I was born in rural Woodstock, Georgia on December 29, 1977, to a Southern Baptist preacher’s daughter and a Southern Baptist deacon’s son. However, my early life was marked by inconsistent church attendance and only a few years of Vacation Bible School. My parents divorced when I was ten years old. Shortly after, my mother and two sisters began attending a small Bible Church and I reluctantly joined the youth group. My youth pastor encouraged my guitar playing skills and spent time explaining the faith in a way I could understand. I also understood that committing my life to Christ was no small matter and that the cost would be tremendous. The active youth group attended many Christian music concerts, camps, and retreats; I attended them all. The biggest annual event for our youth group was Atlantafest––a four day Christian music event held at Six Flags. Every year, church groups from all over the south would camp out on the theme park’s excess land and hear the biggest (and smallest) Christian music performers of the time. In the summer of 1992, Carmen held a prime-time spot on the main stage. His powerful presentation of the gospel resonated and made me realize that if my life was not in God’s hand, it was in the devil’s. Belief in God or even the devil was not a hurdle for me. Committing my life to worshiping God was all I lacked. That night, with the Great American Scream Machine churning behind me and Carmen’s elaborate production before me, beneath a Georgia summer sky, I asked Jesus to forgive all of my sins. I was baptized shortly after.

 

My high school years would prove very challenging to my faith. A move to Edmond, Oklahoma, in the summer of 1994 swept me from the strong fellowship I enjoyed back home. New pressures of living in an affluent city on a single mother’s minimum wage job and struggling to find my identity in a new culture pushed my search for fellowship out of my mind. Our search for a new church home morphed into a resignation to sleeping in on Sunday mornings. The youth groups I attended were too big and everyone was too concerned with socialization to be growing disciples of Christ. At least this was how I felt. However, I graduated High School in 1996 fairly unscathed. I had managed to abstain from drugs, alcohol, partying, and girlfriends, but had grown very little in my walk with Jesus.

 

In the fall of 1997 I moved to Dallas, Texas to attend the Art Institute of Dallas. Upon my arrival, I knew that I could no longer rely on my mother to find a church and that I would have to do it myself. The enrollment counselor who helped me move in happened to be a youth pastor at a small SBC church in Southeast Dallas. He reluctantly invited me knowing that the once-booming congregation had been reduced to a handful of elderly folks and a small youth group. I settled into First Baptist Church of Urbandale where I attended for the next four years. Those years were difficult because apart from Sundays and Wednesdays, I had no contact with Christians throughout the week.

 

Meanwhile, I graduated from the Art Institute and was making a great living at an animation studio. One of the animators at the studio befriended me and I was so excited to learn he had taught the scriptures at a private Christian school years before. We began studying Old Testament together and became very close.  Kirby was genuinely interested in me and encouraged me in the faith. For the first time since I had left the youth group in Georgia, I felt like I had true fellowship again. Upon fulfilling my contract with the animation studio, I was considering a move to New York City where the job market was much better. However, Kirby had seen my loneliness for fellowship and encouraged me to pursue spiritual growth rather than my career. He invited me to spend Thanksgiving with him and his friends from college in Jackson, Tennessee. Admittedly, I craved fellowship more than career, so I moved to Jackson in January of 2002.

 

With the money I had saved from the studio and the generosity of Kirby’s friends, God gave me what I might call an unofficial seminary experience. Kirby and many of his friends had been discipled by a gifted economics professor. Starting with the book of Romans, Dr. Padelford would lead me through the deepest theological training I could have ever imagined. I would enjoy the hospitality of my new friends, have meals in their homes, engage in spontaneous worship services on their living room floors, and talk about Jesus over cups of coffee late into the night. God had led me to the closest thing to home that I had ever known.

 

For the first year in Jackson, I became comfortable with sharing music with people. I’d write and perform original songs for my friends. I’d put to music all that I was experiencing. I had not even considered that God was calling me to be a worship leader. In September of 2003, I was asked to fill in for a month while the worship leader at my little church, Christ Community Church, was away on a mission trip. Upon his return, he asked me to take the reigns permanently. I accepted and have been joyfully doing it ever since.

 

God demonstrated His faithfulness once again by soothing my loneliness when He introduced me to Janie Myatt. Janie and I met in December of 2004, began dating in March of 2005, became engaged in June and were married in September. Our first child, Dillon Thomas, was born on December 11, 2007 and our second child, Isaac James, was born on November 24, 2008.

 

The Bible says that He sets the lonely in families and I am living proof of this. My hope is that my life is being lived in gratitude to Christ for all that He has done for me. I hope that even through the valley of weeping, His faithfulness is visible in me. I am so delighted that He has not only redeemed my soul but He has even redeemed my biography! As a worship leader, I hope that I can lead others in seeing His face in the darkness. I want to show my brothers and sisters the good, the beautiful, and the virtuous while we wait together just a little bit longer for Him to return. I hope I can rouse them in singing that great doxology, not just on Sunday mornings but in every corner of their lives. I hope that by doing so, I, too, can sing with them.