The Point Monthly (Nov/Dec 2016) by The Woodlands Methodist Church

ISSUE 12 | NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2016 EDITION

THE WOODLANDS UMC

IN THIS

BEHIND THE MUSIC: FAMILIAR FACES IN WORSHIP

ISSUE:

NEW STAFF 3 WELCOME Two high-profile faces join our church ministry team

4 MUSIC MAVEN

Get to know Louise Kramer, Director of Music Ministry

VIBES 6 SOUND Josh Price is leading worship, pursuing joy at The Loft

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 2016 is quickly coming to a close, and it can’t come quickly enough for many people. It’s been a year of hardship due to a soft economy, social tensions and election season strife. Right now in our own communit y and in communities around the world, there are people who are suffering tremendous losses of all kinds. My friends, I think you’ll agree with me when I say the sooner Christmas gets here, the better. After all, it signals a return of hope, a renewal of joy and the arrival of a Savior. In many ways our current times resemble those in the Old Testament when the Jewish people wandered in darkness searching for their king.

This is the season of Advent: a season of waiting and anticipation before Jesus comes to shine light into our darkness. And Christmas is a reminder of Christ’s free gift to us. He comes to heal our brokenness and wipe away our tears. Once and for all Christ comes to bear our burdens, to forgive our sins and to set us free from whatever holds us down.

8 COVER STORY:

WORSHIP VISION

Mark Swayze is writing music to equip the UMC

As we gather family and friends to celebrate this Christmas, I invite you to keep Him close at the center of whatever you do. Speak with kind words. Move with purpose toward peace. We have a tremendous opportunity to follow after Christ’s example of generosity and love to people everywhere. Your Pastor,

SEASON, NEW SONGS 12 NEW Meet Cameron Holmes, worship leader of The Church at Woodforest

Ed Robb

NEWS 18 CHURCH Births, Deaths, New Members, Foundation Gifts

PROCLAIM GOD’S GREATNESS WITH US THIS CHRISTMAS

Bring your family and invite some friends to one of our 19 Christmas services, which run Sunday, December 18 through Christmas Day. We offer a variety of worship experiences to choose from: • Traditional candlelight worship • Special needs worship • Casual / contemporary candlelight worship • Worship for those who are grieving • Children’s worship

There’s something wonderful for everyone this Christmas at The Woodlands United Methodist Church. Find our full schedule of services and events at thewoodlandsumc.org/christmas

2200 Lake Woodlands Drive

The Woodlands, TX 77380

281.297.5900 | thewoodlandsumc.org

WELCOME NEW TEAM MEMBERS DR. ROBERT HAYES BISHOP-IN-RESIDENCE

UMC’s Senior Pastor. “He is a long-time friend and colleague of mine. He’s a man of high character and great wisdom, and an excellent resource for spiritual leadership.” According to Dr. Robb, the growth of our church — which recently crossed the 12,000-member threshold — means there is a need for more support of the people and programs that make it a vital part of The Woodlands community. He believes welcoming Bishop Hayes onto the staff will help strengthen the church’s ability to provide that support.

Beginning January 1, 2017, Dr. Robert Hayes, the retiring Bishop of the Oklahoma Area of The United Methodist Church, will join The Woodlands UMC staff as our Bishop-in-Residence. “Bishop Hayes will bring a wealth of pastoral experience to our church family,” says Dr. Ed Robb, The Woodlands

“In addition to occasional preaching and participating in our Traditional Worship services, Bishop Hayes will play an active role in supporting our church staff, lay leaders and members-at-large with spiritual enrichment and adult discipleship opportunities,” Dr. Robb says. As bishop, Dr. Hayes presided over more than 500 churches in the Oklahoma Conference and 87 churches of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.

