Steve Parkes

I literally grew up in church.  For the first 50 years of my life, my mother was the secretary for every pastor I ever had.  Mom and two of my “aunts” formed a trio eventually named Two Dots and a Dash.  As a young child, I was taken to their rehearsals where I would hear them work out their tight harmonies.  By the time I was five, I was singing solos in the “big church.”  By the time I reached high school I had started singing with various groups often joined by my sister, brother, his future wife and my future wife.

In 2010 I met Steve Azulay who asked me to record some background vocals on his latest song and to be a member of Steve Azulay Ministries.  Before one of our concerts, Steve told us that we needed to make a serious decision.  We needed to either commit to fully living out the songs we were singing or stop singing  those songs altogether.  We were singing “I Am Free” that night and I began to think about the words to that song.  Was I really free to dance for God?  Was I really free to live for Him?  In my mind I believed that I was but was I living that way? I had to admit that I was holding back for fear of being laughed at.  It was at that point I committed to worshipping God with everything I had within me.  God has now given me a passion for worshipping Him and I gladly and freely give that gift back to Him.

Today I am a near 60-year-old volunteer member of the worship team at Sunrise Church Ontario.  As I have gotten older (or have the worship teams gotten younger?), I continued one my active involvement on the worship team with the goal being an example to those who were having trouble accepting the “younger” music styles.  I feel that as an older singer who loves singing everything from hymns to Southern Gospel to Gaither to Redman and Tomlin to black gospel, to Jesus Culture and News Boys to songs in Spanish, I have a unique perspective to share with the full range of ages involved in today’s worship teams.