If you lead worship in a small group setting or at a church that doesn’t have a band, you have a unique opportunity as a worship leader. You can literally go wherever you feel led at a moment's notice. You can change tempo, key, song, or arrangement without having to communicate to a team. There’s a ton of freedom that comes with leading solo corporate worship. But there are also some challenges.

Some time ago, I received an email from a mom who wanted to see if her daughter could shadow and interview me for a school assignment.

Do you struggle to follow through with your desire to write songs? I think we all do at times, but we don’t want to settle into complacency and be ok with staying in that place. Just like anything else, you need to have a goal and measurable success points in order to be able to see your growth.

It was January 2005. I was 19 years old and had just arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina for a worship conference. At that conference, I met a woman named Susan and had a five-minute conversation with her that would end up changing my life.I’d heard about Susan before and had even seen her from afar on several different occasions.

Songwriting doesn’t just happen. It takes works and intentionality. In order to put in the hours it takes to be consistent, you have to start by clarifying your “why.” These three questions below are the first thing I ask people when talking about songwriting.

Being able to focus on a task and carry it through to completion is a skill set my parents instilled in me and my siblings from a young age. Focus and follow through have also been skills that I’ve worked hard at developing. I love having a goal, figuring out how to accomplish it, and doing the work it takes to see it become a reality.

Do you ever feel weak when it comes to fulfilling your calling? Do you ever want to give up?

Desperation for the presence of God. I feel like this has become almost offensive to talk about in some circles. "He's always with you.” "Why are you asking for Him to come? He's already here." Now, I believe the Bible, and I believe the Bible makes it clear that these realities and statements are true.

How do you trust God when something you really want, something you believe He promised you, takes much longer than you expect?

Several years ago, while having a conversation with Mike Bickle (the director of IHOPKC), he encouraged me to do something that would end up being transformational in my calling as a worship leader. He told me to begin studying the anointing in my life.