John Lam, Bandmaster of the Canadian Staff Band

This summer, John Lam retires after 30 years of ministry with the Canadian Staff Band, including 17 years as bandmaster.

As he wraps up his time with the band, Lam reflects on his life and faith, from his life-transforming experience at National Music Camp, to a time of personal tragedy and how God has been faithful to him, to some of his most memorable experiences with the staff band, and why music is still critical to the Army’s mission today.

Canadian Staff Band website

This episode features music from two CSB albums: Undaunted and Glorified

Transcript

Kristin Ostensen

This is the Salvationist podcast. I’m Kristin Ostensen. In The Salvation Army, we are blessed to have so many long-serving musicians. People who can trace their musical roots all the way back to junior band; people who still show up at the corps every Sunday and give their best to glorify God through music. John Lam is one of these musicians. He’s been with the Canadian Staff Band for 30 years, and has served as bandmaster for the past 17. As he retires from the Staff Band this summer, we look back on his musical and spiritual journey—from his early days at the corps in Owen Sound, Ontario; to a time of personal tragedy and how God has been faithful to him; to some of the most memorable experiences he’s had with the staff band; and why music is still critical to the Army’s mission today.

Hi John, and welcome to the Salvationist podcast. 

John Lam  

Good to be here. 

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, it's wonderful to have you, and it's such an exciting time. Congratulations on your retirement. How does that feel to be retired from the CSB after 30 whole years?

John Lam

Well, we're not there yet. I think I have three engagements left, but having had just the retirement concert part of it, it's starting to feel real now, and I'm winding down, and it feels good.

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, that is a long, long time of service. And thank you for that. Let's go back—way, way back, long before your CSB days. Can you tell me how you first got connected to The Salvation Army? 

John Lam

Well, I grew up in the Anglican Church, and that's where my parents went. And in the early 70s—I mean, it was a lovely church—but at the time, they didn't have a Sunday school. And my dad worked with a Salvationist at a local factory—it was actually Shona Pike's dad, they worked together. And I think my dad was concerned that our church didn't have a Sunday school, didn't have much going for the kids, and so his colleague said, “Well, you know, we've just built a brand-new Salvation Army at the end of your street. You could literally walk down there.” So, all three of us kids—my two sisters and I—we went down there, and we were immediately part of a community of faith, which I think is unique now, the model. To rebuild the corps post-war, the bandmaster there, Harold Stock—not to rebuild the band, but to rebuild the core—brought over many people from the United Kingdom, and they were all brought there for their specific, one would be the corps treasurer, one would be the YPSM, and they had to rebuild. And so, this was the extension of that. Now into the 70s, they had a new building. And so all these people with these British accents were referred to as your aunt and uncle. It was Uncle Harold, Uncle Arnold. It was Aunt Dorothea. And it was unlike anything I've seen before, but these adults were just—there were so many kids in this building, and we felt validated, we felt part of things. And immediately they put an instrument in your hand and you're in junior band, and don't even think about it not coming, because if you're not there at quarter-to, then Uncle Arnold will pull up in front of your house and “Get in the car.” And the translation there is—we love you enough to make sure you're here, and you're important. And so, I kind of toddled through those years, doing those activities. And then fast forward—during that time, I ended up in high school and maybe started to pull away a little bit. I enjoyed working at Canadian Tire. And some of my friends that age, they were going to music camps. I didn't have a clue what that was—there were divisional music camps, they would talk about it when they came home. And, you know, anyway, I was still there, you know, during the regular season. But in 1982, my corps officer’s son, probably for various reasons other than music, said to me, “It’d really be a good idea to go to our National Music Camp. You should come to this.” Because we both played guitar. We played in this garage band together. “You'll have to bring a trombone, but it's a great place to meet people and a lot of fun.” So, I thought, hey, it's the end of the summer. I'll go. And I really didn't know what hit me because—and musically, the lights hadn't really come on yet, but I was sitting, you know, last chair in this trombone section in a full complement band, and we played this wonderful piece called “I Know a Fount.” It's a set of variations by Tom Rive. And the music really spoke to me, but also the words: “I know I fount where sins are washed away.” And I don't know really why that appealed so much to a somewhat cynical 17-year-old kid who might have pulled away from the Army at that point, but that week changed my life, and I think ,whereas I had attended The Salvation Army as a kid for a few years, and felt that loving community of faith around me, this is where, spiritually, the lights came on, and I made a real decision for Christ at that camp. And you know, I've said many times, my life has not been a straight line since then. But those words, “I know a fount where sins are washed away” —those are the words that get laid on your heart. Later on in life, when life happens and your heart breaks, those are the words that fall in and make the difference. So that's how I ended up in The Salvation Army and then locked in after that point.