A third-generation pastor, he was raised in East Texas. After graduating from Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, he earned a Master of Theology degree at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry degree at Drew University in Madison, N.J. He pastored several churches in Houston before serving in leadership roles within the Texas Annual Conference. He was elected Bishop in 2004. He’s also the author of Strength for the Journey, a collection of devotionals published in 2007. Bishop Hayes is the first AfricanAmerican bishop to serve both the Oklahoma Conference and the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. He has been a civic leader in each community where he and his family — including his wife, Delilah (Dee), with whom he has three grown children — have lived. We are honored to have the Hayes family become a part of our church and look forward to their presence in the life of our community. •

DR. ANN K. SNYDER

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF GENEROSITY The Woodlands UMC is pleased to announce that Dr. Ann K. Snyder will be joining our staff as Executive Director of Generosity beginning December 1. Many of you know Dr. Snyder from her contributions to The Woodlands community and beyond over the years. She most recently served as President and CEO of Interfaith of The Woodlands, and she has also served on the boards of numerous organizations throughout the area. Additionally, for a number of years Dr. Snyder served as a trustee of Conroe Independent School District and also as the board’s chairman. It’s this experience and wisdom that makes her the perfect person to help enhance our culture of generosity here at the church. Dr. Snyder will oversee all fundraising and donor relations

activities on behalf of the church and The Woodlands UMC Foundation, including Missions, Stewardship, The Woodlands Methodist School, our capital campaigns and more. Dr. Snyder and her family have been members here for many years, so she is pleased to combine her passion for helping others with her passion for her church. We are honored to have Ann Snyder join our team as we obey God’s call to visibly demonstrate His love and grace to our community •

BUILDING ON HISTORY LOUISE KRAMER, TRADITIONAL WORSHIP By Nathan Nix

When Louise Kramer initially agreed to play handbells at The Woodlands UMC 33 years ago, she had no idea the parttime gig would eventually evolve into a full-time position as the church’s current Director of Music Ministry. For one thing, she didn’t feel she was supposed to be there in the first place. “I told them that I was not interested in playing handbells in the Methodist church because I was Baptist,” she says. “But they were in desperate need of someone to just play handbells, so I said, ‘I will play, but I’ll only come to church on the Sundays the handbells play.’ And that’s what I did for a few months.” When the handbell director said the church was going to start a choir and asked if she would consider joining, Louise once again hesitated, saying that sounded like a bigger commitment and again reiterating that she was Baptist. Nonetheless, the director insisted they still wanted her to participate, so she did. A few months later, the handbell director decided to leave the church, which meant that the choir director position was open. “Next thing I know, Dr. Robb is knocking on my door and saying, ‘I hear you’re a musician. How would you like to be the director of this choir?’” Louise says. “He actually wasn’t Dr. Robb then; he was ‘Eddie.’ I said, “You don’t understand. I’m Baptist. I don’t really think you want me being the choir director of a Methodist church.’ He goes, ‘Oh no, we do. We’ll be looking for a replacement for you if you’ll just do it as an interim.’ About five years later, I realized he wasn’t really looking for a replacement.” While Louise continued teaching music to elementary students in Conroe ISD during the day, she worked to build the church’s choir at night and on the weekends. “The choir loft at our Panther Creek location held about 20 people at the most, and I was able to build it from 12 people, hoping that eight of them would show up on Sunday,” she says. Over time, her family joined her at the church each weekend, and The Woodlands UMC became their home. When Louise realized, “I guess I’m Methodist now,” the family officially became members. “I raised my kids in this church, and they love it,” she says. “And my husband works

a camera. So we’re very invested in The Woodlands United Methodist Church.” Louise continued to lead the choir in a part-time capacity. She also oversaw Cross Section and the Goldenaires. About 17 years ago, as the church was experiencing tremendous growth, the administration decided to create the role of Director of Traditional Worship. While Louise wasn’t especially interested at first, she says the Lord woke her up in the middle of the night and told her to apply for the job. “I woke up thinking, ‘I can’t do that. I need to finish at CISD and retire. It’s too big of a job for me, and they’re never going to hire me. I have an elementary music background,’” she says. “And God woke me up again the second night and said ‘Go apply for that job.’ And so I did.” She got the job and worked it out where she could teach school in the morning and come work at the church in the afternoon in order to finish her 30 years at CISD and officially retire. Since then, she’s poured herself into the Traditional Worship program, watching the choir grow from 12 to 100 and overseeing the addition of a full orchestra. “What’s amazing to me is that it’s been in the same church,” she says. “When I started full-time, we were a 3,000-member church, and we’re now a 12,000-member church.” While the size and scope has certainly evolved, Louise thinks the nature of Traditional Worship means that much of the style has remained the same, and that’s what many people like about the service. “I think one of the huge things that people enjoy is familiarity of the hymns,” she says. “They have great words and great meaning to people. Often, they grew up with those songs, so it’s comforting for them to hear them again in the traditional services.” That said, she actually believes the word “traditional” can be a bit misleading sometimes when it comes to The Woodlands UMC worship. “We use ‘traditional’ because we wear robes and the pastors wear robes, and we’re a little bit more formal in that look or that setting,” she says, “but as far as the songs that we sing, I would say we’re

