Seph Schlueter: Counting Blessings Through Music

His music career exploded within a year.  From being a camp worker, councilor and worship leader at the Catholic Damascus summer camp in Ohio to world renown Christian Music artist...24 year old Seph Schluter's life long love of Jesus unfolds in this episode of Amazing Greats.   

"Counting My Blessings" was his breakout song and has been streamed over 100 million times in English and many million more in Portuguese ultimately becoming the #5 biggest song globally.  It is a story of God's blessings in his young life.

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From a big Catholic family, Seph had a solid Christian foundation but ultimately found his family religion become his own through a faith evolution that included many encounters in prayer with Jesus that brought him closer and closer to a powerful relationship with him.  His personal decision to go all in, changed everything. 

His music story is AMAZING... but his personal journey and his insight into the need for young people to actually encounter Jesus is what inspires him and propels his work with kids at Damascus where he is still a huge part as the Worship leader.

Uplifting, relatable and humble, I know your are going to love getting to know this talented rising star!

Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen

Full Transcript

Counting My Blessings: Seph Schlueter on Music, Faith and Following God’s Unexpected Path

Guest: Seph Schlueter — Recording Artist, Singer, Songwriter and Worship Leader

From “Counting My Blessings” to a Global Hit

Ric Hansen:Well, hello there. It's Ric Hansen here with an Amazing Great look into the life of recording artist Seph Schlueter, who has graced the whole world with a contemporary Christian song called “Counting My Blessings.”

Here is a chance to get to know this amazing and talented young artist and to grab some insight and wisdom as he shares his story on Amazing Greats.

Well, this is a great day and a great opportunity to talk to Seph Schlueter, a contemporary Christian artist who has had his first giant hit single in CCM. And it is an incredible song.

That's what we want to talk about first. I think it's streamed something like a hundred million times, and on top of that, it's been used as the backdrop for TikTok videos and Instagram videos as their own kind of soundtrack to their own blessings.

That's been cool, too.

Welcome, Seph.

Seph Schlueter:Thanks, man. Super pumped to be on the show.

Ric Hansen:Cool, cool, cool. So let's jump right into “Counting My Blessings.”

I've become a CCM — contemporary Christian music — fan over the last eight years, and it kind of is what brought me back to my Jesus journey. I was raised Catholic and kind of drifted away over the years, and then ended up going to a church that featured contemporary Christian music on stage.

My background is radio. I'm a Top 40 guy, and when I heard drums and electric guitars and all of this stuff on stage, it was such a wonderful surprise. That's part of the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing today.

So songs like yours and “Counting My Blessings” — it's been a huge year for you. You released this song in 2023, right?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah, July of 2023.

Ric Hansen:And it wasn't a flash in the pan because it's still out there and it's still being played a lot. I think on one of the surveys I saw, it's still in the Top 10. It was number nine listed in contemporary Christian music.

So it's got legs.

Seph Schlueter:That's awesome.

How “Counting My Blessings” Was Born

Ric Hansen:Let's go back and start with the very beginning because it's your first hit, if you will. How did that all happen?

Seph Schlueter:I was at the time — I hadn't signed to a label yet or anything. I was just coming to Nashville and just writing.

So, again, getting set up with different writers. I would come in typically for a Monday to Friday and just write anywhere from five to ten songs in that span of time.

One of the times was with these two guys, Jonathan Gamble and Jordan Sapp. It was the first time writing with Jordan Sapp. I think it might have been my second time writing with Jonathan Gamble.

Jonathan was running a little late, so Jordan and I are just talking. Then Jonathan comes in and he's like, “Guys, I'm so sorry I'm late, but I have an idea.”

He said, “Here it is. I had it in the shower today.”

He sits down at the piano and plays pretty much the chorus of “Counting My Blessings” right then and there.

And we're all like, “Yeah, that feels it.”

So God is kind of talking about where we were at in our lives, and it felt like, for all of us, we were living in the answer to prayers we had prayed years ago.

Years ago, we had prayed for God to do this in our careers and this in our relationships and this with our families. And we're just seeing Him do so many things.

But we forget to actually pause and thank Him for it because we're always busy chasing the next thing.

So the song kind of came from just that — wanting to pause for a moment and count our blessings. To thank God. To say, “God, there's so many things when I actually take the time to look around and see them. There's so many things and reasons for me to be grateful.”

