New Accompanist at Chain of Lakes

After worship yesterday the Worship/Education team at Chain of Lakes church affirmed the decision of our Accompanist Hiring Committee to hire Kellie Burriss. Kellie will start as the Accompanist at Chain of Lakes Church on Sunday, May 2.

Kellie works as a Minnesota Court Certified Spanish Interpreter. She graduated from the University of Minnesota last December with a degree in Linguistics, Political Science, and Spanish Studies.

She has an excellent musical background. She’s received training in voice, piano, flute and music theory. In her resume she shared that she has a passion for church music. She’s worshipped with us at Chain of Lakes twice and both times significantly added to our congregational singing.

Our Accompanist Hiring Committee chose Kellie because we believed she would be an excellent fit at Chain of Lakes Church. In her interviews she shared that she appreciates a balanced style of worship—a style into which we at Chain of Lakes are growing. She said that she is looking for a congregation that is thought provoking, collaborative and children friendly. These are elements that are already being lived out in our congregation.

In the cover letter she wrote when she applied for the position, Kellie wrote, “if you’re looking for someone with a huge variety of musical and life experiences; who can equally happily lead a service all by herself playing and singing or give up the piano to a volunteer and play, I don’t know, tambourine instead; who loves and can perform many different styles of music; who can select service music and arrange it for different instruments if needed; who could conceivably get involved with other ministries such as children’s groups or Spanish language programs; and who is just bursting with energy and enthusiasm and lots of ideas… then I’m your accompanist.”

We are thrilled that Kellie is going to be the Accompanist at Chain of Lakes Church. It’s exciting to envision what can happen in the future.