NORTHWOODS WORSHIP
Welcome
This team seeks to serve the Church by providing musical worship that leads congregants to the heart of God. We are committed to humbly serving in attitude, musical excellence, and spiritual preparedness. Here you will find resources to equip you as we carry out that vision together!
Planning Center
There is a reason why PCO is the worship leader's best friend.
Everything that you would ever need to know for a Sunday can be found in this one handy app. Let's dive in.
Vocal Resources
Take your singing to the next level!
Meet the Staff
We are so glad you are here! Northwoods Community Church is an amazing place to grow in your faith and sow into our community using the gifts and talents God has given you. We know this is a big place with a lot of people, and we recognize it can be challenging to get connected. So thank you for stepping out and joining this team. We believe The Lord has great things in store for you as you serve Him here. To help you connect with our team, click on the photos below for information about each Music Team staff member.
Amy Sutton
Lead Worship Pastor
Amy has been on staff at Northwoods since 2012 starting with a brief stint in Student Ministry before moving to Creative Arts in 2013. She oversees our music staff team and is a part of the Northwoods Leadership Team. Besides music and Jesus, she loves coffee, baking and a good game night with friends! She and her husband Jake have four kids: Lila, Harvey, Camille and Jasper. In addition to being our lead worship pastor, Amy heads up song selection, service planning, songwriting and coordinating all the various aspects of worship at Northwoods.
Josh Rivera
Worship Pastor
Josh has served as one of our worship pastors since 2018. He and his wife Crystal have two kids: Aria Nicole and Caleb Joshua. When he’s not at church, he enjoys recording music, watching soccer, and spending quality time with his family, especially watching movies and eating popcorn. He also has a bit of a thing for guitar pedals and loves experimenting with new sounds and effects! In addition to being one of our weekend worship pastors, Josh is our go-to guy for Ableton/tracks, guitar tone and original song concept demos.
Tre Cooper
Pastor of Worship Development
Tre has served on our music staff team since 2019. He started as a worship leader on our multisites, but has been a full-time part of our Peoria Team since 2022. Tre and his wife Kenzie have two little boys, Levi and Owen. He loves geeking out about lead sheets, singing, and keyboard sounds. Fun fact: when he band directs on Sundays, he typically tells a dad joke. They're as terrible as you'd expect. In addition to being one of our weekend worship pastors, Tre helps with onboarding new musicians and providing ongoing care, training, and resources for current team members.
Alexa Schroeder
Worship Associate
Alexa has served on our music staff team since 2022. She started as a worship leader on one of our multisites, then served for a year on our Discoveryland staff team before returning to Creative Arts as our Worship Associate in 2024. Alexa was born and raised in Peoria and has been attending Northwoods since her senior year of high school. She spent a couple of years studying worship ministry in Nashville before returning to the Peoria area. Some of her favorite things to do in her free time are cooking and baking, watching sports, and spending time outside! Alexa helps with worship team charts, part recordings, scheduling, hospitality, volunteer onboarding and general communication.
Jeremy Moser
Studio Engineer
Jeremy has served on our Northwoods staff team since 2015 and recently moved into a new music team position as our Studio Engineer. Jeremy and his wife Audrey share their home with their Golden-doodle, Mabel, who thinks she runs the place. When he’s not playing drums in his cover band (Top 4D), he’s usually gaming or hanging out with his wife and dog! Jeremy heads up our recording studio for all our original projects including Northwoods Worship and our annual Christmas production tracking.
Emily Shelby
Creative Arts Associate - Canton Campus
Emily joined our staff team in 2024 and serves as the Creative Arts Associate for the Canton Campus. She lives in Farmington with her husband Jeff and their three boys Noah, Lane, and Jackson. Her favorite thing to do is spend time with family and support them in their many different activities! In her downtime, she loves to be able to take a gator ride around their farm or go for a peaceful drive in the country. Emily coordinates all aspects of music and tech for our Canton Campus.
Bri Hallstrom
Student Life Associate
Bri has served on our Student Ministry staff team since 2022 and in 2024 officially took on the responsibility of overseeing Converge and Quest worship. In this role she works closely with our Music Staff as we support the various needs of the worship teams she oversees. In addition to a newly expanded job role, Bri also got married to her husband Jake in 2024. She loves reading any thriller novel she can get her hands on and trying all the fun seasonal lattes from the local coffee shops. Her favorite things include her two cats (both of whom have TONS of attitude), rainy days, sweater weather, and of course, her friends and family. She’s a true extrovert and loves to meet new people. She can't wait to serve with you!
Personal Mixer Training
"Do you have ears?"
Outside of the live music scene, this question may come off a little offensive. But here at Northwoods, this is said often in reference to In Ear Monitors (IEM). Buckle up. We've got a lot to learn.
Number System
You may have thought you could escape numbers by running to music, but numbers are here to stay - in the best way possible!
How to Read a Lead Sheet
Reading music doesn't have to be scary.
Stage Presence & Style
Here, we'll discuss the "healthy tension" of leading worship. As we minister to the Lord, we must also be aware of the fact that we are simultaneously leading congregants in worship. Does my face/body language convey what I'd like to communicate?
MainStage
At Northwoods, we've established one flagship keyboard sound across all of our platforms called "Worship Essentials." As you'll soon hear for yourself, this program has incredible potential when used properly. Volunteers can choose to make this as simple or complex as wanted. See the videos below for an introduction.
Ableton/MIDI
Ableton plays a very pivotal role in our worship services as a church. The link below will provide an overview of common questions such as: navigation, routing, transposing, etc. The link titled "MIDI" dives further into the technical integration between Ableton and ProPresenter (the lyrics software) with references and instructions being primarily geared toward the Canton Campus.