[Music: “I Know a Fount”]

Kristin Ostensen

That was an excerpt from “I Know a Fount,” as played by the Canadian Staff Band on their 2022 album, “Undaunted.”

So, thinking about your banding journey then, when did you first encounter the Canadian Staff Band, and how did that impact you?

John Lam

Well, that was right after the National School of Music experience. And I was in the Owen Sound band. For a small northern Ontario town, Owen Sound had a very good band, and they had a very good band leader who was not only a good musician, he was a great spiritual mentor, and he held me accountable, you know, just with all the timeless things about, you know, showing up and everything like that. So, I enjoyed being in that band. I enjoyed the fellowship. We had a really good trombone section, and all these guys were older than me, but we met every week after rehearsal at a doughnut shop and solved all the world's problems and whatnot. So, the fellowship side of it was there, and I'd heard about the Canadian Staff Band. But after National, I was playing in a group, and one of the elective groups at National—my guitar—and we got asked to perform at the first Festival of Gospel Song that they had at Roy Thomson Hall. And the people in my corps in Owen Sound, they knew something had changed after I came back from National. I think they were very watchful of me. And so they made sure that I got there. “You have to be in this group, John. We're going to make sure you—we’ll drive down. The songsters are participating.” And so we came out on the stage at Roy Thomson Hall, did our thing, which was kind of intimidating and cool, because I had no idea what this event was, right? For all I know, it could have been held just in the local church. And there you are in front of hundreds and hundreds of people, and out comes this group in red tunics and sits down in these chairs and starts playing. And I'm like, What is this? And so I snuck up into one of the nosebleed seats and just kind of, you know, hid in my songster brigade, which was part of the mass chorus at the time, and so I almost had an aerial view of the staff band. And they played “The Canadian” and they played “Symphony of Thanksgiving.” And it was, I think, their first performance of William Himes’ “To the Chief Musician,” and it was one of the narrated ones. And, yeah, something changed there. And I became very enthralled with what I heard, but also just kind of overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit as well. Music is very, very powerful in conveying words. And so that was an unforgettable experience. And so, I made a late decision in my high school career that I would like to study music. And I became actually interested in the trombone, which took me to London, Ontario, where the London Citadel Band—they have a very good band there, and a very intense bandmaster—and I became part of that for the next 10 years. And then, yeah, the journey continues from there.

Kristin Ostensen

Very cool. And when you decided to try out to audition for the CSB yourself, what led you to that decision? Why did you want to join?

John Lam

Well, I think in the 10 years that I was in London Citadel Band and going to university and going to teachers’ college, I had done some professional playing. I toured with “Les Miserables” for a couple of years. So, while it might have been a goal my early 20s to be in the staff band, that kind of, you know, I got involved with other musical things, and the band experience in London was very satisfying, so I really didn't think about it. By the time it was it came around, I think I entered the band at age 30. And it was a time when Bram Gregson retired from London Citadel Band, and I had just been made bandmaster, and I was not going to be able to play in some of the professional local groups and orchestras that I had been doing and do the band. But at the time, the bass trombone spot in the Canadian Staff Band came open exactly at that time. And the suggestion from Brian Burditt was, “This would be a great thing for you, John, because you're about to take over a demanding leadership role in London, but you're too young to not be playing your trombone. And so why don't you join the staff band? And you'll be amongst other bandmaster colleagues that you can share with and they can mentor you.” So, for me, it was one night a week where I didn't have to make any decisions. I didn't have to make any leadership decisions. I just sat down, played my bass trombone and really did enjoy the mentorship. So it was a very convenient time, because it was exactly the same time that I took over London band, and I was still able to play for 13 more years and enjoy that mentorship and camaraderie with other band leaders.

