To say that I’ve been overwhelmed by God’s mercy, grace and guidance for my 43 plus years, would be a significant understatement.

God allowed me to be born an American. I could have been born in Russia, Africa or the Middle East, far from the word of God and Godly influences. But no, he blessed me to be born in America, land of the free, home of the brave and yes, STILL one nation under God.

God allowed me to be born into a home based on prayer, faith, God’s Word and the old time way of worshipping the Lord! From day one, I have been surrounded by Christian parents, relatives and friends. He extended my Godly family by bringing the Elkins family into my life. I have a Christian wife, who is working with me to try to raise a Christian family.

God has blessed me to have a love, desire and certain skill level to play music. Not just any music; southern gospel, and yes, some bluegrass gospel too. This is life changing music! There are those who play all the instruments that I’ve been blessed to play much better than I. However, you will not find a single soul who loves it any more than I. This city slicker, turned country boy, has played gospel music at some of the largest venues in all of music, such as the Ryman, Grand Ole Opry, NQC and others.

The Lord has blessed me to be on the air, uninterrupted, as a southern gospel DJ for 27 years. I have been blessed to help bring comfort to the bereaved, strength to the weak and yes, salvation to the lost, through southern gospel radio. Not only have I been able to do this, he’s allowed me to do it on the largest platform in our industry, the Solid Gospel Radio Network. I am blown away!

Over the past few years he has brought a handful of artists, into my life and allowed me to support their ministry by way of album productions and other ministry related ventures. Together, we have seen souls won to the Kingdom. Again, I am blown away!

Recently, I was offered an opportunity that I would have never expected in my entire life. As with every change that’s happened in my life, I attacked it with much prayer and fasting. Actually, I’ve never prayed about any move in my life, as much as I have this one. Just ask my wife, she’ll tell you about my early morning prayer sessions, sleepless nights, etc. Simply stated, this has been the most difficult decision in my professional life.

That being said, Effective, 11/1/05, I will be assuming the position of Director of Business Operations, Singing News Magazine. Salem Corporation, owner of the Solid Gospel Radio Network, has just entered into an agreement to purchase the Singing News Magazine. I will be working closely with the Publisher to grow the Singing News subscriber base and accelerate the growth of southern gospel. I will also be working through ways to bring synergy between the Singing News and the Solid Gospel radio network and those plans will be more fully announced in the days ahead. In addition, I will still be on the air, part-time, hosting weekend mid-days on Solid Gospel.

These changes necessitate, from both a practical stand point as well as a contractual stand point, that I retire my BMG/FMG labels. I have every range of emotions fathomable right now. I LOVE my artists. They are more than business associates, they are friends. REAL friends! You have not heard the last of the Dunaways, Christlike, Soul Real, Living Waters Trio, Soul Real, Jamie Farmer, Sharron Kay King, Glovers, Morris’ and Cheri Taylor. God has a real plan for each of them. I have seen it unfolding and I will be pleased to watch it unfold in new ways.

I do covet your prayers. I can sense spiritual warfare waiting around the corner. Please pray for me, that I can be a light in the darkness. Please don’t get me wrong. I am no better than anyone else. I am just as apt to do the grossest sin imaginable. As the Apostle Paul wrote in I Timothy 1:15 (KJV), “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” I, like Paul, feel that I too am a chief sinner. Romans 3:10 (KJV) says, in part, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” I am very aware of my standing in Christ. I am simply a sinner, saved by the glorious grace of an almighty God!

My prayer is that the scripture found in Psalms 37:23(KJV) it true as it pertains to me. The Psalmist David stated, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” I hope the Lord considers me a good man. I know one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. The Lord has had to have directed my steps up unto this point, because I don’t have the intelligence or the pedigree to have had any of the success I have had thus far in life. It’s all-all -because of him. I am certainly not the most talented, most gifted, intelligent man in this industry either. I simply pray that I am the kind of “good man,” which David speaks of in this passage of scripture.