About Zach
Zach Oaster and his wife Lindsay have been worship artisans since the year 2000. They also travel around the US and Canada offering worship experiences and workshops on topics ranging from emergence worship to social media and technology.
Now onward with the bio…
Zach started off at Glad Tidings Assembly (now Life in Christ Ministries) in Battle Creek, Michigan as the lead worshiper for the children’s church program. Although the audience was young, Zach used rockin’ modern worship music, with the help of one of the church’s teens (playing drums on the keyboard), to offer a great weekly worship experience for nearly 100 kids.
Zach was soon recruited by the pastor of First United Methodist Church, a 300 member downtown landmark in Battle Creek, to take over their struggling contemporary music program. Lindsay soon joined Zach’s band playing electric violin and mandolin. Through challenges and changes, First Church became a local beacon for both contemporary music and the use of technology to enhance the worship experience.
Zach worked with the pastor at First Church to design seminars for using technology in worship. They held 2 large scale conferences for hundreds of churches from over 5 U.S. states. Zach and the late Rev. Bill Myers were featured speakers at many pastor’s schools to teach relevant worship techniques. This is where Zach honed his passion for teaching worship design.
Zach and his wife Lindsay, after 6 years of successful worship ministry in Battle Creek, packed up and moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2006. Lindsay worked for 2 years to gain her Master’s degree in Astrophysics. During that time, God used the experience to open Zach and Lindsay’s hearts to new and different cultures and worship experiences. This time also represented a period of deep struggle for the couple, both financially and socially. They learned to find peace and hope in times of distress, and were challenged to revisit their theology about the grace and love of God for all persons. It was an amazing faith building experience, and they made many new and lasting friendships.
Zach and Lindsay moved back to Michigan in late 2008, and began ministry at Georgetown United Methodist Church (GUM Church). Over the course of two years, the pastor and Zach worked tirelessly to guide the church on a path toward congregational wholeness. They made great strides in reducing conflict and building new ministries (including introducing a worship design team) that were examples to the greater church of cooperation and Christ-like interactions. Zach was able to introduce the congregation to the Rethink Church ideas of moving beyond “church as building” and toward “church as day-to-day missional living.” He also implemented a contemporary rock worship style that was supported by a complete web site redesign and substantial use of blogs and social media such as Facebook.
Zach spent a year ('10-'11) working in Muskegon at Lake Harbor United Methodist Church building their Celebration (contemporary) worship experience. This amazing small community of worshipers are doing great work in the Lake Michigan lakeshore area.
Starting in September of 2011, Zach began working at two Grand Rapids area Methodist Churches. Every Sunday morning Zach and Lindsay lead worship at White Pines United Methodist Church in Belmont. This growing new church meets at the YMCA, and is bursting with young families and passion for hands-on ministry in the community. Zach is also working with the Aldersgate UMC congregation to develop a monthly alternative community gathering. This effort will be a dynamic attempt to use the resources of this older congregation to bring new life and community in a city that is so very overchurched, yet under-served in many ways.
Zach has a skillset that spans categories. His passions include leading contemporary-rock worship music, worship technology, social media, design of worship gatherings (contemporary & emergence), church marketing, graphic design, and social justice organizing. Zach is also currently a full-time student of Sociology at Grand Valley State University.
At home...
Zach and Lindsay have a small farm just north of Grand Rapids in Rockford, Michigan and are enjoying discovering the beauty of creation as they shepherd sheep and tend to chickens, cows, bunnies, and a few pesky barn cats. You can learn more about their farming adventure by visiting FatToasterFarm.com