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, that's really great. And of course, you were in the band for 13 years before you took that next step up to being the bandmaster yourself. And I remember at your retirement dinner, Major Kevin Metcalf, who, of course, former music secretary, shared that when the position did come up, he knew right away that it should be you. I don't know if that was a surprise to you to hear at that dinner, but what do you think he saw in you at that time that led him to that conclusion, that you were the right person for the job?

John Lam

I don't know, other than Kevin and I worked at—we crossed paths in the Salvation Army music fraternity, let's call it that. You show up for things, whether it's a commissioning, or whether it's a trip, or whether Kevin came to London to play soprano as a ringer in my band. So we crossed paths all the time, for more than a decade. And I would call him a mentor because, ultimately, when somebody comes and plays in your corps band, they stay at your house, and you talk about things, you talk about banding. But also, we were guests at camp together, or he would be at a camp that I was guest at. So he got to see me work with a band like London. So he would have played under my leadership in London band. But he also would have seen me in teaching mode, I think, where, you know, you show up at a camp, and you pick the repertoire, you bring pieces with you, and then you go into this deep prayer: Please Lord, let me have picked the right stuff, and I hope they can play it. But you have to teach them how to play it in many instances. And I think maybe he saw me in that context. And other than that, I would hope that he knew that I had a heart for it, that I wasn't in it for the music. By that point in my life, my corps band had taught me that Salvation Army leadership is less than 10% about the music, and it's more than 90% about the people. And I would hope that that that was maybe one of the more significant things that Kevin may have seen, is that I knew the power of this ministry, and it was about the people, and it was about, you know, the Christian witness that we can have through this powerful ministry. And so I'm hoping that all of those things gave him a comfort level when he was looking for somebody to conduct the staff band, that, “OK, I could trust John with this, because he's had 13 years of leading, learning, making mistakes, walking them back, trying again, surviving these things, and he might be able to survive it if I asked him to do it.”

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah. Well, I loved what you were just saying about how, you know, the music ministry, you know, it's only 10% about the music, as it were. And of course, the quality of the staff band is absolutely incredible. But I'm wondering if you can expand on what you had just been saying and talk about what your approach is to music ministry with the staff band.

John Lam

So, Salvation Army band ministry, and I guess especially at the staff band level—I guess I drew a parallel with my career as a music educator. I love music education. It’s a big—I'm a geek for all of this, and you know, the latest methods and the latest pieces of music and the new composers, and we go to conferences. But at the end of the day, what I know is: music education and, say, a Salvation Army music program, you've got a school with the curriculum at the centre of it. You've got all these entry points—sports, chess club, band, choir—all these things that draw students in, and hopefully they graduate with the curriculum under their belt. In the church, I don't think it's a lot different. You have the gospel at the center of the church, and in The Salvation Army, more than any other denomination, we have all these entry points. We have band, we have songsters, we have, you know, what we used to call the over 60s club. We had timbrels. And it all allows the participants, wherever they are on their faith journey—new or old or needing renewal—they're continuously exposed to the gospel and lifted up by the people around them. And so, I think with the staff band, I wanted to model, wherever we went, I wanted to model how that could look in their church. Whether you have a five-piece band or a 40-piece band—we have 36 to 48 hours to visit a locality and be Christ for those people. But also, if you're in a Salvation Army setting, to show them how to do this. You don't have to be the staff band—you don't have to be the staff band. You can have a community of faith. You can have, you know, a 15-year-old sitting beside a 65-year-old, mutually beneficial, because everybody's going to have problems in their life, and sometimes you need mentoring, and sometimes you need a young person to sort you out when you get to my age. And that's all in the presence of the gospel and Christian teaching and the joy of making music. So, Kevin and I were deliberate in using the staff band to be a model for the rest of the territory and literally around the world, of how the gift of music can be a huge power, the same way it is in a school.

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I know obviously we're coming to the end of 30 years, and so this next question is going to be absolutely impossible to answer, but indulge me anyway—when you look back on all this wonderful time with the CSB, what are some experiences that really stand out to you?