And so the song kind of progressed from there and made its way to where it is now.

From Nashville to a Record Deal

Ric Hansen:So then you did sign with a record label at that point?

Seph Schlueter:I signed with a record label.

I think I wrote the song — I want to say it was probably February or March of 2022. And then I ended up signing late November of '22.

So I signed later that year.

Ric Hansen:And then the distance between having the record produced and having a record label, and then the process of getting it heard — how did that progress?

Seph Schlueter:I had a recording trip earlier in 2023 to record five of the songs, the five songs that are now the EP.

We recorded, and we were kind of thinking of a fall release. Then it was in early June when the label kind of pivoted and said, “Hey, we actually think we're going to release this in July. So we need to have everything turned in in like a week or two.”

So we had to hustle a little bit.

The song was already mostly finished at that point, but then there was the artwork and the promo stuff and all the fun background stuff that you don't really think about.

So we got that all ready to go, and then July 28th, the song came out and did really well for its first couple of weeks. It was really doing well streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, all that kind of stuff.

And then I got married in September.

I went on my honeymoon, and during my honeymoon the song just blew up in Brazil for nobody really knew why. Just all of a sudden it started having a ton of traction in Brazil.

So I came back from my honeymoon having not really been checking emails or responding to much information, and all of a sudden I see everyone telling me, “Hey, your song's blown up in Brazil.”

That was crazy.

Then we had that Brazil moment — still having it in some ways — and then it got sent to radio and ended up getting to number one on radio.

So it kind of just felt like one thing after the other kept happening, which was really, really cool.

“Counting My Blessings” Goes Global

Ric Hansen:And in Brazil, it was in English. The song was being played in English, right?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah. It was being played in English, and it was making its way onto their secular radio stations.

It was crazy because not everyone there speaks English. So they were singing songs about Jesus on a secular radio station. Some of them probably weren't even knowing that they were praising God, but still doing it, which is crazy.

And then Sony arranged — because I'm signed to the Christian division of Sony — for one of their gospel singers in Brazil to do a Brazil version of it, a Portuguese cover.

She did that version, and that's got like 150 million views on YouTube alone right now.

It was an insane song that just took it even further, which was also really, really cool.

Ric Hansen:Yeah. If that's available, I mean, I can find that online on YouTube?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah. If you look up “Counting My Blessings Portuguese” or “Counting My Blessings Brazil” or whatever, you'll probably see it. You'll see it.

Her version has done insane numbers on all fronts.

And actually, just a couple of weeks ago, she did a live recording for an album, and I got to be the surprise guest.

Nobody knew I was coming, so I got to go to Brazil and I had to hide because people recognize me there, which is just so crazy.

I was hiding the entire time I was there. I got in early and waited to come on.

Then she did the full version in Portuguese and was kind of like, “Oh guys, so sorry. We have to do that again. There's some mess-ups.”

And they all freaked out because they love the song.

She's like, “Yeah, we're going to do it again.”

During the second verse, I came out.

The version just came out, and there's a YouTube video for it and everything. Everyone just freaks out. It's like, “Oh my gosh, this is crazy.”

That was a really cool experience to be able to go there and share that song as well.

Ric Hansen:Oh, wow. That's incredible. I had not heard that story.

We're talking with recording artist Seph Schlueter, with insights and inspirations from his story on Amazing Greats.

So who's streamed more — yours or hers?

Seph Schlueter:Oh, hers, for sure.

Ric Hansen:Oh, really?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah. I mean, I'm telling you, it was massive. It was huge there.

And then it was so viral that on Spotify they have a Viral 50 chart for different countries. It's talking about the virality of it and stuff.

Then they have a big global one, which kind of summarizes everything globally.

Hers was number five on the Global Viral 50. So it was the fifth-most-viral song in the entire world, which is crazy.

Writing Christian Songs That Aren't Just Worship Songs

Ric Hansen:So when you were going to Nashville to write songs, were they secular songs as well as Christian songs, or mostly just secular songs at that point?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah, they're Christian, actually.

I was coming in as a Christian artist.

At that point it was kind of neat because I'd been working at a ministry called Damascus out of Ohio, and I was a worship director there.

Pretty much everything I did and wrote was in the worship sphere.

But it was kind of cool to come to Nashville and say, “You know what? Outside of direct worship songs, what do I want to write? What do I want to say?”

