Benji & Jenna

For Benji and Jenna Cowart, music is in their bones. Originally from Nashville, TN they are using their music to speak to relevant issues in the evangelical Church of Buffalo. Moving to Buffalo after     helping to plant a church in Las Vegas, the Cowarts serve as worship leaders in their local congregation—The Chapel at Crosspoint, encouraging unity and faithfulness in believer’s faith journey. Their latest album titled, “Letters to the Church at Buffalo” came out of a desire to minister to and encourage believers in their own congregation that God sees their effort to serve and love Him even when others don’t. It’s a message they believe God is speaking to not just their church but to the Church at Buffalo. Benji explained, “It has been really exciting to see churches of various denominations coming together and partnering to plant new churches and partnering to carry out Kingdom endeavors. I’ve lived in a lot of different places throughout the country and I have never seen churches partnering together under the same mission like I have witnessed here in Buffalo.” The Cowarts drew inspiration for their new CD from the little things people in their own congregation did to express love for God. In one of their     already popular tracks on the CD “They Will See God” the Cowarts sing, “Blessed are you who have chosen to choose the right way no matter the cost, you do what you say when you say what you do, not counting the gain or the loss. Blessed are they who hold on to faith when everything is coming undone, day after day they stand in the face of the wind and the rain and the storm, they will see God, they will see God.” The lyrics point to the conflict believers often face and yet remain faithful to Jesus and finish strong even when no one is looking. Benji explained, “In the beginning of this project Jenna and I wanted to do a recording with just she and I as a married couple ministering together but this project  grew into something more beautiful.  When I went down to Nashville to write songs, I realized that I wanted to write songs that would work in my church and the churches in the WNY/Buffalo region.  As I sat in the writer’s rooms with the songwriters, I would just begin to tell Buffalo church stories…stories about people in our church and how they lived out the gospel doing things like recycling  water  bottles so that they could send others on missions trips….or the three brothers (two have since passed away) who drive an hour, one way, to show up at our church and work on our grounds keeping team every Thursday morning simply because they just want to use their gifts out of gratitude for what God has done for them.”

     The seven song album, “Letters to the Church at Buffalo” is presently available for download on iTunes and the physical CD is available to purchase at The Chapel and other Christian music vendors in the area. At this point, the Cowarts are not doing any public concerts but are content leading their local congregation in worship each week.  As Benji explained, “We are  worship leaders first and our calling    presently is to the local body.  The irony is that I was that guy who said I would do anything for God ….except, be a vocational minister… and here I am, and I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.  That’s just how God does it I guess.”!