Kurtis Parks will preach and lead worship at both the 8:30 and 11:00 worship services on October 29th at Raleigh Court United Methodist Church. He will also lead a free workshop at 1:30 pm about contemporary worship where he will be discussing organizing worship, playing together, songwriting and much more. Kurtis is a singer, songwriter, author, worship leader and pastor. You can read more about Kurtis in his bio below.
Fill out the form below to register for the free workshop. Registration is not required, but will help us in our planning. Please spread the word and invite others!
Kurtis Parks Bio
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be what you’ve always been.”
Kurtis Parks heard this phrase in church at 12 years old, and since that moment it’s become a guiding value for him and his family, as they pursue living a life that follows the Holy Spirit. For the last 7 years Kurtis has served as the Worship Director at National Community Church, a multi-site church led by Pastor and NY Times best-selling author Mark Batterson in the Washington DC area. There he led NCC Worship, the music team made up of over 150 singers and musicians. While signed with Integrity Music, they released “You Alone”, a worship album co-produced by Parks, alongside Dove award winner Kyle Lee. Kurtis also led the songwriting and development of the team, and had the opportunity to pastor their worship leaders and teams. He produced 5 albums for NCC, in addition to producing over 30 albums for various Christian artists nationwide, on both major and independent record labels.
Having written over 1200 songs in every genre since the age of 13, and having led worship for the last 20 years, Kurtis truly understands the gift of music, and the potential for it’s impact on our world today. Some may recognize him as a top 50 finalist on American Idol’s fourth season. Kurtis has also appeared on the Fox Morning Show, BET’s Bobby Jones Gospel Hour, and his song “Forever Changed”, written for his beloved Virginia Tech community after the April 2007 tragedy was featured on NBC News and CNN. He was also a VH1 “Song of the Year” finalist with his song “Everything That You Are.” His song “Burn it All Down” hit Billboard’s Hot Gospel top 20, written with Joel Buckner, fellow worship leader. Parks was one of the featured worship leaders and writers on “ONE a Worship Collective”, which hit #1 on Soundscan in it’s first week! Many of his worship choruses are being sung around the world in churches every weekend.
Kurtis has shared the stage with many well-known artists, both Christian and Mainstream, including John Mayer, Howie Day, Sanctus Real, Rachel Lampa, Reliant K, Gungor, Ben Folds, Robbie Seay Band, and The White Tie Affair.
In September 2016, Kurtis released his first book, SoundCheck, a book on authentic worship, with a passion to charge worship leaders to live a life of authenticity, on and off the stage. The book is through David C Cook resources, and has already become a best seller in the worship space. He’s had the opportunity to speak and lead recently at National Worship Leader Conference, and travels throughout the year, to churches, conferences and festivals, leading worship and preaching.
Writing this book opened a passion within Kurtis’ heart to reach creatives, musicians, and artists with a message of purpose, rooted in a Christ-like identity. During long road trips and late night flights, Kurtis would spend time in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit why Nashville, TN kept coming to his heart. He felt that still small voice whisper to plant a church in the downtown area of Nashville, to reach a city that has experienced exponential growth over the last 5 years. That whisper soon turned into a shout, and Bridges Church was born. Bridges are a perfect metaphor for who we are called to be as believers in the one true God. Their roots go deep, they stand through violent storms, and they connect far off places. Bridges also happen to be one of Kurtis’ favorite parts of a worship song to write. In Summer of 2017, Kurtis and his family will move to Nashville TN and begin the greatest adventure of their lives, to plant Bridges.
Kurtis is married to Sarah, and they have two children, Norah and Moses.