Outside of just the songs you lead for a church, what do I want to write that isn't necessarily like a church song?

Still Christian, but different than just a church worship song, if you will.

That's where all the songs that came out with “Counting My Blessings” kind of came from — that discovery in that season.

Is Songwriting a Gift From God?

Ric Hansen:When you write a song, let's talk about the art and the skill of writing a song.

How does that work for you?

I've talked to different artists and they have different ways that they end up writing.

Does yours come from an inspiration, like a divine kind of inspiration first, and then you sit down and write?

Or do you sit down and write and hopefully the Holy Spirit is with you and helps out?

Seph Schlueter:I think it's a mixture of both, for sure.

I try to write multiple times a week — ideally every day — but I'm not really good at that.

Just to keep the muscle sharp because songwriting is a muscle. It's learning to train your mind to think with melodies and lyrics and all those kinds of things.

So you've got to train that muscle on a regular basis.

You also have to live aware. You have to live in each moment, because inspiration is everywhere.

But so often we're so busy and on these things, and we're missing the inspiration that's all around us — the people around us, the things around us and so many different aspects.

So I think that's also a big thing.

And then there are definitely moments where things just happen. You get an inspiration, a light bulb goes off, and you know, you sit down and write it.

All the things you did before then — the practicing, the staying inspired, all of that — helps those songs come about.

The way it works in Nashville most times is you schedule your writes.

So I'm in town for five days and I have a write in the morning and then a write in the evening.

You have to come in and show up.

Typically, you want to have at least one or two ideas that you can throw out there. You can be like, “Hey, this is something,” and kind of just sometimes it's like, “Yeah, it's great. Let's write with that.”

Other times, “Oh, I have this idea,” and you can kind of bounce off of it.

But you've got to have something.

At the end of that time, you ideally want to have at least something to take away from it, even if it's just a chorus or something.

But other moments — I was in church the other day and had an idea for a song.

It came out of the blue. It had nothing to do with the homily, nothing to do with anything going on. It was just out of the blue.

I felt like it was an inspirational moment.

So I kind of took that home and worked on that song, and it came so quickly.

I think because of just all the other hours that you put into the other processes that you do.

Ric Hansen:So you think that's like a God-inspired moment? Is that what your thoughts are — that this came to you divinely?

Seph Schlueter:I think so.

I think it's definitely a Holy Spirit prompting because it wasn't an idea that I had been pondering for a while or that was related to anything in front of me.

It just kind of came, and I was like, “Oh, it feels like a Holy Spirit kind of type thing.”

It just felt like He gave it to me.

A Big Year at 24

Ric Hansen:Well, this has been quite a year for Seph.

Not only did you have this great song and reach — what are you, like 23 or 24 years old, something like that?

Seph Schlueter:Twenty-four.

Ric Hansen:So, young man — a first hit song at 24, and you got married, like you said. We're almost celebrating your first anniversary here coming up this next month, right?

Seph Schlueter:Yes.

Ric Hansen:So, big doings in your life. How do you top that?

Seph Schlueter:Right? I know, man. It's glory to glory. I hope so.

But it's crazy here. I feel — I've told people I feel like I've lived five years in the span of one, and I think that gets more real every day.

But I think now it's the fun part of living life together.

I love my wife. She's incredible.

It's just now we get to kind of go through the whole — what it means to be married and what it means to be on this mission together, what it means to put each other first and all these things.

It's been a super fun year with amazing things.

But I'm believing that God has more in the future, both when it comes to the music realm and even just with the beauty of everyday living — the beauty and journey and adventure of marriage and all those things that we get to embark on.

I'm really excited for it.

A Musical Wife

Ric Hansen:Obviously, she's a believer. Is she also a musician?

Seph Schlueter:You know, I think she's a better musician than she gives herself credit for.

We actually met at Damascus, and at that point the ministry was so young and so new that anybody who had any skill would be put on stage to do something.

They found out that she played piano and could sing, so they put her up there.

She's pretty good. She's got a really great voice.

When she was playing piano pretty consistently, she definitely could keep up, but she hasn't really kept up with it.

So I think — who knows what God'll do with that in the future?

But for now, I'm the only practicing musician of the two.

Why “Seph” Instead of Joseph?

Ric Hansen:So let's jump back into the young life of Seph.

