I grew up in a family of four with an older sister by four years and
I had great childhood memories. We always traveled on road trips, so many sites to see, ghost towns, Smurf Village, one-off entertainments, & so much more that you would not otherwise see if you weren't on the road.
We traveled a lot for Baptist conventions. You see
my dad was a senior
pastor of a small Baptist church that had a median age of about 60. It had an organ, no modern instruments such as guitar drums and
I went to church in a suit and tie. As the church slightly shifted and adjusted to the younger generation we started to bring guitars on stage and even drums, which was a total shift in the church.
I vividly remember the red hymnals that we would sing out of acapella or maybe with some background organ music. I have amazing childhood memories of going to the church preschool making paper mache crafts and all sorts of fun memories of my birthday parties being on the church grounds.
I was a pastor's kid at my core.
Everything I did revolved around the church. My dad was busy running the church, just like a business. And, as I look back on that, my dad really was an entrepreneur at heart. Running a business and running a church are very much the same thing. I would almost argue that
running a church is harder because of the “holy politics”. When I was seven,
my parents got me my first guitar, a red and white Gibson. I had no idea how to play it, but
I was committed to learning something new. I think one of the first songs that I learned was “Wipe Out” because it was the cool slick chords for rock and roll music. And the first Christian song I learned was “Father I Adore You”. I remember when I was eight or nine playing in front of the church, as I learned that song. I can look back on videos that were taken and boy did I do a terrible job. But I know
people adored and loved watching the pastor's son play his talents on stage, as he learned a new skill.