not highbrow traditional. We’re very blended. We sing the popular choruses that are out now. We also sing anthems that were written this year.” Louise believes one of the strengths of our Traditional Worship services is the ability to keep things “new and fresh” by striking a balance between these recent songs and classic hymns. “One week we might do a little more traditional song or an arrangement of a hymn; the next Sunday we might sing a gospel song,” she says. “I believe that not everybody likes the same kind of music. I believe that giving variety, even in a traditional service, is very important. When I can, I try to match up with what the pastors are preaching on so that they have a full experience of the Word, and that the Word goes along with the music and they complement each other.” In fact, she thinks the presence of sound theology is another trademark of worship at The Woodlands UMC — and not just the traditional services. “Our pastors preach from the Bible,” she says. “I think that’s important to our congregation. They’re not afraid to talk about the hard subjects, and it is not fluff. I think that our congregation really responds to that. When you have good music mixed with good preaching, you can’t go wrong.” Even after 30 years of service, Louise still loves coming to work every day and helping craft a worship experience that is meaningful to both the people behind the altar and those in the pews. “It’s not just my job, it’s my church home,” she says. “I’m invested in and love the people of the choir and the orchestra. If it was just a job, it would be different. It’s not just a job to me; it’s my life. I can’t imagine doing anything else.” •

Find more information about Traditional Worship at thewoodlandsumc.org/traditional

FOLLOW LOUISE fb.com/louise.kramer.104

PURSUING THE JOY OF THE LORD JOSH PRICE, LOFT WORSHIP By Nathan Nix

As The Loft enters its 10th year of existence, worship leader Josh Price is excited about what the future holds for The Woodlands UMC’s modern worship service. The community has experienced a time of transition over the past couple of years, and Josh is focused on establishing some consistency while also continuing to try new things in a service known for being cutting-edge. And what could push the envelope more than a nine-minute worship song at the church’s 10th anniversary celebration? “I was just thinking, we’re here, and we’re celebrating 10 years of awesome ministry that the Lord has done — but what is our prayer moving forward?” Josh says. As he was looking through the setlist he’d planned and listening to Spotify, the song “Let It Echo” by Jesus Culture randomly played. “The bridge of that song is like ‘Ooh oh oh oh, let heaven fall, as we sing ooh oh oh oh, let heaven fall,’” Josh says. That bridge repeats for about four minutes, but Josh felt the Lord was leading him to sing that prayer in the service and to really dwell on what it means. “I just was overcome that this should be our declaration on the 10th anniversary,” he says. “We’re celebrating what God has done, but what are we looking ahead to now? Moving ahead, we’re praying for the presence of the Lord to fall on this space so tangibly and so heavily that there’s no way you could enter it and not encounter Him.” 6

Josh didn’t always want to be a worship leader — in fact, for the longest time he pursued a career as a pharmacist, a passion born out of growing up in Sarasota, Florida in a community with a large elderly population. It seemed a logical and stable career path, but the Lord had other plans. He had first realized he had a gift for singing at a friend’s birthday party in eighth grade. After a group chorus of “Happy Birthday,” a girl he had a crush on told him she thought he had a good voice. He promptly went out and signed up to be in choir his freshman year of high school. One morning when he was in his late teens, he attended a church where worship was led by a man named Steve McCoy. Though Josh did nothing in particular to make himself stand out, Steve approached him and asked if he played music. Josh had just started playing guitar, so he said “sort of.” Looking back, he considers it a “Godordained encounter.” Steve invited Josh to join the band and began mentoring and discipling him. Over the next couple of years, Steve thrust Josh center stage to lead more and more. Even though Josh resisted, Steve felt he had a word from the Lord saying that Josh would be involved full-time with music ministry. For a punk-rocker in his late teens, it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. During his freshman year of college, though, Josh finally felt the Lord affirming Steve’s word. “I remember calling my now wife (Deanna) — we were best friends — and saying to her, ‘I have a clear calling from the Lord. I’m going to go into full-

time ministry,’” Josh says. “Deanna will tell you that was the moment she knew we were going to get married. It was really cool.” Josh went out and changed his major at South College of Florida to music. He would eventually head to the University of South Florida, where he studied religion and anthropology. All along, he led worship at his church and worked in student ministry at another nearby congregation. In 2008, Josh moved to Houston for the first time, taking a job at Second Baptist Church. He and Deanna were engaged to be married, but she was still in Florida. Though Josh had a great job, he felt the Lord leading him a different direction, one he was hesitant to pursue. “We both kind of had an inkling that we would just travel out of a car and share the Gospel anywhere we could,” he says. “I always had a heart for playing in wine bars and coffee shops and music venues.” When his brother, Scooter, passed away in a car accident leaving town from their wedding, it prompted Josh and Deanna to reexamine the direction they were headed. “It was kind of a kick in our butt to just pursue the Lord 110%,” he says. “When Scooter passed away, it was kind of a wakeup call to ‘Let’s just go. I don’t know what’s holding us back now.’ We loved where we were on staff, but when you’re operating outside of God’s will for your life, it doesn’t feel too good. I think the Lord nudges, and sometimes the nudge gets a little harder.”

The duo traveled around the country playing wherever possible. Along the way, Josh recorded the albums Motion Sick, Infinite, and Nothing Without You while also working as an artist-inresidence at The Bridge, a church plant in Sarasota. When The Loft first approached Josh about coming back to the Houston area, he was initially resistant. He loved leading at The Bridge and living in his hometown. Eventually, though, pieces started falling into place that began to get him excited about what was happening in The Woodlands. After conversations with Bob Swan and the hiring of Mark Swayze to play in The Harvest, Josh decided to take the church up on its offer of leading one weekend. “I was pretty much sold that weekend,” he says, though he was worried about what Deanna would feel, given her love for Florida. She was also won over though, saying “This is going to be a great place.” Josh says the transition was tough given their affection for The Bridge. “Typically I feel like when you leave a job, it’s usually not for good reasons,

but we loved where we were,” he says. “So it was the weirdest feeling, like, ‘We’re going to leave a place we love to go to a place that we hope we love.’ And now two years later, we do.” While many Lofters associate Josh with an up-tempo, energetic worship experience, he says that’s only part of his approach.

you start off with high energy. It’s an ancient, proverbial thing to do. Josh does a good job at taking us through a biblical progression of worship.” It’s in the joy of the Lord that Josh finds strength, and he desires to lead Lofters out of the grind of the week and into a place where they can connect with that joy and recharge.

“Something really integral is that when we meet and worship together, it’s a journey,” he says. “It’s not a stagnant or monotonous hour, but there’s actually movement in what we’re doing. I think it’s a marriage of different responses in worship. There are times of stillness, and that’s super important; times of reflection; and even times, like in 1 Timothy 2, to lift up holy hands.”

“I do think that the world can be a grind,” he says. “Monday to Friday, Monday to Saturday, it can be tough. I think there is something to the fact that a lot of times, if you ever look at our worship service, it’s almost sandwiched, and the two ends of it are joyfulness.” •

If anything, Josh’s tendency towards an energetic style comes from his desire to embrace the joy of the Lord. Jason Nelson, The Loft’s Teaching Pastor, points to both Nehemiah and Proverbs as biblical precedents of enthusiastic worship.

Find more information about Loft Worship at loftchurch.org

“‘Enter His gates with thanksgiving in your heart; enter his courts with praise,’” he says, quoting Proverbs. “It’s why we believe when you come in

FOLLOW JOSH fb.com/joshuapricemusic @joshuayoder @joshuaprice 7

EQUIPPING THE CHURCH FOR WORSHIP MARK SWAYZE, HARVEST WORSHIP By Nathan Nix

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One of the most unique things about The Woodlands UMC is the variety of worship service opportunities available. In addition to our two traditional venues, which include our straightforward chapel service and our main sanctuary worship experience featuring a full choir and orchestra, we also have three contemporary services. The Harvest offers a casual full-band experience, The Loft offers a cutting-edge modern worship experience, and The Church at Woodforest offers an intimate, no-frills, small band experience. Mark Swayze, who leads worship each Sunday in The Harvest, also happens to be the church’s Director of Contemporary Worship, which means he speaks into and helps guide the musical expressions in each of the contemporary venues. For him, worship — specifically in Harvest — is about so much more than four or five songs at weekend services. “Years ago, we stopped calling ourselves a band because we realized music is such a small part of what we do,” he says. “We call ourselves a ministry team, because we’re just these team members that have passions. I love speaking. Alison (Broussard) loves working with people in recovery. R.T. (Bodet) loves working with children… You go throughout our team and you find each person has these different gifts, and music is just one of them. But as a whole, we’re doing more than just playing music together.”

for the community. Missie and I sat there listening, and when we left the lunch were like, ‘Dang it. We’re going to go to The Woodlands.’” Initially Swayze assumed that would mean leaving his team members behind in San Antonio. He explained to the group that he and Missie felt led to The Woodlands and that while the other members were welcome to join the couple and their two children, Caleb and Lauren, no one expected them to uproot their San Antonio lives to follow the Swayzes. “By the end of that week, all seven members — plus Steven Rector, our sound guy from Austin — and their spouses and kids said ‘We’re in for Houston,’” Swayze says. “They sold their houses, quit their jobs, and 22 people moved from San Antonio to Houston and then went looking for new houses and jobs. It was crazy. Our first six months is the story of God opening up doors for jobs and opening up houses and neighborhoods for every single one of them.” Swayze wasn’t the only one who was shocked by the team’s response. “It says a lot for him that every one of his band members would relocate and follow him here,” Sorensen says. “At the very beginning, when we saw that, we were like, ‘Wow, there’s something going on here…’”

The Lord led Swayze and his team members, which at the time also included Kyle Brown, Steven Bedingfield, Matt Minor and Callen Hearne, to The Woodlands in 2014. They had been serving at University United Methodist Church in San Antonio for many years — nine for Swayze — and were quite settled in that community when he received a call from Bob Swan at The Woodlands UMC. Bob asked if he’d meet with Mark Sorensen, the pastor of The Harvest, which was looking for a new worship leader. Swayze insisted he was happy at University UMC but agreed to sit down with Sorensen and his wife, Nycki, when they visited San Antonio.

Swayze told his team up front though that if they decided to join him in The Woodlands, he expected them to sell out to the church. He insisted that it wasn’t about leading worship on a larger platform (though at the time Harvest was smaller than University UMC) — it was more about living their lives with people during the week.

“Sorensen was a worship leader, so he instantly connected with me, and Nycki and (Swayze’s wife) Missie instantly connected over Haiti,” Swayze says. “So all of a sudden we’re sitting there having lunch, and he starts talking about Harvest and where he wants it to go and the new building and his dream

Swayze says that if there is any success the group has experienced at The Harvest, playing music on Sundays is only a small part of the reason. Most of it has to do with how they’ve invested their lives in the community throughout the week.

“We’ve joined Bible studies, we lead youth Bible studies, we are all a part of any sort of event that Harvest is a part of,” he says. “We have particular families that adopted us here in The Woodlands that we go over and spend time with and have dinners with.”

“There are two words that I would throw down for our team and what I pray for our team,” he says. “Number one is authenticity. You have to be the same person on the stage as you are playing basketball or in a small group or with your family at home when no one’s watching. Number two is humility. At the end of the day, the community we’ve been given is something there’s no way we deserve, so let’s always maintain humility. Always say, ‘God, thank you for just allowing us to be a part of this, because we don’t deserve any of it.’” The Swayze team’s dedication and authenticity are two of the things Sorensen loves most about them. “We did a revival in Madisonville, and I was blown away by how at the end, when they had planned this huge closing song, the entire band had put down their instruments except for Matt, and they had started praying over people,” he says. “That’s authenticity — a heart that desires to pray with people over doing the big closing number. For them, the green room (where bands typically hang out before, during, and after services) isn’t a priority. They’re in the worship service with the people, and I think it’s a beautiful testimony to their hearts. What you see is what you get with them. They’re the same on the floor as they are on the stage.” It’s the team’s engagement with The Harvest community that inspired them to create the songs on their recent album, Mark Swayze – Live at Harvest. One of Swayze’s main goals going forward is to equip the Church — and especially Methodist congregations — with worship resources. For him, th a t b e g i n s w ith re s p o n d i n g to what’s going on in the lives of those attending Harvest.