Your name is Joseph, but Seph is what you've used as a handle. Has that been ongoing since childhood that you've been Seph?

Seph Schlueter:No, I was always Joseph.

I never liked Joe or Joey. It was always just Joseph.

But I also always loved — I wanted to have a nickname. I thought nicknames were so fun.

And so I read a book one time, and in the book there was a character named Joseph who went by Seph.

I thought that was so cool.

So I huddled the family together and told them, “Hey, from now on, I'm going to be Seph. You're going to call me Lewis,” and his nickname, and they're all like, “Yeah, right. You're still Joseph.”

So it didn't work that way.

Then when I came to Damascus out of high school, I was trying to convince them all that I was going to be Seph, but they all knew me as the camper who came to the camps that they ran as Joseph.

That took a little bit of work, too.

But then when I started coming out with music, I'm like, “I'm going to do Seph Schlueter. It looks way cooler than Joseph Schlueter.”

So now most people know me as Seph, and I've officially made the transition.

But to this day, my mom and my wife will only call me Joseph.

Ric Hansen:Your wife, too?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah. She only calls me Joseph.

Growing Up in a Big Catholic Family

Ric Hansen:Okay, so you came from a large Catholic family with six siblings, is that right?

Seph Schlueter:One of six, yes, sir.

Ric Hansen:And you're one of the older ones.

Seph Schlueter:Second oldest.

Three boys, three girls. I have an older sister, so I'm the oldest boy.

Ric Hansen:And where's Dominic in the mix?

Seph Schlueter:Dominic is the youngest.

Ric Hansen:He is?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah.

Ric Hansen:The only reason I know his name is that you'd referenced him having his own podcast. So I looked him up and he does a podcast on running and does a great job with that.

So I know two Schlueters now.

Seph Schlueter:There you go. There you go.

Ric Hansen:What was it like growing up with all these people in the same house, and you're all Catholic?

Tell me a little bit about how that felt. What were the dynamics of growing up like that?

Seph Schlueter:My parents are amazing.

We definitely wanted faith to be a huge priority in our lives.

My dad had worked in ministry for most of his life. My mom had been a teacher until she got married.

So faith was just a really beautiful part of our upbringing.

We prayed together every night, and it ranged from the more charismatic dimension of things, like praise and worship. My dad would pray in tongues with us and that kind of thing.

And then on the other end, a lot more of the traditional side of things — traditional church prayers and things like that.

So we kind of had the full range of it.

Definitely grew up in an environment where faith was important, where it was talked about, where it was a regular part of our lives.

It wasn't just like, “Oh, we go to church once a week and then that's it.”

It was a regular part of our lives, going to daily Mass a lot, these things that my parents kind of instilled in us.

So definitely from a young age I was immersed in that world.

I wouldn't say I loved it as a kid. I don't know how many kids really love that.

So I think it was definitely more of, “I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do,” as opposed to, “Oh, I really feel this.”

But I'm grateful for my parents who kind of instilled that culture into our family in the way that they did that.

Six Kids, Homeschooled by Mom

Ric Hansen:Seph Schlueter, singer, songwriter and recording artist on Amazing Greats.

And she was not only just a teacher — she was your teacher, right?

Seph Schlueter:That's true.

We were homeschooled.

All six of us were homeschooled, which is something they never thought they would do.

My older sister was having some troubles in school, so they pulled her out and homeschooled her, and then just kind of fell in love with it.

And so gradually all of us ended up becoming homeschooled.

Six kids, homeschooled. My mom's a superhero.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, no kidding.

She's got to have lesson plans for a variety of ages and a variety of topics.

That's crazy and incredible.

Seph Schlueter:No, we did do online school programs and stuff that we did, which are a huge help in that.

So we would have classes and we'd have to turn in papers and all of those things.

She schooled all of us through all of high school, all of middle school, all of elementary school. Did the whole thing.

A Father Who Built Faith Into Family Life

Ric Hansen:And your dad, Greg, is somehow involved in the music industry. Did I pick that up?

Seph Schlueter:Not so much in the music industry, but just faith ministry in general.

He's run his own ministry for a number of years now and has worked in different dioceses across — both in Erie, Pennsylvania, when we lived there, and then moved to Toledo.

He was there briefly, but most of his life has just been in ministry.

In particular, he has a big heart for families and marriages.

What's the next step after retreats and encounter moments?

