Hear the internet premier of Ryan Habig’s “With Us” and, as a free added bonus, hear some of the folks from Redemption Church (RC) sing “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” just in time for the holiday season.  Ryan, the music (and everything else) pastor at Redemption Church in Duvall, WA shares his thoughts on why music is essential to worship and why he walked down this path.  Tony asks if he ever gets nervous on stage, why he sometimes closes his eyes, and how the venue can affect the whole dynamic of worship.  This is the second episode in an ongoing look at Redemption Church, a startup church in a rural town in Western Washington (the first being our interview with the lead pastor, Matt Boswell).  We explore Ryan’s upbringing to see what motivated his love of music and why he chose to major in this at Azusa Pacific University in California.  Ryan reflects upon his training at APU and gives us an idea of how well his college focus on music and ministry has helped in his current position.  He then leads us through a typical work week as musical pastor sharing how he selects the music team, chooses the music, obtains copyright permissions, and organizes the practice.  Add to this all his other duties managing the church website and getting the graphics set up for the Sunday service and you get a better picture what goes on behind the scenes to make a church service for a congregation of 500 meeting in a high school auditorium successful.  And at the very end of the podcast, Ryan talks about the motivation behind his original composition “With Us” and then does an acoustic version of this song.  Music industry reps take note; this happens to be one of RC’s most popular songs… and for good reason.  As a special holiday encore, Tony convinces Ryan and a group of congregants at the RC office to sing along to a standard Christmas hymn.  In this podcast you will also learn how useful Tony’s college philosophy courses were and what instrument he used to play (and why).  Recorded: December 6, 2011.

RELATED LINKS

Redemption Church website.

RELATED PODCASTS

Robert Coote on the 27 Most Popular Hymns and Amazing Grace.

Jim Houser on the Contemporary Christian Music Industry.

 

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