PHOTO CREDIT: AARON ANDERSON
SHOWING UP WORSHIP LEADER GIVES HER BEST, RELIES ON JESUS BY NANCY ZUGSCHWERT
K
ristin (Wood) Woolley ’06 never expected to attend college in Arkansas. Living in Colorado, the daughter of two accountants ended up at John Brown University after the Cathedral Choir sang at her high school. “They sounded beautiful,” she recalled, and it was enough to inspire a visit. Between the lovely campus and the kindness of former music professors Terri and Jan Wubbena, Woolley landed in Siloam Springs to start college. “They were so kind and just made me feel wanted,” Woolley said. Her goal was to study voice, but her parents suggested music education might be more practical. A game-changing moment for her life came when Woolley had an opportunity to start leading worship in JBU’s chapel services. “I was so green,” she said. “There was a legacy of people at JBU who had led worship really well, and I’d watched them do a great job. But then they all graduated and left an empty spot.” Woolley and another student picked up the mantle and “just started figuring out what to do.” PIVOTAL PREPARATION One day in a chapel service, Woolley was unexpectedly asked to do a song.
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“Tracy Balzer [director of the Office of Christian Formation] looked at me and said, ‘You can do it,’” Woolley said. “I think that belief in me, as a musician, as a worshiper, as a child of God, really gave me this security, and I thought, ‘I can lead these people.’ I remember in that moment just stepping out into this water, having no idea what’s going to happen or what I’m doing … not prepared, not qualified.” The moment provided pivotal preparation. “I think that has carried me for the past 13 years of ministry,” Woolley reflected. “It’s okay that you’re not prepared or not qualified in moments because God goes before you, behind you and around you. And he leads the way if you’re willing to be open-handed to what he has for his church.” As much as Woolley loved leading worship, her career preparation qualified her to be a K–12 music teacher; and after graduation she got a job in Lincoln, Arkansas, where she taught elementary music. She quickly realized, however, that teaching was not for her, and Woolley hoped there was something else for her to pursue. She left teaching after a year and a half and felt like God was allowing her to let it go and trust him for whatever came next. Woolley returned to Colorado and humbly moved into her parents’ basement, ready to see where God would lead. The first place he led her was the church that would eventually become a cornerstone in her life and career.
