John Ridgway Walker is a composer, conductor, and clinician with more than 35 years of international experience in creative worship and educational leadership.
Commissioned Compositions
John Walker's composition "Grace Upon Grace" played a key role in focusing our attention and our hearts on the biblical theme verse of our anniversary celebration here at St. John's Lutheran Church. It helped unite us around the message of God's grace as it has been experienced in our congregation through the generations. It brought together former and current choir members, voices and instruments, adults and children, in a manner uniquely fitted to our resources and helped us gel as a reunited community of praise. Most of all, it helped us express our love and gratitude for God's past blessings and our confidence that God will continue to bless us for mission into the future.
Before composing the number, John asked what message I, as pastor, would most like to proclaim and leave as an eventual legacy to the congregation. "Grace Upon Grace" expressed and amplified this message more effectively than I had hoped or dreamed. John listened well and composed with heart and art. I was moved to tears the first time I heard the words, moved to confident faith when I heard the music and moved to joy as we sang it together.
I was not the only one so moved. One leader of the gathering summed up the feelings of many in the following words. "I couldn't stop singing it. I even heard children singing it over and over. It became part of us. ...Everything fit together so well."
-Rev. Ken Halstead, Pastor St. John's Lutheran Church Richland Center, Wisconsin October 2009
