About

I write about leading worship in the local church; living your entire life as an act of worship to God, not just on Sunday;  getting back to the roots of Lutheranism in a modern culture;  Christian music and book reviews;  the occasional social media and technology post; and have a sprinkling of personal family stories mixed in.

My goal is to equip you as a Christian, musician, worship leader, music leader,  some or all of the above to live better, lead better, and play better.  I typically post two to four times a week.  I would love it if you would subscribe via email or RSS.

4 Reasons You Might Have Ended up Here

Reason #1: You searched for something related to music and worship ministry within the church. That is my passion and I hope you will stay a while and find something helpful. Here are some of my most popular posts on music and worship ministry within the church:

Reason #2: You searched for something related to music theory and ended up on a blog about church music that happens to write about music theory every once in a while. I love helping musicians figure out how to do things better, so if you don’t care to read about “churchy” stuff, I really hope you can push through any you come across in order to become a better musician. Here are some popular music theory posts you might enjoy:

Reason #3: You came here looking for another Lutheran blog to read. I love that I’m a Lutheran.  I love even more that I am a Free Lutheran.  I have a huge desire to bring Lutheranism back to its roots – namely, Luther himself, and even more so, God’s Word itself.  Here are some posts that highlight that:

Reason #3: You’ve heard of I am an Offering from either Twitter or somewhere else and wanted to know a bit more about me and what I write about. Here’s the whole story:

My Biography

I’m first of all a husband.  Then, a father.  Then, an evangelical Free Lutheran.  Then, a musician, worship leader, and artist.  All of these things are defined in, around, and because of the fact I am a Christ-follower.

I am a Christ-follower.

My heart’s desire is to follow the commands and teachings of Jesus Christ, wanting to make Him famous and take every thought captive to Him.  I struggle constantly to fulfill this desire but know that He is full of unending mercy.  I live to help others live this way as well.

I am a husband.

I have entered into the covenant of marriage with my beautiful wife and yearn to keep that covenant.

I am a father.

God has given me the privilege to be head of my household, not to lord it over my family, but to be a positive model of God as Father to my daughter.

I am a Lutheran

While much stereotyping has come with the Lutheran label on all ends of the spectrum (liberal, strict, traditional, progressive, liturgical, etc..), I desire to make people aware of the original roots of Lutheranism, back to Luther himself and really, back to Scripture alone.  Luther, while not  perfect by any means, brings Lutheranism (and reformed Christianity, really) back to its roots.  Faith alone.  Grace alone.  Scripture alone.  I have a strong desire to make people aware that being a Lutheran, at its roots, means being saved by Grace, understanding God’s holiness and revering Him, and proclaiming the life-changing Word of God without shame.

I am a musician, worship leader, and artist.

Artist is last in that list as I don’t feel I’m particularly innovative or super-creative.  I hope to be, but probably don’t pray for creativity enough.  I love to play music, teach music, and live music.  I love to lead others to worship the living God and be able to magnify His presence.

The rest of the story:

I grew up in a very musical family.  My dad played guitar, accordion, and sang.  My mom loved singing as well.   My brother is a phenomenal musician who I’ve learned so much from and who inspired me to play the saxophone first after Mom and Dad guided me to play the piano, then drums through watching his high school rock band’s drummer, then guitar when I was ready to teach myself.

I thought I wanted to have a career in youth ministry, although all signs should have pointed me to focus on music right away.  I desired to have a firm foundation of Biblical studies so I attended the two-year Association Free Lutheran Bible School in Plymouth, MN.

Right away in Bible school I was asked to lead music when there weren’t any leaders around (this was before I had invested time in thinking about what a worship leader is and should be) and my passion quickly changed to realizing that music was my strongest skill and I should be leading worship my whole life.

From there, I moved back home to Sioux Falls and attended the University of Sioux Falls for a time for music composition.  Sadly, I made some major mistakes there and did not end up finishing my musical education.  I hope to finish it soon, but learned so much in my 3 ½ years as a music major there.

During that time, I was employed part time by a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in town as Director of Worship.  I learned so much there, but the main thing being that I was a lone ranger and should have spent much more time equipping others to do what I was doing instead of doing it all myself.

I soon resumed schooling and received a degree in Graphic Design and Multimedia from Westwood College of Technology.  I moved on to work for a Free Lutheran church in town , eventually was employed full time with Alpha Omega Publications (where I work currently), but passionately lead worship and the music and worship ministry for Living Word Free Lutheran church in Sioux Falls.