Redeemer Family,
It is my pleasure to introduce you to our new Senior Director of Music + Arts, Matt Spainhour!
Many of you will remember that our parish has been conducting a search process for this role over the past 6-9 months, and after receiving over 20 applications, interviewing 7 candidates, and hosting four interview weekends, our team agreed to extend an invitation to Matt.
The Spainhours come to us from Knoxville, TN, where Matt is married to Kelley and they have three beautiful children and a fourth due in November!
Here’s a brief message from Matt to you:
I have been a long-distance admirer of Redeemer for years and have followed the liturgical life, teaching, and creative ministry with gratitude and curiosity. For many years now, I have led and pastored Music and Arts Ministries in diverse liturgical contexts. I have led a broad blend of ancient hymns, modern and Gospel songs, and original compositions that reflects the rhythms of the church calendar, the life of the local congregation, the landscape of the lectionary, and the emotional range of the Psalter (in St. Ambrose’s “gymnasium of the soul”), all with an eye toward spiritual formation.
In earlier seasons of ministry, I have directed music, curated liturgies, pastored and collaborated with visual artists, and helped form a community centered around faithful worship and missional presence. Throughout my ministry, I’ve been committed to seeking and stewarding music, art, and beauty—not as decorative trimmings, but as gifts and means of spiritual formation that can reshape our imaginations and soften our hearts to the voice and work of God. I have experience equipping and shepherding musicians and artists, working with both professionals and volunteers, and integrating music, liturgy, and visuals in a way that strives to tell the Gospel story in every season. I’m also energized by the pastoral and organizational aspects of this role.
Our family has lived in historically under-resourced neighborhoods downtown and, in our often flailing attempts to become good neighbors, we are daily reminded that the work of the Kingdom is often slow, small, and deeply relational—and that it depends far less on extraordinary efforts and giftedness than on the willingness to remain faithfully present in a place, rooted among people and rooted in the trust that God is quietly at work in the intentional practices and ordinary rhythms of our days. These threads run through all that I have come to know and admire about Redeemer Anglican Church—and they are much of what drew me to apply.
I am honored to join Redeemer in continuing to cultivate a music and arts ministry that is not only excellent, but spiritually formative for the whole parish and marked by beauty, depth, and presence.
Matt plans to come on board in early January and we look forward to welcoming the Spainhours into the Redeemer family!
In the Father’s love,
