Alumni Profile – Jeff Kendrick

Graduated from Heritage with a Bachelor of Church Music Degree in 2000.

Prior to coming to Heritage, Jeff had seven years of camp work experience. He is currently the Pastor Of Worship at West Park Church, London Ontario. He has been married to Ellie for 11 years, and they have four children: Caleb(9), Moriah(7), Jadyn(5), Kaelyn(2), and a BIG golden retriever named Smudge.

What are the key roles you currently fill as Worship Leaders?
I currently have many responsibilities, but to name a few things that I do on a regular basis: I plan most of our services, lead four adult bands, oversee the leadership of our three youth bands, direct our Worship Choir, mentor young men who are praying about full-time ministry, and lead a weekly small group in our home. My role is to equip others to do Kingdom work, so much of my time is spent with other people. We have a lot of technical needs at our church so I have a lot to do with that also. Some of the things we are planning are: the release of a CD/DVD in the coming year, as well as Christmas and Easter Productions.

How do you build up/connect the members of the worship team “musically and spiritually?”
I believe that the first thing we must do with our teams is to be Worshippers. For us to be effective Lead Worshippers, we must first be Worshippers, and then lead by example. We focus on prayer, Bible reading, and worshipping together. Sometimes this is with us all playing and singing, sometimes just I play… it depends…

After this is taking place, we focus on becoming better at what we do (Psalm 33:3). Play skillfully… We have weekly rehearsals in which we learn music and group technique. From there we move to a five-week rotation of breakout sessions where we work more in depth on skills of a particular discipline – Drums, Keys, Bass, Guitars [Acoustic and Electric], and Vocals. For example, week #1 is our Drum week. After our regular rehearsal of an hour and a half, I let everyone else go and get all of our drummers together to work through a course of some sort. There are a lot of great resources that you can work through with your teams.

How did your Heritage experience equip you for your present ministry?
My experience at Heritage equipped me with the biblical and musical knowledge that I need on a day-to-day basis. As I work on preparing and planning services, I check the theology of the music that we use and find scriptures to encourage others in our services. Musically, I learned to be organized, how to work within the guidelines of western music, and how to interpret a piece and present it in a way that impacts people where they are at.

As a student at Heritage, did you benefit from church, friends, and family prayer and financial support?
For Sure! Without the church, family, and friends praying for me and helping me through, I don’t know how I would have made it! God used so many people in my life to help me through the good days and the tough ones. I am always encouraged when I see God’s people helping others along on their journey, and especially when it is helping others develop as people who are reproducing themselves as Passionate Followers of Christ!