“Corporate worship has always been, if it’s real and it’s raw, a response to something God has just done in the community,” Swayze says. “That’s why I think there are all these new Harvest songs that have been created — because we’re just taking what we’re experiencing in the community and saying ‘Let’s sing about it.’” Swayze says the idea of songs being an overflow of what God is doing in a community can be traced all the way back through hymns and even to the early Israelites, who immediately celebrated in song once God had delivered them across the Red Sea and allowed it to close on the Egyptians. “I see the richness in a song that was written in the 18th century because they understood theology and they somehow wrote really rich, beautiful, poetic words and songs,” he says. “I think it’s cool for us to sing those because we say, ‘Hey, we’re part of a history that’s much bigger than us.’ But I also love fresh expressions of worship songs because they say, ‘Here’s us as a people right now, responding to what God’s doing.’” The Harvest has always placed a emphasis on prayer, and Swayze believes the reason for that is its leadership recognizing that all great moves of God began with people seeking the Lord and praying fervently. “What you always see in the midst of the beginning of revival is seeds of prayer,” he says. “You always see a group of people that, for whatever reason — for hunger or for laying out their request to God and beginning to ask God to please come into the midst of our institution and allow it to become a movement again — are passionate and wanting to spread the Gospel out instead of containing it within four walls.” Sorensen agrees and points out that prayer is always the starting point when it comes to life in Harvest. “From the writing of the prayers on the floor in Harvest to writing the prayer cards that got dropped in the walls to the reading of the Scripture for 74 hours that started the whole thing, we just covered the whole space in prayer, and it’s kind of taken off from there,” he says. Swayze insists that prayer and inviting God into each Harvest service or event is necessary because the people involved are completely ordinary.

“We make prayer a focus because we’re saying ‘God, we want You to do something here among us that we could’ve never dreamed of,’” he says. “‘And we want You to bring in people that we would’ve never invited. We want You to heal someone that we never even had the faith to heal or to even ask You for healing. We want You to do some supernatural works because we’re absolutely ordinary.’ The only extraordinary or supernatural things that exists in our worship service are God and the Holy Spirit.”

and Rebelbase in the future is that we become a movement,” Swayze says. “I think that The Woodlands United Methodist Church worship is going to be the epicenter of Wesleyan worship music and Wesleyan teaching and Wesleyan resourcing of the church. I literally think that the earthquake hits The Woodlands, and the aftershocks spread across the country.” •

Going forward, Swayze has a vision for The Woodlands UMC to be a training ground for Methodist worship leaders. He says that every week he gets calls from churches looking for someone to lead their music, but his list of options keeps getting shorter and shorter. Part of his vision is expanding the church’s current worship internship program — which has successfully produced a handful of worship leaders already through summer and nine-month experiences — into an actual yearround school. This idea grew out of his past experiences both being mentored and mentoring people like The Church at Woodforest ’s worship leader, Cameron Holmes.

Find more information about Harvest Worship at thewoodlandsumc.org/harvest

“As I’ve come to The Woodlands, I’ve thought not only how do I mentor people, but how do we create some sort of program where a team of us mentor people?” Swayze says. “And that’s the whole idea behind worship residents: college-aged residents during the summer and then post-college-aged residents throughout the year that are mentored by not just me, but by a team of people. Our hope is that people come here and instantly join our family and find themselves being mentored by a group of us who have that same heart for mentorship. That’s what we’re putting together right now. We played it out the last two summers, and it’s been incredible. We’ve had six residents, and five of them are working in a church fulltime now.” Swayze and Sorensen are both excited about being at The Woodlands UMC and under the leadership of Dr. Robb because he is willing to equip them and give them a large canvas on which to bring their visions to life — visions that have the potential to reach far and wide beyond The Woodlands. “One of the things that I’m believing about contemporary worship and Harvest and Loft and Woodforest

Mark Swayze – Live at Harvest is now available online at iTunes. Proceeds benefit The Woodlands UMC’s contemporary music ministry.

