I grew up in the chicago area as the oldest of four kids. Although I had a ton of interests, it wasn’t until my junior year in high school when I quit the basketball and baseball teams to be in a musical and find what I was made to do: music. writing, performing, recording. . .anything!
After majoring in music theory and composition at judson university, I joined the student impact staff at willow creek church as a worship leader. I loved my time there, but the definite highlight was meeting a fantastic girl named Shauna and convincing her to marry me. About a year later, we struck up a friendship with Rob Bell and moved to join his church, Mars Hill, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I jumped in as the worship leader and Shauna joined the leadership staff. Like before, our time at Mars Hill was good, but the highlight was personal. On october 7, 2006, Shauna gave birth to our first kid, Henry, who is insanely cute and built like a mack truck.
In July 2007, I left my job at Mars Hill and recorded “with broken fists”, a CD of ten worship songs that I wrote for that community. You can check it out here. Shauna and I traveled for the next 18 months, leading worship and speaking at various churches, conferences, and events, and eventually found our way back to the Chicago area. Beginning in January of 2009, I rejoined the Willow Creek staff as one of the weekend worship leaders.
Over the course of this story, I've become less sure of most things, but absolutely sure about a few things: First, I have the greatest family in the world. I couldn't love Shauna and Henry more...and feel lucky every day. Second, I am absolutely convinced that we've all been invited to join God in serving and healing the world. These are dark days, but His Movement of Love will not stop until all things are made right. And I want to do everything I can with the life I've been given to be a part of it.
