My name is Jesse Schlicher and this is my wife Ivy and my two kids, Edie and Ira. I’m the worship pastor for Eternal Church in Fort Mill, SC.
I was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio where the Lord redeemed me at an early age (see my testimony) and gave me a love for music and worship. While in high school, I began leading worship in my hometown church, and the Lord used awesome guys in my life to push me closer to Him and deeper in the art of music and worship. I began writing songs and leading worship for a ministry of Fellowship Christian Church called ONE80, which reached out to several colleges and universities in the area. As I continued, the Lord opened up more and more opportunities to worship with people through music. I had the privilege to work with several organizations from Campus Crusade and Crosswalk to many local churches and the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio.
The first recording project that I was a part of was a collection of original worship songs through ONE80. We did an in-house project to share the songs that reflect what the Lord was doing in the ministry. As ONE80 progressed, we formed a band (MILE5) that traveled around and lead worship for all kinds of events, camps, and retreats. We traveled occasionally around the East Coast leading worship and were able to record and release a few singles.
As they say, “all good things must come to an end.” I graduated from Wright State University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Middle Childhood Education. It was time to move on from the life of college ministry. I felt the Lord leading me to move to South Carolina. Aside from the awesome family and friends, the weather itself made for an easy decision. (: I moved to Fort Mill (close to an awesome cousin of mine) to teach middle school math at Fort Mill Middle School. The hardest part of the move (aside from leaving the aforementioned family and friends) was leaving all the opportunities to lead others in worship. It was difficult feeling a passion to do something the Lord had put on my heart and to have no outlet for it.
After several months of teaching, the Lord opened up an opportunity to work as a music director a few hours a week at the church I was attending, and I continued in that position for five years. During those five years at Eternal Church, we produced three worship albums: Kidron Valley Psalms in 2009, Wax Before You in 2011, and Songs of Advent in 2011. I also had the opportunity during this time to travel to Capstone Ministries in Bangalore, India with some friends to lead worship and teach sessions on worship and songwriting.
Over the years, I’ve been back and forth between full-time teaching at FMMS and part-time and full-time ministry at Eternal Church. I love both and see both as a ministry. While the team and I continue to write and record songs, the process is much slower now as many of us have growing families and full-time jobs. In the spring of 2020 we released a 4 song EP called Lay Your Deadly Doing Down.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to preach on worship. Here is a sermon that explains why I think the Bible puts a huge emphasis on congregational worship through music and singing. (…not to the exclusion of worship being a lifestyle.)
Although we get a group together to play outside of church from time to time, the majority of our music takes place at the YMCA in Baxter Village every Sunday morning. Some of the other places and friends you may find us worshiping with: Forest Hill (Advance), First Baptist Church (Rock Hill SEBO), SCBO (Seneca Lake Summer Camps), Lifepointe Church, Apex Community Church, Northridge Vineyard, Veritas Community Church, and other random churches and gatherings.
