the new worship guy

33% of the people that read this blog have requested that I tell you more about the new worship guy that I hired. That means that 1 of the three people that actually read this thing asked! So here you go...

His name is Casey Darnell. He's 26 years old. Sings like Chris Tomlin, plays guitar and really knows how to lead worship. He's passionate about his relationship with God and passionate about being a worshipper. Like me, he's not fond of the trend to overproduce the worship environment but, like me, he believes that an environment has to be created for worship to be effective (a subject to long to get into on this blog). His favorite band to cover is U2, and I can't wait for our band to do Vertigo in the next month or so. Casey has led youth worship at Buckhead Church, FBC Woodstock, Church at West Cobb, and adult worship at NorthStar Church. He's been around enough big ministries to know what needs to be done and has a vision for excellence. He spent six years in purgatory...er...youth ministry before he felt God calling him to do worship full-time. He grew up independent Baptist and since then has sufficiently transitioned to a kinder, gentler Christian. :-)

How did we find him? I have coffee a couple of times a week at a coffee shop in Buford. One of the perennial keys players of the NorthPoint fraternity works there part-time to help his parents out (they own the shop). We got to be a bit more than just an acquaintance and I asked him if he knew of anyone looking to move into a church setting. After going three deep into the network, I came across Casey. To tell you the incredible timing and circumstances would take too long, so for the sake of space let's just say that God had His handprint all over this thing.