John Lam

There are so many. If you're in a band like this for 30 years, it's tough to—all the experiences kind of run together. But I think it's the moments that would maybe, surprisingly, not the big performance moments. You always enjoy a good performance, when the band is playing maybe better than you prepared them, and it's you can tell, it's really engaging with the audience, and something happens in the room. Let's just say, I love those moments when, you know, our preparation turns it over to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit shows up and turns it into something else. Those are special. And I don't even know if I can describe them, because that's just something—you look at each other and you know it just happened and it would be unfair to put it into words. But I think just some of the moments where, the more humbling moments where we're so blessed with what we've got. Even though banding has declined in some regards, we're still very spoiled here in in Canada and in North America with our banding culture and our music-making culture. And you go to a place like Chile, and we had done a concert and, like I said, we don't just roll up into a concert and move on to the nice locality anymore. We set up camps so that people are around us for five days. And we run camps, and we run workshops, we do parades, we do it all. We get a little bit of time to know the people. But at that concert, that drew in some people that had not been with us for the five days, and I said earlier, Marcus was beckoning me to get on the bus. And this family I'd been talking to, they could tell I was being pulled away, and this lady just grabbed my wrist. She says, “I just need five more minutes. We came 40 hours to hear you tonight, and I'll never get to see you again.” And you know that the Holy Spirit had moved that night, and they just wanted to linger a little bit more and talk to you, because they were aware that they don't have all the resources that we do, or a staff band like this, and they just wanted a little bit more time. Another thing happened just so recently, Roy Thomson Hall. Christmas can be a really busy time if you're in The Salvation Army. And it's a long month, November through Christmas—November is the prep, December is you show up and do it. And you can get very tired. So by the end of Christmas With The Salvation Army concert, you're walking off stage, you are heading towards that dressing room with purpose. And this gentleman got my attention. I was on stage. He was in the seats below. And this guy looked right through my soul. He was a very well put together man, obviously a man of means. And he just looked at me, and he says, “I need to tell you, I came in here quite by accident tonight. And I also need to tell you, I really struggle with Christmas,” and he started to well up, and I knew we had a little conversation happening here. And he paused, and he kind of fought through it, and he says, “But after experiencing this concert, hearing this music and considering all of the words and the message, I know I need to come back to Christ. I need to come back to my faith.” And there it is. That is—you can't get a better moment than that, for me, when you know you've made an impression on one person like that. Who are the people that didn't come to me to say the same thing, but went away that night thinking, “I need to come back to faith”? Or, you know, you’ve brought them a few seconds of joy that they might not have had, you know, going somewhere else, and that there, you know—mission accomplished. So those are some of the special moments that I remember, and there are so many more.

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, no, those are really beautiful and really interesting, contrasting kind of moments as well. You know, ministry happens in, you know, in the big concert, but it also happens in, you know, a small corps on the other side of the world. 

John Lam

And that—I was telling, I did an interview this weekend, and this one, it still makes me laugh. I don't know. When I took on the staff band in 2008, I was working at a very busy high school. And I had a working colleague, both of us were in the department, and that office we were in, calls would come in for corps matters—whether it was ministry board, whether it was musical, it didn't matter. Salvation Army call, Salvation Army call. Call from a composer, call from Australia, call from THQ. And my teaching partner, you know, she was looking at me, just kind of staring. And I'm like, “Are you OK?” She says, “I have so many questions.” She says, like, “I attend the Baptist church. And I'm telling you that I wouldn't know who attends the Baptist church on the other side of town, 16 blocks away”—however far away it was—“but you, I am learning, the guy I work with here in this school, you could probably jump out of a plane over Europe and pack up your parachute, walk 20 minutes to the local village or town, and, A) have a place to stay; B) something to eat. But here's the weird one—they would know who you are.” And I thought that's—yes, that's correct. It's a global organization. It's a global church—small denomination, but with a global impact. And in the music fraternity, we all know each other, because we all show up for each other. So she was right, and I had never thought of that, and she thought that was pretty strange.

Kristin Ostensen  

No, and it really does speak to the amazing community that we have in both our own territory, but yeah, absolutely, around the world. And just thinking about community and how we support and lift each other up—some listeners may not know that you experienced a very great personal tragedy during your tenure as the bandmaster, and that, of course, was the loss of your dear wife, Jane. And I'm wondering if you can share a little bit about that experience, and how did God sustain you in that time, and how also did your CSB family rally around you in those moments?

