My name is Joseph McKinley. First and foremost I am a Husband and Father. To pay the bills I am a machine operator. On the side I am a singer/songwriter. It’s not something that I get to devote enough time to, but I really enjoy it and want the music I play to be a blessing to people and more importantly to glorify the Creator.
One of the ways I am most often able to utilize my gifts is in the local church where I get to help lead in worship. One of my true passions is helping the body worship the Savior in Spirit and Truth.
I never really had the desire to play the guitar until I fell in love with the Caedmon’s Call album, 40 Acres. Once I heard the acoustic throughout that CD I knew that was an instrument I had to play. It has now been almost 10 years since I started playing the guitar. Immediately I was able to start using my slowly budding guitar skills to help lead my youth group peers in weekly worship.
Throughout high school I continued to play and grow as a musician and leader. I found that God has used my weaknesses as a guitarist to glorify Himself as I slowly have come to understand that simpler is often times better in a worship setting.
A strong conviction that has grown inside of me is for order in church worship. So much of modern Christianity has turned worship into an emotional spectacle that enhances our Christian life once a week. Worship should be so much more than this. Don’t get me wrong, worship needs to be born out of a PASSION and an EXCITEMENT, and EMOTIONAL LOVE for our Creator, but, it needs to be done so with a solid Biblical foundation laid underneath. We need to be focused on what we are singing, making sure it is 1) Biblical 2) Not created to stir up false emotions. These false emotions are quickly fleeting and can do much to deceive people into making assumptions about their salvation.
Another thing that I have come to realize is that everything is sacred. We have such a drive in our Christian bubbles to label everything as Christian or secular; we do it with movies, music, clothing, food, beverage, etc. This is mostly a misnomer that puts God in a box… He becomes the God of the Christian Book Store. I have good news. God can be found outside the Christian Book Store. In fact, he may be much more likely to show up outside of the store and on the street. The Lord cares about all the details of our lives because He is working every detail of our lives out in his Divine Plan. This has led me, more recently to write songs that not only reflect on the truth of God revealed in his Word, but songs that involve things that may not seem as spiritual, like: relationships, love, materialism, and politics. Everything is Sacred.
I love what God has allowed me to do thus far with my music. I pray that wherever he leads, He will give me the strength to follow.
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