FOLLOW MARK fb.com/markswayzemusic @markswayze @markswayze youtube.com/markswayzemusic

FOLLOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT IN WORSHIP AND LIFE

CAMERON HOLMES, THE CHURCH AT WOODFOREST WORSHIP By Nathan Nix

When it came time for our Woodforest venue, The Church at Woodforest, to find a worship leader, The Woodlands UMC’s Director of Contemporary Worship, Mark Swayze, sat down with Pastor Brent Parker and asked what he was looking for in candidates. “I said, look, here’s what I want: somebody who loves the Lord more than they love singing about the Lord,” Brent says. “Swayze said, ‘I’ve got your guy.’” Mark had been mentoring a young musician named Cameron Holmes for years, even inviting him to help lead worship at University Methodist Church in San Antonio while Cameron was still in middle school. “The first time I sang in-church contemporary music was when I got confirmed, and (Mark) was really big in getting me involved in leading in our youth group,” Cameron says. Cameron had been raised in a musical household, and his singer father recognized early on that his son had a natural gift for singing on-pitch. From that point, music became one of the passions driving Cameron’s life and would serve as a refuge when things got tough. “Middle school was a really dark time for me, so music in the church was the thing that I had and could hold onto,” 12

he says. “Music was such a therapy for me. My mom always knew when I had a bad day because I would just go straight to the piano and sit there for hours.” Cameron’s other passion is medicine, which grew out of the fact he was born 11 weeks premature and with a heart defect. His church prayed over him, and when they went in for a check-up, the heart defect was gone. Cameron says that this experience resulted in him feeling called to pediatric medicine from the age of six. He led worship at his youth group through high school, but the demands of pre-med studies at Texas A&M caused him to pull back on one passion to pursue his other. All along, Mark continued to mentor Cameron and encourage him to use his gift to lead people into the presence of God. As Cameron finished up his last semester of college, during which he studied in Germany, he received a call from Mark offering him the chance to come serve as a summer worship intern at The Woodlands UMC, where M a rk wa s n ow l e a din g wo r sh ip fo r The Harvest. With no plans on the horizon — something of a miracle in and of itself according to Cameron, who describes himself as someone who always has things planned out — he took his mentor up on the offer and spent the

summer writing music with Mark and helping lead in the different venues across The Woodlands UMC campus. “It was cool to come back from a really heavy academic semester and then have a really heavy spiritual summer,” Cameron says. Upon Mark’s recommendation, Cameron came on-board as The Church at Woodforest’s first worship leader when it launched in December 2015. Since then, Cameron has worked with Brent to develop the venue's worship approach as it continued to grow and evolve. “He’s been incredible,” Brent says. “A lot of our folks look at him as their child or grandchild, but he doesn’t act like a kid. He’s mature beyond his years and professional. He performs well, but there’s something in his spirit you can’t coach. He’s a natural.” Brent thinks Cameron is a perfect fit for the church because it’s a congregation where the pastor and worship leader are so much more accessible due to the intimate nature of the venue, the Jean Stewart Elementary School cafeteria. Cameron loves the stripped-down nature of the church’s worship times. “I think our setup is really cool because it helps break down those walls,” he says. “We’re up there and we say ‘This is who we are. This is it. We don’t have any fancy gimmicks or anything for

you. It’s super raw.’ I think just holding onto that as the congregation grows and as we have the facilities to do more is a really unique opportunity.” It’s a set-up that also allows him to be sensitive to where the Holy Spirit is leading. “You have to leave room for the Spirit to move,” he says. “That’s hard for me because I’m a very organized, Type A kind of guy, so I want to follow the plan exactly. I think we have to be careful because we can’t shove the Lord, the Spirit, all of this into an hour period, and that’s what the American church has said we do. With anything, you have to hold loose your plans.” For him, that begins with prayer in the week leading up to Sunday morning. “Covering everything in prayer in the service is a big thing,” he says. “There’s something special that happens when you prepare your hearts for worship before you even walk in the door. Like any relationship, you have to put in the work. You have to meet Him halfway. But there’s something beautiful that happens when it’s a two-way street, and you put in the effort and you put in the preparation for it. The beauty of Jesus is that He meets us where we are.” • Find more information about The Church at Woodforest Worship at churchatwoodforest.org

