Ted
Slater




Bavaria, West Germany. A cool morning mist tumbles down the hills, collecting in a verdant valley. Through the haze you can just make out ancient castles, red-slate-roofed homes, old men wearing lederhosen and eating bratwurst and sauerkraut....

Hm. Okay, so it probably wasn't like that, since I was born there in October and my memory of it is pretty dim. It was probably snowing or something. In any case, that's where I started, being born in Nurnburg because my dad was stationed there while serving a few years in the U.S. Army as some sort of medic.

We moved between Michigan and Minnesota, settling in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (I'm a Yooper!) during my middle school and high school years. If I had to point to a time when I was saved, I would have to say that it was during the summer after high school, somewhere in Wyoming, and although I've had my ups and downs, I've found the Lord continually faithful to me.

I bounced around for a while, going to a couple of different universities (a shout-out to my friends at NMU!), working in Mexico for about a year as a missionary of sorts, living in Houston with a friend of mine, finally ending up in Virginia Beach to study at the graduate level.

After graduating from Regent University, I found myself becoming increasingly drawn to practicing my faith through the church I was a part of, Sovereign Grace Church. The Lord has been gracious to provide friends there who encourage me in my faith, and with whom I can work side-by-side. For several years, for example, I helped Bill Orth and a few others set up the children's classrooms on Sunday mornings. We had a great time (Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventure!).

Then I was asked to serve once in a while as a keyboard player with the church's worship team. Some time later, Eric asked if I'd also be involved with the band's outreach to our local community college, and I was happy to join the team. We were asked to lead worship for larger gatherings, including the New Attitude get-together in Baltimore. Most recently, we were asked to serve our church, PDI, and New Attitude by recording a CD of musically relevant, doctrinally thick worship songs. Everyone in the band, including myself, is honored and happy to serve in this way.




 
 
 
 
Everyone in the band, including myself, is honored and happy to serve in this way



 
 
 
 
It's my hope that this album encourages you to a deeper appreciation of who the Lord is and how gracious He's been to you, realizations that should draw you to more deeply worship Him in your thoughts, your services, and your singing

So now our producer, Quinlan, has completed the CD and we're faced with a number of things. Our hearts are tempted toward pride, we're needing to re-evaluate our schedules to fit in additional playing as a band (never, however, at the expense of serving on Sunday morning in our church), we're pondering how good the Lord has been to include us in His plan in such an exciting way.... And after seeing how the Lord has blessed us in such a variety of ways, we're growing in confidence that He will continue to bless us in a variety of ways, despite our undeservedness.

In addition to playing piano and keyboard, I develop internet websites (including this one!) and do multimedia/newmedia things. I love my Macintosh, feel at home with Photoshop and BBEdit and Premiere and PageMaker, and am always learning new things about internet-mediated communication. I currently work with the Christian Broadcasting Network and have my fingers in a number of freelance projects (including developing a User Interface for a huge international bank).

I like lasagna, international foods, water, pudding, all sorts of music (including bluegrass, classical, black gospel, alternative, and Celtic), penny whistles, strong Colombian coffee (I lived there too for a few months), 320-thread-count all-cotton sheets, late-night talks with good friends, FreeRepublic.com and DrudgeReport.com, earth-tones (including various earthy greens), candles, the New Attitude Band, my church, Ravi Zacharias, The Little Prince, nature walks, speaking Spanish, playing euchre, Pixar, affirmation, friends' thoughtfulnesses, the night sky, generosity, racquetball, Roland keyboards (okay, I've got a Korg too), fireplaces, CT scans, silver dollars, beef jerkey, talk radio, real acoustic pianos, grace, and tabasco sauce.

It's my hope that this album encourages you to a deeper appreciation of who the Lord is and how gracious He's been to you, realizations that should draw you to more deeply worship Him in your thoughts, your services, and your singing. It's also my hope that when you think of the New Attitude Band, you think of a group of friends who are happy to serve in their local church, and when appropriate, other venues. Perhaps in addition to facilitating your growth in worship, we will also serve as an encouragement to you to consider how you might practice your faith alongside your friends in your home church.

That's all for now! All of us in the band, including myself, would be happy to hear from you. You can chat with any of us via email, or during New Attitude or the True Love Tour (when we play), or visit us as our church, Sovereign Grace Church in Virginia Beach.