Giving Thanks in 2025

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Today’s newsletter is going to be a deviation from the norm.

This holiday week has a been a great time to reconnect with family and take a breather from the busyness. With busyness comes the tendency to be acutely focused on the work, so much that I rarely stop to appreciate the work that’s happened.

With that being said, here’s a recap of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we look forward to going with Worship Strategies over the rest of 2025 and into 2026.

The Beginning

Worship Strategies officially started in September 2023 as an affiliate partner with Reliant Ministries. This is where training began in support raising, learning the theology behind vocational ministry and strategies for mobilizing supporters to come behind a unique approach to serving God’s church.

Some of the wins:

• Many folks came on board and continue to actively support us through prayer, finances, and connecting us to others.

• We were simultaneously able to begin working with churches to actively put the growing support to use.

Some of the lessons learned:

• The “no” in support raising and onboarding ministry clients is going to happen. It’s rarely a spiteful “no”; it’s more due to an ill-timed or ill-explained “ask.” This just leads to a refinement of strategy, plus there’s repeated experience of maintaining dialogue. I call this “getting my ‘reps’ in.”

• Emotional, physical, and spiritual health are interconnected. Stepping into a support raising and consulting role was wholly new, so I put my physical fitness on the back burner, along with ignoring the emotional toll of stress. (I had a large “number” to meet, I internalized that stress instead of working through it.) The result: Four weeks of enduring the pain of nerve inflammation known as “shingles,” at the ripe age of 31. It forced me to seek a healthier balance of keeping my body fed and exercised properly, maintaining a healthy spiritual diet of regular reading of the Word more than ever, and staying engaged in conversations that help me process the emotional toll of the season.

Current State of Affairs

There have been some changes since our launch:

• We are currently partnered with Christian Ministry Alliance, where they act as a fiscal sponsor (i.e., they process our financial donations). This move allowed us to focus more on the Worship Strategies brand, amplifying a single name in our effort to become one of the go-to resources for churches looking to improve their approach to worship ministry.

• We onboarded with beehiiv, a newsletter company that is quickly becoming the flagship platform for independent creators. This helped us to create a more robust engagement structure, and as of yesterday, allows us to tap into additional revenue streams to augment the support we’re already using to grow our reach.

In terms of impact, here’s where we are:

• Multiple in-person masterclasses with individuals and teams, primarily focused in the mid-Missouri region. These range from beginner guitar classes to learning personal theology of worship, among other topics.

• Several online sessions and lessons with ministry leaders and musicians. In these sessions, we focus on improving vocal/instrumental techniques, along with coaching in how to manage ministry teams.

• Career coaching: This involves resume writing, along with interview practices and advisement for individuals looking to enter into professional ministry roles, or pursue advancement in their careers.

• Digital resources: Our e-books, charts, and devotionals have been downloaded and shared by many worship leaders and volunteers across the country and in other parts of the world.

• Audio/video installation/consulting: We’ve been able to build sound system implementation for churches from the ground up, along with helping others make upgrades and solve technical issues, keeping budgets trimmed and affordable when it came to material costs ( and providing no-cost labor).

The Road Ahead

Looking forward to 2026, we’re making strategic moves to strengthen our financial lifelines along with amplifying our voice in digital/online spaces, acting as a sort of “flywheel” to lead to more in-person engagements and appearances:

• Doubling down on beehiiv: Entering into higher-tier subscriptions allows us to grow the Worship Strategies audience through referrals and advertisements, all with like-minded, missional organizations.

• Pursuing more “community” opportunities: In the second half of 2025, I personally joined some small, online songwriting collectives to learn from other perspectives and observe artistic/stylistic development of people in other areas of the country. Building these relationships establishes the ground for further collaboration and opportunities to realize Worship Strategies’ mission to “equip, enhance, and empower” churches to excel in their approach to worship ministry.

• Test additional media formats: I made my first guest appearance on a local podcast (here’s Part 1 & Part 2 if you want to check them out), which excited me to see how Worship Strategies could utilize this medium to reach additional audiences. Since this is still in a conceptual stage, I still need to decide on a solid format of solo vs. guest episodes, content mapping, etc. The cool thing about the podcast is that it can be distributed natively on the beehiiv network, along with traditional platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Meta, etc.

• Continue to add more weekly consultations and individual lessons/coaching sessions.

A Big Thanks

All of this being said, we are immensely grateful to the Lord for His continued faithfulness and provision as we pursue this call to serve His church, and YOU 🫵 play a HUGE role in being the means by which we can do this work.

Your prayer, financial support, and advocacy has led to individuals and churches being blessed and enriched in ways that wouldn’t normally be possible, and we are anticipating broader reaches and deeper work for the year ahead.

Thank you, thank you, thank you—truly!

Be blessed 👊✌️