John Lam

Yeah, that was a tough time, and it really hasn't ever left me, so I've tried to use it to help me be present for other people going through any type of grief. It wasn't just in the aftermath. It was the short time leading up to Jane's death. We were at a music camp in Texas, and she got what she thought was a chest cold, and it was not a chest cold, it was angiosarcoma, and she was gone 10 weeks later. So, we became very close with the people at that music camp, and I was able to return there at one point and be on that faculty again. And in the weeks leading up to her death, I still did rehearsals, both at the corps and with the staff band. And so, they walked through that tragedy with me and Jonathan, and they were present. And so, it was a bit of a reversal of roles, because it's my view that the role of bandmaster is a pastoral one—which I'm sure I fail epically at all the time, but I've done my best. If I have somebody in one of my bands, or it's their family, I will meet them wherever they are and just be present for them. I can't solve the problem, but I can certainly, you know, be used however God wants me to be used in that situation. And so, I'm used to reaching out to the members of my band, in the corps and the staff band, behind the scenes when needed. This was a case where they were there for the bandmaster this time. And I decided, and it was a decision—what do you do at a point like that? Do you retire from everything? Do you move up north and never be heard from again? Or do you, you know, take a deep breath and with the support of your community of faith, who I got the impression at the time, they didn't want me to go anywhere. They wanted to see me through this. So, it was a reversal of roles. I depended on them. I don't know what those rehearsals were like in the weeks following that, but I know I made it through them, and I was able to function on some level. I took a semester off work, but it was the band members who showed up for me. And some of them, ones who were just so wise, the ones who just showed up at my house and just sat there, they didn't suggest anything. They didn't tell me, “You should do this.” They were just present for me. And bandmaster colleagues—Bill Himes showed up, spoke at the funeral and mentored me through because he had gone through a similar loss. And I think his words, he welcomed me to the “community of suffering,” and he says, “It'll be your turn, John, to be there for somebody else when this happens down the road.” And so that was an intense time for me, and they allowed me to keep going on. And they demonstrated that, you know, God's got you through this, and we're going to be used in a way that holds you up long enough for me to eventually return to work, and then in, you know, the years that followed, be able to meet Sarah and eventually get remarried—who also, you know, has an unbelievably acute understanding of the role of the corps band and the staff band, and my role as bandmaster and was able to support me. So, yeah. I mean, that is why we have music groups in The Salvation Army. When life happens, you have a community of faith that's got you. They show up, and I think that's one of the most special things about it, and they certainly met the moment for me. I couldn't be more grateful.

[Music: “Life of Worship”]

Kristin Ostensen

That was an excerpt from “Life of Worship,” as performed by the Canadian Staff Band on their album, “Undaunted.” This piece was written by Andrew Wainwright and was dedicated to Jane's life in the wake of her passing.

You've alluded to work a number of times, and of course, you work as a music teacher, a high school music teacher, and I noticed at your farewell concert, there were even a number of your former students in attendance, which was so beautiful to see. I'm wondering if you can talk about how your sort of professional work is also a ministry for you in its own way.

John Lam  

I think, quite by accident, and just, I was trying to explain this in a recent interview, I think technology has helped with that. Students wonder about their teachers’ home lives and what they do when they're not at school. I think some students think that you're always at the school, you're just like a holographic thing that comes on when they show up, and then when they see you at the mall, they're like, Wow, he's eating something and he's wearing jeans. But in the music department, there's a different level, I think, than in some other subjects, because you're in this crucible of the arts, and you know, sharing and creative things and stories enter in. And I think you get to know your kids better. And so, even as far back as when I taught elementary school, like, 20-some years ago, this one kid—“How come there's never any, you never keep anybody after school for detention on Wednesdays? And why conduct this band?” “I gotta get to Toronto.” And, “Well, why?” “Well, you know, because I'm in this group.” And, “Well, what's it all about?” And then, so the door is open, because in modern-day education, you really can't wear the hat of coming in there as a Christian and recruiting and stuff like that. So, our students, they like to just kind of follow—we invest in them, and so they invest in us. So, they find out that you're doing a concert, so they'll show up at London Citadel and see your concert. You didn't invite them. They just show up. And with the staff band, as far back as the early 2000s—yeah, 2011, the ISB 120—I had to take 10 days off for that. And kids get upset when you're gone for that long. But the internet, and, you know, posting things on YouTube was relatively, that was only five or six years old. So they would kind of check up—well, what was he doing today? Where is he today? And so, it's not going to be too long before they realize you're in a faith-based group. And then the next conversation is, once they get you back, “What's that all about?” And I would hope and pray that with all of us who are teachers involved in this, there is a joy that you have when you are a Salvation Army musician, and you carry it with you. And if you're carrying that into the classroom, they're probably going to sense that, and they'll want to be part of that. So whether it's the number of students who have ended up coming to our church, either regularly and now part of, you know, my band—and we've had that in both bands with other teachers as well as me; or the ones that, you know, have put their trust in you and just show up occasionally at church, but stay connected to your community of faith. That's been an added blessing.

