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Greetings, welcome, and thanks for taking time to check out my web site. I'm glad to be in touch with you in this way. I'm honored and grateful that my music has some how found its way into your life. This web site will be my way of keeping in touch with you on a regularly updated basis. I'll use it to let you know what I'm up to, thinking about, writing about, wrestling with artistically and theologically, etc. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to hopefully hearing from you in one way or another. I want to use this letter to tell you a little bit about who I am and what my ministry (which I refer to as "Crosswind Ministries") is about. I've lived in Madison, WI since 1993. Prior to that, I lived in northern Wisconsin where I served two small United Church of Christ churches as pastor for almost four years. In the fall of 1987 I left the pastorate to begin my free lance musical ministry. To be honest, no one is more amazed than I that I've been able to do this full-time for over eighteen years now! I mean it's kind of a crazy thing to try to do on one's own -- given that I don't have a record label or denomination underwriting my ministry. Though I've received lots of affirmation and support from the United Church of Christ, I'm not officially sponsored by any particular Church body. I'm very aware of the potential dangers of free lance ministries which aren't accountable to anyone or anything theologically or personally, and for that reason I make it a point to be in constant communication with pastors and denominational leaders who can "keep an eye on me" (check out my mission statement for further reflection on this accountability issue). On the other hand, I love the freedom of being able to work with lots of different denominations and styles of churches, and as an artist, its wonderful to have complete freedom to write and record what I feel led to say without worrying about a record company trying to direct my message to a particular market. During these past eighteen years I've given well over a thousand concerts all over the U.S. and led lots (God only knows how many!) of retreats. Most of my work takes place in main line Protestant circles (UCC, Methodist, ELCA Lutheran, Presbyterian, American Baptist, etc.), and I also minister quite a bit in Roman Catholic circles. I do a lot of work with junior and senior high youth, yet I've also focused on ministering to small children, and to the church family at large. In other words, I do a lot of different things... Regardless of the age group I'm working with, I've been told that the most distinguishing characteristic of my music is the theology which is at the heart of my writing. I sing a lot about what it means to be in a "personal relationship" with Christ, but I also focus a good deal on issues of justice, peace, hunger, honoring the environment, and solidarity with the poor. I try to nurture a balance between songs which help us look inward and nurture the Spirit's presence in our personal lives, and songs which call us beyond ourselves to reach out to this broken world with Christ-centered compassion and justice. Stylistically, my music is diverse (primarily because my audiences are diverse, and because I really like a lot of different kinds of music). I've released recordings aimed at several different age groups as well (adults, teenagers, and preschool kids). Since these audiences tend to respond to different styles of music and presentation, I've written songs and produced recordings with each different group in mind. I've also used music very deliberately as a teaching tool for the purposes of Christian education (songs that help kids memorize things like the books of the bible, the 10 Commandments, highlights of Church history, etc.). To get a feel for these different styles, I encourage you to go to the CD's and Stuff portion of this site and listen for yourself. Well that' enough for now. I hope I've intrigued you enough to want to explore other portions of this site. Again, thanks so much for taking time to learn more about my ministry, and please come up and introduce yourself to me if you ever make it to one of my concerts.
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