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In Memory of Tina Pillow Oberkfell Barbara Dunlap

JULY 21 – OCTOBER 31, 2016

In Memory of Steve Overbeck, Husband of Frannie Overbeck Frannie Overbeck Jack Overbeck

In Memory of John McDowell “L.J.”Allen, IV, Son of John “Jack” and Jessica Allen, III Ken and Linda Feld

In Memory of George Pollard, Husband of Pam Pollard Tommy and Marsha Williams

In Memory of Margaret Behne, Mother of Sheri Brown Andrew and Lesley Child Roland Dendy Linda Dragone Peter and Elizabeth Gaulton Thom and Glenda Hudson Ronnie and Bonnie Lee Butch and Diane Parker Deb Stein Peter and Nancy Storms Dennis and Joyce Woodley

In Memory of Nathan Read, Father of Debbie Stanford Rob and Linda Eissler David Green Bill and Mary Johnson Richard and Rebecca Langley Randy and JoAnne Lowry Linda Manning

In Memory of Garnet Boldrey, Mother of Cathy Wright Clarence Thompson Dennis and Joyce Woodley In Memory of Collin Campbell, Son of Mike and Becky Campbell David and Brenda Trifon Tommy and Marsha Williams

In Memory of Burt Robbins, Husband of Linda Robbins Linda Robbins

In Honor of Fordham Shaw, Son of Matt and Lauren Shaw Kevin and Debra McQuain In memory of Donald Toth, Jr., Son of Norma and Don Toth Ken and Joyce Nesmith In Memory of Nathaniel David Trushenski, Son of Ryan and Julie Trushenski Nancy Volmert

In Memory of Clarence “Bud” Crozier, Husband of Peggy Crozier Bruce and JoAnn Johnson Clarence Thompson Elizabeth Voran

FOUNDATION UNRESTRICTED Gina and Kerry Ansell Charles and Rebecca Shirley

In Memory of Carol H. Curry, Mother of Fran Henderson Harlan and Julie Bergen

The Luc DeVeau Endowment

In Memory of Eugene Hollas Jeff and Denise Seldenrust In Memory of William “Bill” Jensen Brian Jensen In Memory of Patricia “Patty” Lammers, Wife of Tom Lammers Lewis and Carolyn Bock Richard Bock Catherine Bock Golonski Drew Larson In Honor of Aubrey McQuain, Daughter of Jerrod and Erin McQuain Kevin and Debra McQuain In Honor of Presley McQuain, Daughter of Justin and Kalyn McQuain Kevin and Debra McQuain In Memory of Joe Nachman Bill and Lucy Nelson Clarence Thompson In Memory of Marjorie Neeper Maxine Wheaton In Memory of Eli Nichols Jeff and Denise Seldenrust

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FOUNDATION GIFTS

FOUNDATION RESTRICTED In Memory of Luc William DeVeau, Son of David and Melissa DeVeau Deborah DeVeau The Patricia Ann and Jack Powell Endowment Fund In Memory of Garnet Boldrey, Mother of Cathy Wright Jack Powell

CORRECTION

In our Staff Appreciation Mailer, we incorrectly stated that Rev. Susan Kent attended SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. She actually attended Asbury Theological Seminary. We apologize for the error.

The TWUMC Missions Endowment Fund In Honor of Lorrie Foster’s 90th Birthday Kim and Sally Bacon In Memory of Gail Johnson Dianne Link In Memory of Suzanne “Suzy” Seright, Mother of Missy Jacobson Kim and Sally Bacon In Honor of James Street and Angela Troth’s Wedding Kim and Sally Bacon In Honor of The Woodlands Camera Club Residents of The Village at The Waterway

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