MUSIC Ministry

I first put my trust and belief in Jesus when I was very young. Since then, God has both provided many environments in which my faith was strengthened and nurtured. In my teenage years God impressed upon my heart a desire and need to serve him 100 percent in whatever arena He chose for me. My life is not my own but it is to be spent in worship of my Creator. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1 ESV).
I first heard of Christ Chapel through my parents who became members in 2008. I attended a Cantata performance that year and was so amazed by the joy and celebration. Never did I imagine God would call me to serve with so many excellent and committed musicians. I am married to Emily and we have three awesome kids. We enjoy being outside, plus I love to fix old bicycles, kayak and sail.

Even though I grew up in the environment where religious beliefs were considered to be a sign of mental weakness and evolution was the gospel of truth, I have always had a sense that there was a creator. Too many unanswered questions often landed me in trouble. It wasn’t until my high school years that I finally found satisfaction to the longing I had in my heart.

I first met Jesus when I came to the United States from Ukraine and lived as an exchange student with a Christian family, observing and experiencing their faith firsthand. My Christian walk grew stronger at LeTourneau University where I took as many Christian courses as I could. Since that time, I have always been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful mentors and mature Christian friends. Various people have different stumbling blocks on their way to salvation. Strangely enough, for me it was Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created…” Once I believed the first verse of the Bible, everything else was easy to take in and Jesus became my Savior. Even now, every once in a while, I have to go to the very beginning and remember that God made it all and, therefore, is in control.

My husband and I met in college in 1996. Sean claims that he fell in love with me before he could understand my broken English; he won my heart when he first played his guitar and beat me in piano. Music and faith were the first things that united us and remain the biggest things we still hold in common.  Together we have two wonderful almost grown-up girls who are passionate about Jesus, rodeo and performing arts. Our schedules are always full of ballet and theater performances with vocal, piano, tap, and horseback riding lessons in between.  There seems to be a constant automotive restoration project Sean and his “buddies” work on in our garage. In the summers, however, the watersports take priority over any project, and you are most likely to find us on a lake wakeboarding, surfing or skiing at sunset.  As a family, we are very good at staying extremely busy, but on some rare occasions of “me” time I love gardening, traveling to antique roadshows and all kinds of animals.

Christ Chapel became our home-church in 2008. We can sometimes be found attending services and events on all three campuses.  Both traditional music ministry and contemporary worship teams have always been an important part of our lives. We are so lucky to have many opportunities to use our God given talents individually and blessed to be able to serve in these areas as a family.

I grew up in a liberal church, gained a love for music and the fellowship of church, and was baptized at the age 12. Since I had no spiritual foundation or relationship with Christ, I fell away from the church. God drew me back into church when I was hired at CCBC. I heard music like never before, people loved and cared for me like family, I read my Bible and I heard sermons explaining things that I could have never conceived on my own. You could say God saved me through CCBC. We had a staff meeting and I prayed the true sinner’s prayer of salvation. What a relief, no more wondering! How insanely blessed I was that God picked me out and placed me here. Louis and Sally [Harris] poured into my soul by their divine leadership. I had no family in town and I immersed myself in the activities, services and people and in return I gained a prayer family. The Music Ministry family prayed for me, provided for my children and I when hard times hit and supported our every need. God flourished and refined my talents over the years and I am closer to Him in every hymn, chorus and anthem. How sweet His music is to hear and play!

I also met my husband, John, through the Music Ministry at CCBC. He proposed to me, along with my daughter, Bella, and my son, Raylen, at a choir rehearsal. We were married in 2009 and added son Asher and daughter Etta Kay. So, as parents of four children, we spend our time going from one activity to the next and counting down to date nights.

I was born into a musical family and spent my childhood through college in church music (my grandfather was the Dean of Brite [Divinity School at TCU] during that time). After TCU, I left Fort Worth for Colorado where I began a Bible study and began an intimate journey with my Lord.

My kids and I attended another church in Fort Worth, but after my last child left for college I visited Christ Chapel at a friend’s urging for John Stella’s Bible study class. I never intended to leave the church I was at, but one morning I was compelled to tell Louis [Harris] that I used to play cello and the rest is history.

