First Presbyterian Church members are living God’s love in all kinds of ways. One of them is Shannan Ott Ledbetter, a lifelong member and leader who has shared her musical gifts with the church for years, most recently singing with the 10:10 Band. Here is her story, in her own words.


I was born and baptized in this church. I grew up singing in the choirs and playing handbells and participating in Youth Club. Youth Club turned into Youth Group as I got older. I started attending Middle School Youth Fellowship right around the time that Pastor Stephen Emick was starting at the church. I also sang in the Youth Choir.


During my high school years, I was a youth delegate to the Board of Deacons. After I went to college and moved back home, I became an adviser in the youth program for 10-plus years.


Other things I have been involved with at the church: I was the team lead for Membership for a few years, participated in seasonal small groups, was an original member of a young adult group that formed at the church, and was on Jack Haberer’s pastor nominating committee and the search team for our current alternative worship leader, Wilson Velazquez. And, of course, I sing in the 10:10 Band!


I have so many fond memories in this church. Each new chapter in my life brings with it the opportunity to form new memories.


I credit the church with allowing the gift 4


of music to find me. I started singing in the children’s choirs with Gloria Snyder and playing in the children’s handbell choir. I sang in Youth Choir from sixth through 12th grade. Tose were some of the most memorable times of my teenage years. I remember traveling to Atlanta for Choir Tour. I remember the feeling every Christmas Eve of being in the choir loft and getting to see the entire sanctuary lit with hundreds of candles while singing “Silent Night.” It took my breath away! I remember the bonds of friendship I formed and still have today because of my involvement in Youth Choir.


My involvement in the 10:10 Band happened by accident. I was approached by our first director in the hallway at church one Sunday morning and asked to audition for the band, but I politely declined the invitation. I had no idea what alternative worship was at the time and had no interest in being involved. A few weeks later, I was at a small group choral rehearsal and was walking through the church to the parking lot and heard the 10:10 Band practicing in Fellowship Hall. I was incredibly impressed by the sound and wandered in to check it out. I spent the rest of


the evening listening to them rehearse, and the next week I auditioned and was accepted into the group! I wasn’t looking for the opportunity, but God knew what my soul needed.


I see music as a way to explore my faith and express it. I am not the most eloquent person in terms of words, but there is something powerful about worship music. I can remember sitting in the sanctuary pews as a teenager and feeling the power of the hymns we would sing in worship—the way the lyrics and the melody intimately combined to convey beautiful messages.


I find it to be the same way in the music we lead during alternative worship. I will often lose myself in the middle of a song, where I can feel God speak to me in the lyrics. Music is incredibly powerful in worship, and it is a primary way that I find myself connecting in worship. I believe that God has given everyone gifts, and singing is the one He has gifted me with. I have been entrusted to use that gift to glorify Him and to bring others to Him through praise and worship.


Tis church has been and will always be my home.


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