How do you pray together as a family?

How do you build a culture where families talk and pray together?

That's kind of his biggest passion and what his ministry is devoted to.

A Family With More Than 100 Cousins

Ric Hansen:Not only did you have a large family, but the extended family is huge as well.

You said you had a hundred cousins — first cousins?

Seph Schlueter:Over a hundred first cousins.

I don't even know what the exact number is because my mom's one of 12, my dad's one of seven.

They're all married, all of them have families, and so, yeah, a lot — lots of cousins happening.

I feel like I discover a new one every day.

My mom's side, she's the second youngest, so I'm on the younger end of that side.

And then my dad's side, he's the second oldest, and so I'm on the older end of that side.

So, yeah, it's crazy. It's the ever-growing family.

When Jesus Became Real

Ric Hansen:So you had this incredible foundation with a spiritual family, a family built on faith.

But then at one point, somewhere along the way, you said you kind of were this typical kid that went and did all the stuff.

When did Jesus become real?

Seph Schlueter:I remember coming to prayer, just kind of burnt out from the world and feeling like nothing was satisfying me.

I felt like there was just this hole in my heart.

And just coming to prayer and being open — I feel like for the first time in a long time — and like, “God, I want this. If this is You, I want it. I want this peace that I hear and this joy that I hear and this life that I hear.”

I remember just leaving that time of prayer and reading Scripture and actually sitting in it.

I remember just leaving more full of life.

I remember having more peace in my heart, more joy in my heart.

And I just kept coming back.

It wasn't like a one-time fix. It was like a daily coming back to the Lord and gradually encountering Him in prayer and becoming still enough to hear Him and becoming — growing in that relationship with Him.

From that point on, I was sold, man.

For me, I'm the kind of guy who wants to be all in for things.

I was like, “This is real, and I'm experiencing more life than I've ever felt before.”

And I see all these friends and people around me that are so empty and so starving for something more.

Turning Down a Full-Ride Scholarship

Ric Hansen:And out of high school, you had a full ride to go to college, but that didn't happen.

That decision was kind of born out of this new reality that you had, right?

Seph Schlueter:I feel like for me, I was figuring out what the next steps were post-high school.

I knew at that point I wanted to do ministry. It just made me come alive — talking about Jesus and doing that in a direct way.

Now, all of us are called to ministry. Whether you know it or not, it doesn't matter where we're at or what kind of job we have. We're all called to be Jesus there.

But for me, I feel like it was a very direct form of ministry.

I knew that was a reality, and I thought that was going to be at this university in Florida.

I had a full ride to it. I had a roommate picked out. Everything kind of seemed to be going perfect.

And I remember just feeling the Lord tell me one day, “Hey, I have big things for you. I want to do big things with your life.

“But in order for that to happen, I need to — before I can go high, I need to go deep.

“I actually need to build this foundation in you.

“You can go to the school and I'll bless it because I love you.

“But the real way that you're actually going to see the impact that I want you to see is if you can go to this middle-of-nowhere ministry in the middle of nowhere, Ohio, and just die to yourself.”

And that's what I did.

I turned down the full ride. My parents loved that, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I told the roommate that I wasn't going to be his roommate anymore, and now he's married to my sister, which is crazy.

So many things.

And never once have I regretted it.

I think just — I mean, it is exactly what I was supposed to do.

It made no sense to anybody.

But I think sometimes the things that make no sense, that's why they're God things.

He says the wisdom of man is foolishness to God.

I think we rely too much on the wisdom of man.

Like He told Samuel, it's not as man sees, as God sees.

It was one of those moments for me.

Damascus: Where He Learned to Go Deep

Ric Hansen:So enter Damascus, which is the camp that you chose to go to, in the middle of nowhere.

It's a Catholic camp.

Your role was not one of being a star on stage as the worship leader, although that was part of it, right?

But you definitely died to come alive, and that was in the form of cleaning toilets and schooling kids, right?

Is that kind of how it all went?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah, for sure, man.

Damascus is a missionary community in the middle of Ohio, near the Columbus area.

They run summer camps. That's kind of the biggest thing that they did, and that's how I first became aware of them.

I went to one of their summer camps.

At this point, they're running summer camps for about 6,000 people each year.

Throughout the year, we would have formation.

Every week we were worshiping together, and we would have talks that were given to us about character formation, identity formation, gifts of the Spirit, ministry, all these different things that we got formed in.