After 14 years as a single mom, I remarried. Patrick and I met in the orchestra at CCBC, but had attended all the same schools in Fort Worth and even both toured Europe with the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra… all that time and we had never met! We have three adult children –all married and living across the U.S. In addition to our grandchildren (three so far: Micah, Aliyah and Calvin) and music, I love spending time with our goldendoodle, Annie. I knit whenever (and wherever) I can. I love my book club and reading, and I love to garden – mostly herbs and flowers that grow before July (when the heat and MusiCamp keep me out of the garden). In the spring and fall you might find me riding through the hill country on the back of Patrick’s Harley.

My relationship with God started when I was 8 years old. I trusted Jesus for salvation and was baptized in my grandfather’s church. From the beginning, music was a big part of my life, but because my dad was a music minister, I didn’t necessarily want to work in music ministry like him.

It wasn’t until college that I learned to play the guitar and started leading worship every now and then. (In college, there’s always someone looking for a worship guy to lead a couple songs.) One of my biggest problems in college was that I lacked direction and leadership. God used some godly men disciple me and lead me to make better decisions in my life. One of those men encouraged me to start serving as a volunteer worship leader. At the time, my then-girlfriend/now-wife and I were getting serious, and I knew my job waiting tables wasn’t going to sustain me for much longer. I knew I had to figure something out and after weighing the options, realized that everything in my life had been pointing me towards music ministry. I couldn’t pretend anymore — it’s where I felt most fulfilled and where I got to use all my gifts and talents.

Looking back, I can tell you that I wasn’t just passionate about music — I was (and am) passionate about leading God’s people to worship together with one voice. It’s the relationships built in the church that fuel me. Getting people to feel God’s love, grace and forgiveness in the context of a worship service — that’s what was driving my passion to serve. So, after getting married, we moved from Dallas to help start a church plant in Virginia. For six years, we lived there and that’s where we started our family. As our family grew, we thought it best to move back home to Texas and that is what has led us to Christ Chapel.

Fastforward 11 years and we now have four children, two girls and two boys. I’m on a mission to train them all to love the Dallas Cowboys and old Disney movies. Along with good food and good coffee, I’m also a big fan of Hot Cheetos and 90s Christian music.

After completing my Master of Music Ed. Degree at Texas Christian University (Go Frogs!), I had the privilege of teaching high school choral music in the public schools of Perryton, Texas for two years, and Arlington, Texas for 18 years.

It was in 1981 that I felt God was leading me to resign teaching to spend more time writing original music for church choirs, as well as music for public and private school choirs. At the time, my music was being published by six different publishers, and currently I have over 200 published works. In addition, I was continuing to be organist for Sagamore Hill Baptist Church.

In December of 1983, I was asked by Christ Chapel to come and play organ in the new facility that they were moving to in January. So, on January 7, 1984, I began playing organ for the 11 a.m. service. After about six months, I approached Ted Kitchens with the idea of starting a Music Ministry for the church. The Elders agreed to allow me to have six months to see what could happen with such a ministry.

We were able to create an instrumental ensemble of a violin, a ’cello and two trumpets. Additionally, eight adults were the beginning of a choir, and part of the Sunday morning classes for Middle and High School departments became our first rehearsals for a Youth Choir. At the end of the six months, the Elders wanted to continue what was begun, and I became the full-time Minister of Music for Christ Chapel. From that beginning experience, God has continued to grow the ministry to what it is today.

I have been married to Sally Ann Harris for almost 55 years, and our three children, LouAnn Stumbo, Trey and Andy Harris, were all part of those beginning musical groups. Now, my three children, their spouses, and my ten grandchildren are all a part of Christ Chapel as well, and we are blessed to have our entire family attend here.

I have been blessed to have been led to Christ Chapel almost 33 years ago, and I feel that one of my favorite song titles says it best:  “Jesus Led Me All The Way.”

I was born a southern Baptist in northwest Arkansas in July of 1986. I grew up a sports-loving, competitive, farm boy who worked my absolute hardest to be the best at every sport I played. Likewise, I worked tirelessly to live up to a self-imposed standard of godliness. At 14 the Lord showed me grace by revealing His absolute work on the cross and I was born again.

It was almost a year of looking for a new church after moving to Fort Worth to attend seminary that my wife, Emily, and I found Christ Chapel. We attended regularly for three months and came into contact with Jamey Ice, the lead guitarist for Green River Ordinance and long time Christ Chapelite, who connected us with the Ryan McCarthy, who was serving as the Life Stage 1 Pastor. I was hired as the full-time Life Stage 1 Worship Pastor on May 1, 2012. After serving on the Life Stage 1 staff for almost a year and a half, I transitioned to Christ Chapel’s first multi-site in Parker County, the West Campus, to serve as the Worship Pastor. I’m excited for the future God has for us as we seek to reach Parker County for Christ.

