If you’ve read our Monday worship music set list article, “Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs” for any length of time, you’ve no doubt seen some of Dan Canales’ photos featuring worship leader Katie Vaughn. Katie is one of the newer Sojourn vocalists. She’s also a community group leader in our college ministry and serves in our children’s ministry, Sojourn Kids.
Now, Dominic Gratto interviews Katie for sojournmusic.com, where she talks about these and other things:
Dominic Gratto: Please state your name.
Katie Vaughn: Katie Vaughn
DG: Where are you originally from?
KV: Tuscaloosa, AL.
DG: Family background in seven words or less.
KV: Mom. Two sisters. Dad - stationed in Baghdad. I think that’s seven exactly!
DG: What originally brought you to Sojourn?
KV: I came to Louisville for school. When I first got here I was attending a church in Shepherdsville, KY, where my dad used to pastor a church. I had a lot of relationships established there so it seemed like a natural place for me to settle in. After being there for a year, though, I began to feel a bit restless and felt like God was leading me somewhere else. I’d heard about Sojourn from some friends and I visited with them in the spring of 2007. That summer I was away for on an internship in Florida and when I came back in the fall, I quickly made the switch. I jumped into the membership classes right away and had my member interview with Rob Plummer in September. He only made me cry once.
DG: Really?
KV: No. I don’t think I cried at all, actually.
DG: Okay, let’s go back to the beginning - your beginning, that is. I want to hear more about growing up in Alabama.
KV: I was born in Alabama and we lived there until I was five. My dad was in the military but got out when he felt God calling him to the ministry. We moved to Indiana for five years and eventually made our way down to Louisville where he attended Southern Seminary and pastored a church in Shepherdsville - the same one I attended when I first moved to Kentucky.
It was in Indiana that I first felt God starting to work on my heart. I praise God that he started working on me at a young age because I know it doesn’t always happen that way. Through some different circumstances he showed me my sin and showed me that I needed Jesus. I began to see that he was the only thing that was going to help me to change. Even as a little kid, I was so rebellious, resentful and hateful. Looking back at home videos from that time I still cringe a bit because I can see what a little sinner I was. I’m thankful for God’s saving grace, though, that freed me from my depravity - even at the age of seven.
DG: As a worship leader at Sojourn, you lead in both Sojourn Gathered and Sojourn Kids. What does that look like? What are the responsibilities of a “worship leader?
KV: It’s multi-faceted. Once or twice a month I lead in singing at Sojourn Gathered and I serve in kids’ worship just about as often. For a while, I helped out with some of the administrative responsibilities of kids’ worship with Chandi Plummer. As part of that, I help schedule the worship leaders as well as make sure the songs and liturgy they need are ready for them.
DG: Did you start out leading kid’s worship and then graduate to adult worship?
KV: Well, I try not to think of it that way. I think Chandi was a little bit concerned that once I made the switch to leading at Sojourn Gathered that I would never come back. I love it too much to turn away that opportunity, though. I can’t tell you how much joy I get out of the opportunity to preach the gospel to these kids through song.
DG: What would you say is the biggest difference between leading worship with kids and leading worship with adults?
concluded next Wednesday here on sojournmusic.com
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }