I am the oldest of 11 children that grew up in a house full of music and creativity.  My dad could pick up a guitar or sit at a piano and play songs from the radio at will.  My mom was an avid writer and painter. So it was natural that me and my brothers and sisters would have the potential to gravitate to the arts.  It wasn't until about the age of 13 that I realized I could sing and play guitar.  Being home schooled, I had the freedom to lock myself away for hours to play music and write songs.  And like any budding musician, I began to dream of leading many people in worship.  

God was faithful to that dream as I was given numerous opportunities throughout high school and college to participate in life changing worship experiences.  During these years I continued to write and dream of recording with a record label. But, I was never willing to go the typical route of moving to Nashville and selling myself to an industry that is often more focused on the image or the bottom line than on being kingdom minded.  God lead me to partner with John Reeves to help plant churches, including Radius, and I resolved this to be my calling. Still desiring the larger stage, I grew to be satisfied with knowing that my songs held significant purpose in restoring and facilitating God's presence to His people.  My prayer has always been that if God wanted to give me more influence as a songwriter then it would have to be His doing and not mine.

Fast forward to May of this year.  Me and my fellow musicians at Radius had completed a worship CD with 10 original tunes we lead at church.  At Todd's urging, I submitted some of these songs to the Catalyst Music Project in hopes that one of my songs would make it onto the compilation they were putting together. (Catalyst is one of the largest Christian conferences in the U.S. and has events year round all over the country).  

In August I got a call from a major record label, INO Records, saying they wanted to include my song What A Savior on the compilation!  Not only that, but they wanted Dove Award nominated recording artist Laura Story to record the song with one of the industries top producers, Nathan Nockels (Watermark, Passion). If that wasn't enough, they were so thrilled with the song that they have plans to release it to radio in early 2010! (To purchase the Catalyst Music Project CD, go to Amazon.com on or after Oct. 20th).  

My wife Becca and I just returned from Catalyst's national conference where the Catalyst Music Project CD was released and over 12 thousand attendees received a free download of the project.  I got to meet with other writers from around the country and hear from Christian leaders who are have tremendous influence around the world.  It was a humbling as well as gratifying experience to get to participate in this movement.

All this to say that I'm learning to trust God's timing and to trust His way over mine.  Ps. 37 tells us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart.  It may not always be easy or glamorous but God's purpose in us is significant if we'll just be obedient.  The coolest thing about having my song go so far beyond my reach is that my name will most likely get lost in the mix.  I will hopefully will be given more opportunities to serve the Body of Christ with music but this song will serve it's purpose without my image being attached to it.  God will do with it what He wants and I look forward to seeing what happens next!