Then we got to put it into practice through these retreats we would run.

We'd run retreats Wednesday through Friday, and then Friday through Sunday.

Then Sunday night we'd go do a youth group thing.

Monday was our formation day, and then Tuesday we would do outreach.

We'd go to schools and hang out with kids during recess or lunch and just get to minister to them.

Then the second half of the day we would hit the streets of nearby cities and just pray with strangers, pray with store owners, ask God what He wanted to speak to them.

We just saw amazing things happen in that realm.

That's where I really was formed in so many ways.

I did get to lead worship. I was also leading small groups. I was also cleaning. I was also talking to strangers.

I was doing all of the things.

It was just really — I have so much love and honor for that place because of the person that I became as a result of everything that I went through there and still go through.

What Young People Are Really Starving For

Ric Hansen:“Counting My Blessings,” number one contemporary Christian song for Seph Schlueter.

He is our guest here on Amazing Greats.

You've had exposure and still do have exposure to this whole crop of young folks that come through camps every year.

Can you give me your observation about where young people are?

You hear some bad stories about young people turning away from the Lord and that it's a struggle for them.

What's your impression? What's your observation after being with them day after day?

Seph Schlueter:The whole reason Damascus started is because youth were leaving the church.

They were leaving.

And when you survey the ones that stay, over 90% of them say that they stay because they at one point or another had a personal encounter with Jesus.

So our whole mission — the reason we exist at Damascus — is to bring kids into a personal encounter with Jesus.

I feel like when I'm looking at the youth of this generation, they're starving for encounter, and we're just not giving it to them.

I think they're starving for two things.

They're starving for an encounter with Jesus. They're actually longing for something more — that same place I was at.

The world is throwing so many things at them, and they're trying it, feeling numb, trying it, feeling numb, trying it, not satisfied.

They're starving for something.

I've heard it said that we all have a God-sized hole in our hearts that only He can fill.

They're starving for that.

But then they're also starving for encounter with people — actual role models of what it means to be Jesus in the world.

I feel like so often they maybe hear things about Jesus, but then, one, aren't introduced to Him, and two, aren't introduced to people who look like Him.

Of course they're not going to follow Him because He just seems like this idea, this kind of guy who lived forever ago, who is so distant and far off and removed and has no impact on my life.

I feel like what we're seeing at Damascus is these kids are coming in — some of them from Catholic families that have gone to church their whole lives, but the kids just don't care.

It's going through the motions.

Or sometimes kids come because they wanted to do paintball and high ropes and kayaks and the water obstacle and all those things.

They come there, and then they fall in love with Jesus.

It's because we're providing opportunities for them to encounter the living person of Jesus and who He really is.

Because we can't transform lives, but He can.

And then we're surrounding them with a number of people that look like Him.

So I think in our day and age it's, “How do we provide the youth of our generation with encounter?”

How do we provide them with opportunities to encounter the real person of Jesus, not just the idea of Him?

And then how do we live that out and bring them into environments where they can see, “Oh, this is what it looks like to live Jesus. This is what it looks like to have a daily prayer life with Him. This is the joy that person has. They're so joyful. It's because they know Jesus. I want to have that joy that they have.”

That's what I feel like they're starving for.

And sadly, the church more often than not isn't giving them that.

Finding Jesus Beyond Denominations

Ric Hansen:I love that because I totally agree.

The young people that I've run across — which is much fewer than yours — those who have found a relationship seem to light up.

They're kind of new people.

And then there are others that are still walking through, “My parents kind of told me this is what I need to do, and so I'm still doing it.”

But that encounter is so critically important.

What you're doing in the Catholic Church, like you say, is really stepping out because that's not what they're known for.

I was raised Catholic. I went to CCD classes and went to church every Sunday with my mom, but there was nothing very relevant about any of it.

And that's not only true of the Catholic Church, but a lot of foundational churches that forget that piece — that there's this relationship that's so important.

Seph Schlueter:Right. A hundred percent.

And that's what I think — it's so sad to me that people leave the church, any church, because they couldn't find Jesus there.

I'm like, if somebody leaves the Catholic Church and finds Jesus at another place, praise God.

We're all on the same team in my mind.

I would rather you know Jesus.

I would rather that you have a personal relationship with Him than necessarily just believe all the details of things that I believe.

