Thank you, so much, for supporting “Speak to Me”. It has been the hardest project to get from start to finish that I have ever been responsible for, and I couldn’t have done it without the many people who have encouraged me along the way. I’ve been writing songs since I was a little kid, but only in recent years have I felt the ability and calling to write for my church. This is my first project that is truly meant to be a worship project in the corporate/everybody gets to sing along kind of way. My hope is that the 14 tracks on “Speak to Me” will take you somewhere. It’s a common phrase in Vineyard churches that songs are “places we go”. The way I understand that is that when we choose to communicate with God about His worth (worship= worth-ship), we are entering into a conversation with the Creator. Each song is a different conversation, and hopefully, they will help us explore different places within the Presence of God. Mysterious stuff. For myself, I recognize that in my limited attention and comprehension, it helps me to focus in my heart lens on a particular aspect of God’s character. So, a song about faithfulness necessarily points me to a “place” where I can be reminded of God’s past faithfulness, be aware of His present faithfulness, and have hope that His faithfulness will remain. Visually, I remember situations in life where God came through in ways I couldn’t have manufactured. Emotionally I remember how life has felt in those times. A song that really takes me into that focus will, by the Spirit’s prompting, also make me aware of my own need for transformation to become more faithful. The songs on “Speak to Me” are meant to take the participant-listener through a continuum focused on the Spirit. We start by recognizing need for the Spirit, then move to an invitation for more Presence in our daily reality. Finally we can embrace the full life that comes when we start to learn to live fully alive (an overflow of justice, freedom, holy discontentment and all sorts of other good stuff). I would LOVE it if you could take one hour and listen to the project from beginning to end. There are Selah moments built in (moments of musical rest) to give the participant-listener a chance to have your own personal response to God. Of course, I don’t expect that every song will be equally meaningful to you, so it’s okay to have favorites!! But, pretend this cd is a movie ticket, and “watch it” from start to finish at least once before you go to your favorite scenes! Finally, these songs are meant to be shared. I’m not trying to “go” anywhere, or “make it” in any sense of the way that is usually meant in our entertainment culture. It’s a challenging thing to be an artist/songwriter in our culture, where the only measure of success is fame. It’s a constant choice of the heart to be content where God has me, and to trust, as I felt I heard God say to me years ago, that we determine our obedience, and He determines our influence. Making this project has been an act of obedience from me, and from the many other people who joined in. I think of the text I got from someone who (not knowing the name of the project), said they thought God was speaking to them to give their engineering talents and time for free. Huge. Or the musicians who played and refined and played again because they believed the songs had a particular story that their instrument could tell. Our hope is that these songs will find their places of influence wherever God wants. If you feel like any of these songs could have influence in your own life, or the faith community you are part of please contact me for any resources I could give you. If you are a musician and would like the music to any of these songs, I would love to send you lyrics and chord charts. Sheet music is available for the songs Shawn Wallace arranged (full arrangements for “Glory to the King” by Chris Lizotte, “Jesus Alive”, a partial chart for “Home” and an arrangement which we did not use for “Rush to the Hush”). Again, thank you. There is a ton of extraordinary music out there, and I’m grateful that you chose to make “Speak to Me” part of your life.