After a few years of doing volunteer youth ministry for my local church and as my music ministry began to grow, I was asked to interview for a full time paid position as youth minister and music director for a large parish in Portland.  I got the job. 

A year or so after starting that job I was becoming more and more involved in retreat work outside of my parish.  It was during one of those retreats I met Don Clarke.  Don is an extraordinary person, a passionate minister and a fine musician.  He took the youth ministry position at a neighboring parish and we became inseparable.  

At the same time, the Archdiocese of Portland was expanding their Diocesan wide ministry to include an annual Youth Ministry Convention which included speakers from around the nation, hundred of young people from around the state, State of the Art audio and video presentations, and a theme song.  The theme of the 1981 Convention was “Come, Follow Me” and I was asked to write the theme song.  Don was actually living with my family at the time and so the two of us sat in our living room and spent hours playing and writing lyrics, phrases, looking at Scripture and testing out melody lines.  The result was one of a couple of convention theme songs I was a part of; this one being my favorite.