I believe the Catholic Church is coming more and more alive in so many ways, and it's really cool to see this revival happening in the church.

But it also is so sad that people had to leave the Catholic Church to find a relationship with Jesus because they were never taught or introduced to Him, or there was church hurt there, or whatever it might be.

I think it is something that makes me so sad and drives what I do because I'm like, “I want people, regardless of your denomination, wherever you're at, to know Jesus, because that is the most important thing.”

That it is eternal life to know Jesus.

Counting His Three Biggest Blessings

Ric Hansen:So, “Counting My Blessings,” one, two, three, and up to infinity.

There's a song that's so catchy and so sing-alongable and so relatable.

My question is, if I were to ask you your three biggest blessings, what would those be?

Seph Schlueter:Number one, first and foremost, my wife, of course.

She really is so incredible.

We met at Damascus. We dated for a little while. I broke up with her twice in that period of time, and she still had mercy on my silliness.

And, yeah, we're married now.

She's just such a gift. I'm just so blessed by her and to be married to her.

So she's for sure number one.

Our community here at Damascus, I would say, is number two.

We just have such an amazing community that's so supportive, so encouraging, that's just there for you whenever you need them.

I've formed the best relationships of my life from this community of people that just love Jesus so much and are just amazing.

And then a third thing is just that I get to do what I do.

I'm so grateful for the life that God has given me, for the opportunities that He's presented me to be able to come on podcasts like this and have these types of conversations.

To be able to go out and play and worship with people, to be able to write songs, and my label team and just getting to work with them.

Those are things that I don't take for granted at all because it is so cool that this is the opportunity, this is the call that God has put on my life.

It's hard. Don't get me wrong.

I think sometimes people can glamorize it and don't realize that it can be very difficult in so many different ways.

But I am so grateful for the ability to do this and just the opportunities that God has given me.

So those would be the top three.

Can Music and Ministry Work Together?

Ric Hansen:Those are great, and you're still off to infinity.

There's more that we could hit on, but that's great.

Damascus is clearly a huge part of your life, but now with the recording and the writing of songs and potential concert tours and all of the things you've got going on, is that going to be a distraction, or is it just going to work out?

Seph Schlueter:I think the two work in tandem really, really well.

My job with Damascus is worship director, and I have an amazing team under me that can kind of handle a lot of the day-to-day things.

Then I get to really handle the big vision of it and build up — I love it because I am super passionate about worship in the Catholic Church.

You look outside the church and you have amazing worship groups, like Bethel, Elevation, Red Rocks, all these different places that are doing amazing things.

And you look in the church and all of a sudden there's nothing. It's crickets.

So I get super passionate about the opportunity to build a Catholic worship collective that is doing amazing things.

I love that I can kind of focus on that big-vision picture, developing our people, planning our releases, writing music and all that kind of stuff.

And simultaneously, I get to do something else that I'm also passionate about, which is the individual artist thing and being able to reach people with a little bit of a different background or different songs or different things.

Being able to connect with that audience in that way.

The two really build on each other.

The things that I learn from doing the individual things, I'm able to use to help grow the collective.

And my experience with the collective — and just the fact that it keeps me so grounded and so much part of a community — I feel like directly impacts my writing on the individual side, my character on the individual side, the opportunities on that side as well.

Right now it's been awesome.

I'm always in a state of prayer and trying to hold things loosely, so I can hold on to them if God wants me to.

But if He wants to take them away, He can at any moment.

It's been sweet to see just the Lord bless both ends of it.

A Natural-Born Musician

Ric Hansen:We're talking with recording artist Seph Schlueter, with insights and inspirations from his story.

As a musician, you started out at a very young age playing piano. I think you said something like eight years old.

Seph Schlueter:Five years old, actually.

Ric Hansen:Five years old.

You could barely sit up to the piano and you were doing it. That's crazy.

And then guitar came along in high school.

But I haven't heard this story about your vocal skills, which are incredible — very unique.

Your high range is incredible, your vibrato is incredible, and the power behind the vocals.

Did that all come naturally, or was there instruction involved?

Seph Schlueter:I never took lessons, man.

I would spend hours.

We had in our basement a little sound system set up because of my dad's ministry stuff.

At first I would just plug in my MP3 player — people don't even know what that is nowadays — play music, and I would just figure it out on piano or guitar.

