ARTIST BIOS: WORSHIP

Rita Springer

Integrity Music

CBN.com – Rita Springer has been playing the piano since she was 11 years old. She began lessons not with a desire to write songs or lead worship but because she was jealous of an older sister who was taking lessons. Sibling rivalry aside, Rita knew that music, along with poetry and drama, stirred her spirit. And it was in those early years that she realized the keys of a piano were like a secret island to which she could escape. Later, she would dream of those keys as the literal shoulder of God.

As she matured and life's balancing act progressed, the hidden melodies began to reveal themselves. She began writing songs after her father's death and came to find a deep respect for the art of linking lyric and rhythm together. She would be quoted later as describing those younger years as "when I started digging for treasure."

In the late 1980s, Rita started attending a Vineyard Church and was forever changed by the sound of personal worship. The rise of new choruses of worship grabbed her attention and she soon found herself writing for Vineyard Music Group who published her song "Make Us A Prayer" on one of their Touching the Father's Heart projects. Those early days were powerful and engaging as the simplicity of three and four-chord songs began to take the church to a new level in intimate and accessible worship. Rita felt called to learn the art of worship leadership and to carry with her the same purity in leading and singing for others as she had found during her times as a child with the Lord.

She recorded her first album, Love Covers, with producer Craig Musseau in the mid '90s. That was an incredible first start to what would become a beautiful journey. She signed later with an independent record label (Floodgate Records) and recorded her first live release at the Anaheim Vineyard. Created To Worship was a raw, organic set-up to what Rita loves most about worship, capturing the experience with a live audience. She would go on to record numerous other projects with Floodgate, including All I Have, Effortless, I Have To Believe, Rise Up and Worth it All.

During that time, she had an encounter with God that would forever change her life and the life of another. She felt God urging her to adopt despite the challenges of being single. So, in 2004, she welcomed a baby boy into her heart and home.

"At 38, I found myself having conversations with God about adoption and six months later, Justice Zane Springer was born. Some of my friends and family members thought that I had this biological clock ticking and that I was making something happen because I was disappointed by God... Who cares what others think! I was obeying the Lord!"

Of being a single mother, Rita says: "It's hard because of finances and babysitters, travel and doing everything myself... but the decision has catapulted me into a place of knowledge of the power of God's love like nothing I have ever known."

Rita adds that her son is, "the best song that I have ever written."

In the midst of motherhood, Rita has continued her ministry as a worship leader, recording independently before signing with internationally-distributed worship label Integrity Music. Together with Integrity, she is re-releasing her most recent live project, In This Forever, and a new studio-recorded project, The Playlist.

In addition to songwriting/recording, Rita has been involved in numerous conferences and worship events around the world including "Fragrant Oil," a women's conference that she helped create. She also launched a worship school called DIVE (Deep-Innovative-Vertical-Expression) that trains and encourages upcoming worship leaders with weeklong intensive one-on-one courses.

Rita believes that the joy of being a worship leader is to make those listening, jealous for what has been found in Christ. Making Christ famous through the art, act and physical sound of our worship is her anthem and her deepest desire is to see this arise in the body of Christ. Her motto is, "To make the Lord famous in whatever I do with my worship and relationship with Him."

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