His guitar riffs a call to worship

THE WARM WELCOME Greg Wessel and his family received at Vineyard Church told them that’s where their spiritual home should be. Lower, GREG WESSEL HAS been a worship leader for a couple of decades and can play multiple instruments. Photos by Sam Arendt
Greg Wessel has come home.
The longtime worship leader at Vineyard Church in Grafton left to start a Milwaukee church in 2017. Now he’s back.
“In our hearts it’s our home church. We were here for 15 years. It’s going home for Thanksgiving in a way,” Wessel said.
Wessel is back home, but he hasn’t left the Milwaukee church. He’s now the worship leader at both Vineyards.
Wessel started a Vineyard church in Milwaukee at a time when racial tension and turmoil were filling the city. He said he felt a calling to help a diverse population in a rougher neighborhood.
“We wanted to be at a point of serving the community, and wanted to bridge a divide that was growing,” he said.
The church meets in a building owned by St. Vincent De Paul. A meal site is in the basement.
It wasn’t Wessel’s idea to do both jobs. The pastors at Milwaukee’s Vineyard Church moved services to 4:30 p.m. That gave Wessel a chance to attend Grafton’s morning service and head south for the afternoon one.
The change started on Sunday. Wessel was looking forward to reconnecting with his Grafton parishioners.
“I’m excited to see the faces I haven’t seen in a while. It’s neat to be in this space again,” he said.
As worship leader, Wessel leads the music at both churches. He plays guitar and sings, and he can play bass, banjo, piano and saxophone.
Now 50, Wessel said he realizes “this is a young person’s gig” usually pursued by people in their 20s and 30s.
“God pointed me to training young worship leaders,” he said. “To find the gifts they’ve been gifted and use them in leadership, use them with humility.”
That, he said, is a learned behavior.
“You have to have an awareness of your ego and how it affects you and your approach to people and music. It’s not about you and your position as a musician; it’s about God,” Wessel said.
Vineyard churches were among the first to adopt contemporary Christian music, Wessel said, as well as the “come as you are” approach.
“You don’t have to become someone else to come. You could come in your blue jeans and cargo shorts and you’d be accepted,” Wessel said.
Wessel grew up in Mequon in the Assemblies of God denomination and developed a passion for music. Neither of his parents played, but he said his mother was a great lullaby singer who always had Christian music playing on the radio.
Wessel can play by ear and he is self-taught on guitar. He wanted a “fancy guitar with a curly maple top” when he was in high school. His father was a woodworker, and the two built one, which later sparked a business idea for Wessel.
“It was good enough to make me think the next one would be better,” Wessel said.
He played saxophone at Homestead High and attended Evangelical University in Springfield, Mo., to study sacred music in hopes of becoming a worship pastor.
“I grew up in a church as a teacher and a young adult. I felt like God was giving me a purpose for using music to help experience God,” he said.
His first gig was as a youth pastor in Pennsylvania.
“It was the hardest thing I ever did,” he said.
The kids were great, but it was managing the parents’ expectations that made the job complicated.
“The biggest need they have is to feel loved and heard,” Wessel said of youth.
He wanted to return home, and one day his wife Heather, who was raised in nondenominational churches, was shopping in Cedarburg when she parked near a Vineyard Church.
“We found the Vineyard and it felt like home as soon as we stepped in the door,” Wessel said.
“They found out I was a worship leader and soon they put me to work. I’m more than OK with how that turned out.”
The Cedarburg church moved to its a current facility constructed in Grafton in 2008. The church was built on top of a hill on Highway V offering scenic views.
It also has its own coffee shop — the java is free after the service — to promote further fellowship.
“It’s kind of a place so people wouldn’t feel rushed out after church,” Wessel said while sitting at one of its tables.
“It’s a place people can talk and share their lives with each other.”
The congregation had grown from 50 people to 200 when Wessel left in 2017.
When Wessel started the Milwaukee church, he also started a business making guitars and amplifiers. Making the musical tools was fun, but being a business owner was not, Wessel said, and he stopped the business a few years later. He still builds guitars and amps, but now it’s for family and friends.
He also plays guitar and sings in an indie rock band called Juneautown. Rehearsals are at Glenn Walters’ garage in a Port Washington neighborhood “where they like to hear the music,” Wessel said. The band knocks off around 9 p.m.
Wessel writes most of the band’s songs, as well as some of the music for worship. He also likes to use songs written by other Vineyard worship leaders. It’s the type of music played on the Christian radio station K-Love, he said.
One of Wessel’s two daughters is following in his footsteps. His 21-year-old is studying music education at Campbellsville University, a Christian college in Kentucky, and is a worship leader at a Vineyard church there.
His 17-year-old, a senior at Living Word Lutheran in Jackson, plays bass guitar, volleyball and wants to go into law.
His wife, whose mother was a music teacher, teaches first grade at Milwaukee Public Schools. She had been a children’s pastor years ago.
“She really has a heart for ministry,” Wessel said. “By default she gets roped into music sometimes.”
His Grafton church is pleased that Wessel has returned.
“Greg was always a favorite of our congregation, and we are pleased to have him back,” lead Pastor Pat Mulcahy said.
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