Then gradually I would kind of start to sing along with it.

I would do that for hours and hours.

As I got bolder, I would start to sing and play without the MP3 player and just kind of begin to do that.

My whole family was like, “Stop singing!”

A lot of families have the story where it's like, “Oh, they were so encouraging and told me to keep singing and what a great voice.”

That was not my experience.

My family was always like, “Shut up. You're horrible.”

So I definitely even then had a unique voice.

Anytime I would sing in front of friends, they were all like, “Oh my gosh, I love your voice. It's so cool.”

So it was kind of the family saying, “Gross,” and my friends saying, “Awesome.”

But I just loved to do it, so I just kept going along with it.

I think my voice began to develop and I learned kind of how I sang.

But, yeah, I never took lessons, never did courses. It just kind of all came naturally.

Playing With the Big Boys

Ric Hansen:It's amazing how a big hit single — your first one — the trajectory becomes one toward all kinds of opportunities out of that.

I think you're going to be on stage with Danny Gokey and doing some concert dates with some of the legends in contemporary Christian music.

And then I saw you sat down for an interview with Matt Maher, one of the guys that you looked up to.

So you are like playing with the big boys.

Seph Schlueter:Man, I'm just grateful for it.

It's cool to see again how the Lord has opened doors and done things.

These people are all amazing.

It's been so cool to get to know them even more.

I was on tour with Matt in the spring, and he's also a huge hero of mine and just an inspiration and such an amazing dude.

So, yeah, man, I think it's just — it is such a blessing, and I don't take it for granted that I get to do this, that this is part of my life.

“Running Back to You”

Ric Hansen:You do have another song that I see kind of bubbling under.

I don't know if it's being really worked right at this moment or not.

“Running Back to You.”

Seph Schlueter:Yeah.

That was the song that they just recently sent to radio.

The way it works is they'll kind of — even though it came out in March, they'll wait.

They'll pitch one song at a time to radio.

They were still doing “Counting My Blessings,” and I was still staying at the top of the charts.

So they're kind of waiting for that one to come down, and then we started pushing “Running Back to You.”

That one has just now kind of started making its way across radio stations.

Ric Hansen:Tell us a little bit about that song.

It's also an uplifting, positive, upbeat song, right?

Seph Schlueter:Yeah, absolutely.

I think for me it's kind of a song that speaks to the joy — the joy and beauty of repentance.

Repentance just means to turn around.

I think when we hear repentance, we think, “Fall on your face, sackcloth and ashes,” like this bad thing.

But actually, there's so much joy in repentance because it's an opportunity for us to reconcile with God.

He's never going to turn us down. He's always going to be right there.

So the song is just that.

It's a story of being a prodigal and running away from God.

But each and every moment we have an opportunity to come back to a Father whose arms are always open and ready for us.

No Guitar Today

Ric Hansen:I was going to ask you to bring your guitar to our little session here today and do a little bit of “Running Back to You,” but I don't see it anywhere in the background.

So I guess we're going to have to pass.

Seph Schlueter:Yeah, it's not with me right now.

What's Next for Seph Schlueter?

Ric Hansen:Okay. That's great.

It is such a pleasure to talk to you.

And I know we've extended beyond the time that we had talked about, but it's been a pleasure.

As a final thing for our podcast audience, look for the new song coming out and stream it. Hit positive vibes on it on YouTube and anywhere else you find it.

The other is, I saw on your website that you're having an end-of-the-summer merch sale.

Seph Schlueter:That's true, man.

Ric Hansen:Seph merchandise, including the Roman numerals one, two, three, and then infinity T-shirts, and a bunch of other stuff, too.

That's also available right now.

Seph Schlueter:It is.

So go check it out. Get your Seph swag.

Ric Hansen:Such a pleasure, my friend.

Thank you so much for spending the time with us.

God bless you.

I'll be watching for all of your successes in the future, and you're a great inspiration for us all.

Seph Schlueter:Thanks, man. So appreciate it.

Counting the Blessings

Ric Hansen:Truly a gifted artist and knower and lover of Jesus.

Seph's story is a pretty amazing one, and a story with many chapters yet to come.

Great to know him and to know the man behind the song “Counting My Blessings.”

Thanks for taking a listen to this episode of Amazing Greats.

Remember, any shares, likes or subscribes are certainly welcome.

Thank you, and God bless.