Coming soon to a couch near you! We’ve been booking some intimate home shows in the Portland area this summer and are looking for some more homes to invade. So if you would like to host an Acoustic Living Room Concert please let us know!
0 Music Ministry
As a brief introduction I am a Christian singer/songwriter living just outside Portland, Oregon with my lovely wife Jessica. I have been leading worship and writing songs for more than 20 years. In my songwriting I am passionate about crafting songs that reflect God’s glory and faithfulness in our lives; songs that help lead us through his gates with thanksgiving and praise!
So many of the songs I write are personal devotions and reminders of God’s faithfulness (even when I am faithless), his amazing grace and the way he is our Jehovah Jireh, our provider! What is so amazing to me is to get to share these songs with other people and have them respond and relate in ways that make the songs personal to them as well! I love hearing how certain songs have ministered or reminded someone of something awesome that God has done or is currently doing in their lives. So please keep coming up and sharing your stories with me. I love to hear them!
And that’s the real goal behind my music, to point to someone other than me—to point to Jesus. Hopefully I do it in such a way that my songs truly reflect his character and his amazing love and make people want to know him more. I want to draw people in so they can relate to my struggles but also show them the hope and strength I’ve found in him!
It all comes down to why I write these songs and what I hope they do for those who hear them. Paul puts it rather succinctly in 1 Corinthians 13 that it doesn’t matter what amazing accomplishments I have or how much I give to the poor; at the end of the day if I “do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” I even put these verses and this thought into song in “Without Love” on my Coffee Shop Songs CD.
I don’t want to come across as another “holier-than-thou” Christian who only points a finger and burdens people with guilt. We all struggle with enough burdens already and need to have them lifted, not more added to the top of the teetering pile! It wouldn’t be “Good News” if it wasn’t freeing and something to jump up and down and shout about! I hope I can show through my songs how truly good the Good News is, how freeing it is to have our burdens of guilt and sin lifted from our shoulders by his amazing grace!
So please feel free to stop by and take a listen. Join me on this journey of struggles and blessings alike, and I hope these songs make you smile, give you comfort in grief, have you clapping your hands in praise and leave you encouraged in your faith.
Here are some verses that have spoken to me as admonishments and reminders of how every word and note should reflect God’s grace and offer gratitude and praise from our hearts.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 4:10, 11 NIV)
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Colossians 3:16, 17 NIV)
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
(Galatians 6:9, 10 NIV)
It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!
(Psalm 92:1-5 NIV)
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
(Hebrews 13:15 NIV)
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
(2 Timothy 2:20-22 NIV)
My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long— though I know not how to relate them all. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
(Psalm 71:15, 16 NIV)
Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
(Psalm 51:15 NIV)
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