Steve Steffy

What I've been up to since my days in the Children of the Light: From ’79 to ’91 I pastored a church in the Northwest. I loved continuing to serve the Lord after being in the band and was honored to do it in that way. The breakup of my marriage took me in some different directions vocationally, but my heart has always been to serve through teaching, mentoring, and leading worship which I’ve done ever since in a volunteer capacity.

I remarried 10 years ago and am so thankful for the family I have, and grateful to see God’s grace continue on my children and grandchildren. Lord willing I will pastor again, for there’s nothing greater than doing the work of the kingdom.

My favorite Children of the Light memories: I carry a lot of great memories from the 8 years we were together – all the places we went, people we met and concerts we played. It seems that most of my favorite memories fit in the category of “you had to be there,” and so it’s hard to know what to share. With so many moments to choose from, I resort to the randomness of “pick a card, any card” method of telling what comes to mind:

One time we were minutes away from starting a concert and I decided to go outside for a quick moment to catch my breath and pray. When I went to go back inside I discovered the stage door was locked from the outside. Panic ensued as I hoofed it around the building to find an open door. I ended up having to go all the way to the front entrance, which seemed to take forever since it was such a large hall. Coming in the doors I heard our band had already started and was talking to the audience. I had no choice but to run right up the aisle in front of everyone in order to get on stage, and with the pressure of everyone watching me, I had to scramble to get ready to play. You can only imagine the looks I got from my fellow band members! I’ve been checking doors ever since.

I flash on the picture of Dave, Randy and me huddled around a cheap microphone we had taped to my mom’s clothes hanger rack and plugged into my brother’s bedroom stereo system. I made my mom put on headphones and listen to us as we sang one of our songs. I’m sure it would have sounded much better if she had just listened live without the headphones, but we were fascinated by using a real microphone!

Another such “microphone memory” was when we played somewhere deep in a national forest (King’s Canyon, I believe). We did a mini-concert at an outdoor amphitheater where the ranger usually speaks and we had tied his lapel mic to a tent pole and stuck it in the ground supported by rocks we had put all around it. The speaker was way up in the trees somewhere, so it created a most ethereal sound as we sang to the campers, using God’s natural reverb.

Something I'd like you to know about me: Ever since childhood I’ve always been a thinker, and I take great joy in the discovery process…especially when it comes to thinking God’s thoughts and learning about Him and His ways. I want the legacy of my life to be that I walked with God and learned to know Him and love Him.

My favorite things:

• Sports: Golf would be my favorite sport to play, though I’ve never played enough to be very good. I enjoy walking with God on the golf course…and finding lost balls.
  

• Music: Music has always had a special place in my heart and my appreciation for talent has always exceeded my own. I feel great pleasure playing my acoustic guitar and I love a good pedal steel. I love arranging music and the recording process.
  

• Movies: I like most everything except horror flicks, westerns, and martial arts. A few favorites are: Dave, Shawshank Redemption, The Fugitive, Hunt for Red October and Awakenings. I especially like movies that make me think and feel deeply. Most time-travel stories enthrall me.
  

• Books/Authors: I love the Bible for reasons beyond literature. I’ve read a fair share of instructional and informational books but I like to read a fun novel every once in a while (Sparks, Clancy, Ludlum, Grisham, etc.). One novel read recently, which I thoroughly enjoyed, was River God by Wilbur Smith.
  

• Activities: My wife and I are people-watchers, so we enjoy watching the human zoo. Another thing we enjoy is bird-watching. We’re fascinated by birds and their behaviors as they frequent our backyard feeders. Travel is wonderful and vacations are for sleeping in, laying around the pool and going out to dinner!
  

• Food: Papa Murphy’s Chicago style pizza is at the top of the pizza chart right now. Dreyer’s Lime Juice bars are a big hit, too. Almost anything on the barbecue is wonderful – steaks, cedar-planked salmon, ribs, chicken, shrimp – yum, it’s all good. No eggs.
  

If I could spend time with any historical person...I would enjoy meeting C.S. Lewis, to watch him dialog with his colleagues; James Taylor, to watch him create music in the studio; Robert Redford, to watch him direct a movie; Abraham Lincoln, to watch him in the Oval Office; and Leonardo da Vinci, to see what kind of personality this brilliant man had.

My links:

• My links? That’s where I play golf.