WICHITA — Worship leader Stan Burleson, recently fired from his post at First Assembly in Wichita, is looking for a church that appreciates his worship leading gift, and the vast potential of his synthesizers.
"I don't mind if people get lost in the goodness of God," he says, "but I want them to remember what got them there: the gilded, diverse tones of this wonderful instrument."
Burleson works hard to get the most out of his synthesizers, often playing two at once and switching sounds with a flick of a wrist. He bobs up and down, shakes his head and steps back from the keyboard to deliver an emphatic bang on the keys. His latest CD, "Synth Praise II," made the top 100 music sales chart in the Family Christian Bookstore in his town for a week in June.
He was released from his previous position because of a "philosophical disagreement over bell tones" with the pastor. Burleson insisted the chime-y synthesizer setting lent a "heavenly quality to times of high worship," but the pastor forbade the "tinkly noise" and complained that people couldn't find the melody.
The church also complained that Burleson's stack of keyboards had grown so high that he could no longer be seen. Burleson says he now wants to find a congregation that values the synthesizers' full capabilities. •