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, absolutely, that's so cool. And of course, the CSB has been going, the revived CSB has been going for 56 years now. And I'm wondering, looking ahead, what do you think makes this such a vital and relevant ministry for the Army now and into the future? 

John Lam

That's an excellent question, because there's no doubt that it is, as our territorial commander says, it's mission critical. And I think because I know other musicians locally and in other countries, parts of other churches—everybody is always envious of what we have in The Salvation Army, especially since it's mostly volunteer. If you want good music programs in the Anglican or United Church here, you're going to be paying people. We have this culture of volunteerism that's very powerful and, you know, mutually beneficial. And so, there's no doubt in my mind that this is a unique thing to our denomination, and very powerful and must continue. And it may look different from decade to decade as we adapt to anything that comes—you know, whether it's a pandemic or a new music style. But I think that it is so crucial to realize that the Canadian Staff Band, and any music group in The Salvation Army in your own community, is one of the best evangelical tools that you could ever have. I mean, some churches have evangelical personnel that go out and evangelize in the community. We go out there and do it with music. We draw people in, and then, if you've got the right people in the group, they literally do the work of evangelizing once that conversation is started and that impression is made. And we're portable. We go places, we fly places. We will go anywhere. That was a Metcalf thing. We want to be the staff band that will do anything, anywhere, and do it anyhow. And that's a pretty powerful tool, if you think about it. You know, whether it's NEON or the staff songsters, the staff band—we're reaching hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, even in just one Christmas season. And those conversations, those seeds are planted. I have to believe that, and we've seen that. And so I think it is just an immense evangelical tool that we have, that we should not take for granted.

Kristin Ostensen

Absolutely. And as the outgoing bandmaster, you've just received an Award of Exceptional Service, which is the territory's highest honour. Congrats to you for that. What does that award mean to you and what do you hope you'll be remembered for?

John Lam

I did not see that award coming, and especially in The Salvation Army—awards are not what you do this for. So, I am grateful for that presentation. It is hanging on the wall, so I will see it whenever I'm in my office. And I will somewhere come to terms with feeling like I actually deserve something like that because there are many people that deserve an exceptional service award. So I'm grateful for it. It's not what you do it for. So that's that. And what will I be remembered for? I don't know. I hope that my role as leader of the staff band will be seen, I hope I will be seen as somebody who took care of it the best I could while I had my time, and that during that time, I opened the doors for the talented people in the group to become their full self that God intended them to be—whether they're a composer, whether they're a stand up soloist, whether they're eventually going to be an officer. If something I did allowed them to further themselves through that experience. I kind of like the gatekeeper model, or the person who opens the door for others in a leadership role. And like everybody in Salvation Army band, I hope I'll be remembered as somebody who showed up for the people when they needed me, the way they showed up for me. And I think that's what the whole thing is about, you know, and in the middle of it all, we make a little bit of music and have some fun doing that.

Kristin Ostensen

Yeah, just that little 10% part of it.

John Lam

That's right.

Kristin Ostensen

Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today. Thank you for your 30 years of service—that is incredible. I know I'm far from the only person who's grateful for your ministry over the years, and I just want to wish you very, very well into your retirement. Thanks so much.

John Lam

Thank you so much.

Kristin Ostensen

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Salvationist podcast. We’re taking a break over to summer, but we’ll see you back here in the fall. In the meantime, catch up on past episodes at Salvationist.ca/podcast. Before we go, we’ve got one last staff band piece to share with you—an excerpt from “Glorified,” written by Andrew Wainwright. This was John’s pick to end the episode with—as he says, “It is our sincere hope that in all we do as Salvation Army musicians, there will be no other goal than to glorify God.”

[Music: “Glorified”]