were 5 people in our band plus 4 friends that we brought with us.  The pastor was there and one or two other people.  A meager turnout, but it filled the room.  After we got started an older woman walked in with two African-American teenagers and they sat in the back corner.  She was a foster mom, and these boys had just arrived from a tumultuous family situation in New York City.


It was the last song.  The name of the song was “Faithful Father.”  I spoke up and shared about how God never turns his back on us -- even when we make mistakes and turn our back on him His arms are open and welcoming us back.  If anyone wanted to pray after the song, I invited them to pray with us.  As we were packing up, the youth leader that came with us (one of the four) enthusiastically came up to me saying how one of the two boys had prayed to receive Christ and that the other wanted to know more about our faithful God!


I was overwhelmed with joy.  It was in that moment that I knew what God wanted me to do with my future.  Music Ministry - to use music to lead people to Jesus.  I would definitely say that after that night I knew I was “called” to do this.  And I will never forget that long time ago in a basement far far away where a boy gave his life to Christ.


- Rich