Johnathan is an influential worship leader who finds himself walking through new territory more often than not. Not only in the world of music, but mostly in the roles he fills in his local church and as a father/husband. He is committed to the growth and vision of his home church in Alexandria, LA, the Pentecostals of Alexandria (POA). He grew up in Bentonville, AR and relocated to Louisiana at age 21.
He serves as a full time staff member at the POA as the Student Music Director and also helps head up the Creative Programming team. In addition, he is a worship leader there and travels nationally to work with other worship teams and leads miscellaneous worship events. When he is not working, leading or out of town, Johnathan is at home with wife Carla and his son Klein (1). Right now, just under his 2nd birthday, his son seems to be following in his dad’s steps with a natural attraction to music, and specifically, the drums. His family is a very important part of his life and ministry. He finds the beauty of staying home with them and doing nothing except archiving the memories he experiences daily.
One of the passions that Johnathan has is sharing with worshippers and worship leaders the message of embracing individuality through worship expression, and understanding that we are so privileged to have the chance to be embraced by God’s presence. Until Calvary, only the priests were able to experience what we can now feel from day to day. He loves to lead worship and take congregations to the entrance to the Holy Place and then step to the side and say, “there it is. You can experience it if you want it.” And instead of watching, joins those who enter in. “What a rewarding thing to see,” he says.
The heart of this new album? Everything mentioned above and more. Johnathan has shared with you his perspective on how or why each song was written and chosen for this album. Take the time to read the devotions provided here, read the scriptures and be renewed as we live our lives trying to give too much worship…which isn’t possible.
making the album
Written by: Johnathan
The process started in the Spring of 2008. I was able to work with so many talented people that made this album an incredible experience. I started putting together a list of things I wanted to write about and called Jacob Lowery . Sometime at the end of May, I went to Austin, TX (where Jake lived) and spent two days in his studio co-writing. I had never written with anyone else like that, but it proved to be successful and hope to continue to write with him again in the future. We just sat down, would take a subject, and then decided style, tempo, and tried to get a “feel” to go for. After we would decide on a drum loop that captured the feel for the song, we just took off writing and it really was amazing to see the lyrics evolve and the music come to life.
The other cool thing that we did different for this album was had Daniel Kinner (producer and owner of kreativ-productions studio/drums, Alexandria, LA), John Denosky (electric guitars, Nashville, LA) and Jake (acoustic guitar/bass, Nashville, LA) come in for about 4 days and lay down all the rough trax together. Through these 4 days in July, we watched the songs evolve into creations that we were all excited about. The next several months was a continuous effort of these guys and the other musicians that ended up having a part of completed album.
I’ve had the chance to work with Robert Johnson (Chicago, IL) on several occasions. For this CD, he designed the album artwork and also created this website design. He is definitely one of the most creative and inspiring artists I’ve ever worked with. His ideas are always fresh. Check out his other works.
For photography, my very talented cousin hooked me up. Ryan Dean (Bossier City, LA) is his “given family name” and he is an incredible talent people are discovering. Nothing but great is all I can see in his future, for sure.
Thank you for visiting! I encourage you to comment where you’re given that option. I also welcome you to copy the codes and post a banner or the CD artwork into your facebook or myspace pages.
Be blessed!
jdean