I have been married to my high school sweetheart, Emily, for six years. We are currently in the process of adopting our first child, Teacon, from Haiti. We currently live in Parker Country and enjoy doing life with our West Campus church family. Besides playing and making music, I enjoy the outdoors and spending time with our family and friends. My wife and I are avid DIYers, so you can almost always find us renovating or updating our house.

Thanks to the prayers of godly grandparents and their life example I came to know Christ at an early age. The first Sunday my husband and I visited almost 25 years ago we both knew we were home. Everything felt right, especially the music, the sermon and the people.

I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 29 years and together we have six children and two sons in law. I have been the Director of Bands at Travis Academy of Fine Arts for 14 years –I have the two best jobs in the world! I also teach private flute lessons. Other than playing or teaching music and spending time with my family, my favorite things to do are reading well-written fiction and spending time outside.

From an early age I was involved in the church, and was raised in a Christian home. While as a young person I may not have run toward the Lord with a lot of my heart, I think that He has graced me with a foundation in His truth and His ways through my upbringing and by pulling me towards Him throughout the years. I believe God has guided me towards the opportunity for a life that’s true and full, and though I haven’t (and still don’t) always choose it, He always makes it available in His grace. I have experienced His calling, His call for faith and patience and His sovereignly planned provision and He has given me so many wonderful opportunities tuned to the way He has created me.

I visited CCBC the very first week of grad school at TCU in 2009 and, having an interest and a history of drumming in worship music, got plugged in (in a hurry) with the student ministry worship teams. The second Sunday that I ever attended Christ Chapel, I was playing music for the high school and college services, and it has been such a blessing and life-giving experience. I was a member of the volunteer worship teams until the summer of 2015, when I was hired as part of the contemporary music department. This ministry is exciting to me because of the opportunity to work with other alternately-gifted individuals to enjoy music, pursue creativity and push for excellence all while glorifying and leading others to glorify the Lord.

I grew up with two very different examples of what it meant to be a Christian and what God was like. My parents did not model the greatest example which led me to believe that Christians were judgmental hypocrites. My grandparents modeled the love of Christ really well, but their church taught that bad things happened to you if you didn’t have enough faith or if you had done something to upset God. Due to a lot of different hardships within my family, as well as the death of my grandmother when I was in seventh grade, I decided I didn’t want to follow God anymore: I believed following Him was pointless. I had decided I would just be a “good” person and do my own thing. When I was a Junior in high school I had friends asking me every single week to come to their church youth group. I finally caved and went and ended up really liking the people and the church, but was still skeptical about Jesus and being a “Christian.” Life was pretty rough in high school and I found myself always wanting to be at the youth group and wanting to be around the Christians there — they were different. That year I went to a winter camp with the church and had decided that if following Jesus meant being loving, selfless and honest like these people were towards me, then I was all in!

I started playing electric guitar the summer going into my sophomore year of high school. Guitar and music were a huge part of what got me plugged in at youth group and so I was always serving at a church while also being in bands and gigging/recording. As I got older and started my own family, I could feel God shifting things in my life and calling me out of the band/gigging life. It was a very hard thing to let go of those hopes and dreams, but I had begun to find more of a love for worship music and watching people finding and experiencing the hope and joy found in Jesus through worship. God eventually moved my family and I to a small town in Arizona, where serving at our church led to an amazing opportunity to work full-time in worship ministry. After six years in Arizona, I am thrilled that God has now led me to CCBC and to continuing to bring Him glory through worship ministry and music. I love developing and investing in people and am so excited to help come alongside team members and help them tap into gifts and talents God has blessed them with. I love getting to lead worship, but I really love seeing others be stretched and grown and to support them leading worship.

I am married to my best friend and better half! I know everyone says that, but my wife Maggie is truly amazing and if it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be living on a friend’s couch still thinking one of my bad bands was going to make it. We have three phenomenal kids and a crazy dog. Some of my favorite things to do are cooking, playing with my kids and going on dates with my wife! I’m also a big nerd/dork for Star Wars and Marvel!