Aaron Stewart | Class of 1996

When did you graduate?

1996

Favorite memories from LWCS.

My favorite memories probably all come from my involvement in Choir, Jubilate, or many of the theater productions. I remember my first year at LWCS in 8th grade playing piano for the high school Jubilate, and being in Jr Jubilate. In later years, I loved the Jubilate trips to the Peachtree Festival and New York especially. Performing in the Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, and Godspell are also favorite memories not just for the shows, but because of the friends I made, and great teachers, especially Mrs. Acosta (Bosman). I also remember starting a guys quartet, Four-te, and having a blast rehearsing during lunch and performing at churches, events, and competitions.

What are you doing/have you done since graduating?

After high school, my entire family moved to southern California where I attended Azusa Pacific University. I was actively involved in the music and drama programs, my last two years serving as the president, pianist, and soloist for the University Choir and Orchestra. My Senior year I wrote and performed our concert closer, Walk With Me, which was featured on the album Majesty, Glory, and Power. We performed for thousands of people almost every weekend at churches around the country.

After graduating with a BA in Music Education and Composition in 2000, I started a Christian vocal group, Soul Desire. We recorded 3 albums, did 2 national tours, and had our biggest single played on radio stations in 18 states. One of the churches we ministered at frequently was Southwest Community Church, a church of about 4,000, in Palm Desert, CA. Eventually I accepted a full time job as their music director, leading worship for the Contemporary Service.

While at Southwest, I became friends with Jeff Berg, a brilliant programmer, who was doing graphics and web for the church. We had both been using technology to develop systems and better organization for our large music department and eventually we founded an online software company, Planning Center Online, initially to help our own church.

While Planning Center was just taking shape, I accepted a job as the Music Director at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. During my 6 years there, the church grew from 8,000 weekly attendance to 16,000. In addition to writing the charts and directing the band, I also played keys, and was a frequent soloist. Our Christmas services were known throughout the city, and as a soloist for those, I performed for 30,000 people across our 9 services.

Meanwhile, Planning Center was becoming more and more popular with churches across the country, specifically for worship teams, as it helped streamline music planning, rehearsing, and volunteer scheduling. Though I was still full-time at my church, I was helping with feature development, testing, customer support, and often traveling to conferences to talk and teach about Planning Center.

After 6 years, I moved to Carlsbad, CA for the grand opening of Planning Center’s new office to help lead the company and oversee development of products. That office opened in August of 2011 with 8 employees. Over the next 9 years we expanded our suite of products and our team. We decided in addition to planning services and scheduling volunteers, we wanted to help churches with all their organizational needs. As a result, we developed new products for organizing your church database, checking kids in, online giving, small group management, event registrations, facilities management, and more.

Today Planning Center is used by over 60,000 churches around the world, developed by our team of 96 people. Two-thirds of our team are remote, working from their homes, coffee shops, or co-working spaces all over the United States. In addition to my day-to-day leadership roles, I travel frequently around the country as a special guest musician, to represent Planning Center at church conferences, or to teach classes on Planning Center or organization in general.

How has your time @ LWCS influenced where you are today?

I came into Lake Worth Christian as a very timid and reserved 8th grader. Through the next 5 years, my awesome classmates, teachers, and faculty all played a part not only in my learning and experience, but in developing my confidence. I was given many opportunities to grow and develop my leadership skills from my time in the music department which set me on a path where both music and leadership would be instrumental in getting me where I am today.

Favorite class @ LWCS?

Choir.