Sprang Post

Sprang and I have worked together for over 5 years now. To say that we were at opposite ends of a spectrum when we first teamed up would be an understatement. I won't get into it, but he was fresh out of college with a head full of ideas and I was a dogmatic punk that did not want to hear many of his ideas. Well God has brought us to a middle ground. We have both made some huge strides to meet in the middle.

My first Sunday at PowerLine Church of the Nazarene, I was truly surprised by the worship style. Sprang basically had a crew cut, a silk suit, and was playing his guitar. It would have been a cool look if was in a punk band, but he was not in a punk band. He was leading 5-10 year old choruses with a choir, a piano, and somebody banging on a set of drums.

I started throwing cds of newer stuff on his desk and challenging him to lose the suit. I also used the P word which really set him off for a while. The P word was "Praise Team" . He informed me that he already had a praise team and it was called a choir and wouldn't it be cool if they had robes? Did I mention that we were at different ends of a spectrum?

Fast forward to 2008. Sprang has longer hair than my wife, wears old jeans and a t-shirt to church, and owns a macbook pro (which officially means he is cooler than me). He will be fired if he ever institutes a choir and he would quit anyway if I tried to tell him to start one. The oldest songs we play are several hundred years old and are played in a relevant way. He is giving me new music and has a killer band. Within a year I would imagine that we will have 2 or 3 full bands and people will be frustrated that they don't get to play more.

His creativity is off the charts. He:

• is a madman with graphic design. He has never had a class, but we may just change that this year. He has learned a lot on his own and doing some crazy good stuff.
• is a madman on Ableton, a program that creates tracks and is used during life performances.
• had a guy reprogram a guitar hero guitar, linked it to a computer program, and played a worship song live with a guitar hero guitar.
• held a guitar hero tournament at camp and the winner played with them on stage the last night of camp.
• is improving his range, and guitar skills.
• is learning to be a strong leader.
  
• is more prepared for rehearsals and Sunday worship than he has ever been.
• has a heart for worship that is hard to find in anybody. He is a true "lead worshiper" not just a "worship leader".

Over the past 5 years God has brought us together as friends, accountability partners, ministers, and dreamers.

Five years ago I could not have seen us where we are today. Five years from now I can't imagine us not working together in some way.

There is no one on the planet that I would rather lead worship at my church on a weekly basis. Seriously, there is no one. He is one of the best kept secrets in worship leading circles. It won't be that way for long, he is getting more and more invites to lead and play and we will let God use this dude to lead the masses if that is what he has in store for him.

I love his heart, I love his passion, I love his creativity, and I love and appreciate him more than he could possibly know.