If the cover hasn’t already given it away, this is a quartet album from a soloist, namely, me. This is my tongue-in-cheek answer to the question I am asked at least once a week — what style of music do I sing. Difficult to answer, considering that many Christians seem to only possess two boxes in which to place spiritual music: Southern Gospel or Contemporary. Were I to answer Southern Gospel, you might well assume the following: (1) I only sing songs that are at least 40 years old or written by Bill Gaither, (2) I only sing songs that have a predictable rhyme scheme, and (3) I only sing songs keyed at least a full step out of my vocal range. Were I to answer Contemporary, you might well assume the following: (1) I can’t afford jeans large enough, (2) I sing slow songs averaging 8 minutes long, and (3) The songs I sing will contain a minimum of 9 choruses, and certainly will not pass without mentioning some sort of destructive natural phenomenon, (hurricane, flood, fire, etc).

I refuse to pigeonhole Christian music in this manner. Each different style has its own strength, whether it be the joy of convention music, the firm doctrinal foundation of hymnody, or the call to worship within contemporary music. My intention is to take these different strengths and use them to be a litmus test for true conversion. Are you persevering in spite of temptations to waver? Is the sinful state of the world a grievous thing to you? Do you long for the coming of the Lord and the establishment of righteousness? Do you have a living and active faith? Are you trending toward Christ-likeness? Does the daily view of the cross draw you inextricably to your Lord?

This album is aptly called a casserole — you will never quite know what went into it, and sometimes you don’t know what to call it. The recipe included years of planning, a month in the studio, and fifteen songs with four parts, all sung by me.