Others Magazine

Music has always been part of my life, but I never expected it to introduce me to God.

I didn’t grow up in the Church. I think I was aware of God the creator, as something more than us, but not a formed Christian God.

I have memories of my dad playing the guitar and singing to me when I was young. At about five or six, I started learning the flute and started playing in bands. I performed as a primary school student in some amazing places like Hamer Hall in Melbourne. Eventually, this passion for music led me to encounter the Salvos.

I was heavily involved in the music program at Blackburn High School [in Melbourne’s east] when a friend from the local Salvation Army asked if I was available to play in their concert band. I was happy to, and I’d occasionally help out. I was then asked to join the Box Hill Corps Big Band.

Through this, I experienced church services, and the band would pray and say grace. They were small things I had never experience before. Then I was invited to fly to Korea with the band for the country’s centenary celebrations.

I was about 20 at this stage, and it was amazing to see Salvationists from all over the world gather in a stadium to worship. I was still, however, not attending The Salvation Army, and I didn’t know God. This began to change when a member of the band, Perri (now my wife), invited me to a small group Bible study.

Over the next year or two, I learnt more about Christianity and experienced God – it kind of just made sense. I concluded the Christian God was true. I bristled with the term ‘Christian’ for a while, but something that attracted me to the small group was the authenticity and the living-out of faith that I witnessed among those there. There was the ability for nuanced discussion, for continued learning, for acceptance.

Knowing God has changed my life. There are so many things that God has worked in me and continues to, and hopefully, those fruits will bear witness to him. However, it is the underlying peace and calm and the resultant freedom that this brings that I come back to.