II · Ministry
Worship pastor, media pastor, creative arts pastor, musical director. The crew that makes a Sunday morning quietly arrive on time, the team that holds the back of the room steady so the front of the room can lift.
Current
Peoples Church has been part of Salem since 1952. Today it is one of the region’s significant congregations — with a staff, a campus, a Sunday liturgy, and a live broadcast that all have to work together every week.
Cory serves as Pastor and Technical Director, working alongside Creative & Communications Director Jackson Clements and Lead Pastors Tom and Jennifer Murray. The role draws on every part of his vocation: Front-of-House engineering on the digital console, WordPress and Elementor for the church’s digital surfaces, FinalCut and DaVinci Resolve for video, and — underneath it all — the work of building the volunteers who actually run a Sunday morning.
Licensed Ordained Pastor — International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Pastor of Worship: A Handbook. Excerpts featured in Christian Musician Magazine, 2014. Written to give the next generation of worship leaders a place to start.
A longer arc
Before Peoples Church there was Hope Church in Albany, where Cory served as Media Pastor from 2015. Before that, more than two decades in Pacific Northwest congregations as worship pastor, creative arts pastor, and youth ministry leader.
The constant: showing up early, knowing every cable, knowing every name, and trusting volunteers with real responsibility — because the only way a small church scales is if the people who walk in on Sunday end up running things by Wednesday.
Cory has also served the wider church in the region. Bassist and musical director with the Luis Palau Praise Team, where he produced the 1999 album Restore My Soul for UK artist Johnny Markin out of that shared work. Steering committee member for the Pacific Northwest Promise Keepers events of the early 1990s — the era when those gatherings filled stadiums.
Regular instructor at Worship Northwest, held at Dayspring Fellowship in Keizer. Breakout sessions on guitar mechanics, ear training with intervals, the Nashville Number System, amp tone, and the dual-guitar art of acoustic-and-electric arrangement.
Listed on the 2027 Worship Northwest Steering Committee — continuing the work of training the volunteers and pastors who will lead the next decade of Pacific Northwest worship.
“A worship team is the same shape as a band, and the same shape as a crew. You analyze how the players interact. You name the strengths. You name the soft spots. You raise leaders from inside the group. Then you step back and let the room be the room.” — On building teams that last
Worship · Teaching · Mentorship
If your team needs a coach, a guest leader, or a quiet conversation about what comes next.