Getting to Know Kelanie Gloeckler


Kelanie Gloeckler is a dear friend of Christian Healing Ministries, and she currently partners with us by leading worship at many of our events and Schools of Healing Prayer. As far as CHM events go, you can see her next at our Ignite Conference in Burlington, Vermont! Recently I called Kelanie to find out more about her as a musician and worship leader, about her history with CHM, her dog Annabelle, and the process of writing her new album, “You Are The Radiance.”

How exactly did you get connected with CHM?

I’m not sure of the entire story. What I remember is that they reached out to me and asked me to lead worship at an Ignite Conference years ago──it might have been 2010 or earlier. I didn’t know much about Christian Healing Ministries then besides having heard of them. But I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” And so it started with that event, and it has never stopped since then. It’s been a really great connection. I love, certainly believe in and absolutely value what CHM does with prayer ministry and training. I love it.

Now to focus on you--How would you describe yourself and what you do?

I am a lover of Jesus and a worshipper. I love to lead others into worship, to help them engage with the Lord in the place of worship—using music and singing. I’m also a teacher--that’s a big part of my calling. My assignment in the Kingdom is raising up other worship leaders and musicians.

What is your background in teaching?

I taught music and band in a Christian school for a while, but I started teaching workshops and classes years ago. When churches and conferences approached me to lead worship and teach worship intensives, I discovered that I really enjoyed teaching. I have taught on songwriting, worship team dynamics, how to pastor a worship team, prophetic singing, prophetic worship, background vocals--everything from practical or technical aspects to spiritual and prophetic topics.

Do you find any patterns or commonalities in what people want to be taught about worship?

A lot of times, when people experience worship while I’m leading, they want to know how to do what I’m doing, which is singing spontaneously/prophetically. There are lots of people who have never experienced prophetic worship, or they have but they don’t know how to lay ahold of that themselves as worship leaders or as teams. There’s a real hunger and value for the prophetic in worship, and so I teach the biblical foundations for singing in the spirit, and for spontaneous and prophetic singing. Then I cover the practical side of it. How do you practice doing that with your worship team? How do you musically support that? Or in the dimension of pastoring, if you’re a worship leader in your church, how do you help your congregation to go there?

“There’s a real hunger and value for the prophetic in worship, and so I teach the biblical foundations…Then I cover the practical side of it…”

What is your songwriting process like?

There are some things that are consistent about the way I write, and some things are different—as far as how a song is birthed. A lot of times my inspiration to write a song will come from quiet time with the Lord, or a message or scripture that sparks something inside of me, or there’s a theme I feel the Lord is emphasizing. Usually I’ll have a really strong idea of what the song is about before I start writing. But I also love melody; I hear melody and I sing spontaneously when I’m going about my life. So many times I’ll get a musical idea and hum it into my phone for later. Most of the time I tend to develop the lyrics and melody of a song at the same rate—with a couple of drafts along the way. A lot of my more recent writing has come out of the House of Prayer. I have little choruses and melodic ideas compiled from hours and hours of worshiping in the prayer room over the years.* As for my musical background, my college degree is in Music Composition. I love arranging, composing, producing, orchestrating and all that stuff. Many times I’ll do a full-blown demo of a song with specific parts that I want, and I’m very much involved in the entire production process. At heart I’m an arranger and a producer as well as a songwriter.

*Kelanie was the Chief Musician at the Jacksonville House of Prayer (www.jaxhop.org) for three years.

What was the process like for You Are The Radiance?

To be honest it was a suddenly! I moved to North Carolina in 2015, and the Lord has been working a healing in my heart. From that place of healing there was a shift in my heart. I had been in a dry season, and songwriters get scared in dry seasons. We think, “Oh no! Am I ever going to write again?” It had been several years since I had released a new album. And so I had a conversation with my friend Nicole and her husband, and we started dreaming. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do a live recording at the Jacksonville House of Prayer, in a small room filled with people who love to worship?” And mind you, we didn’t have all the songs yet, but we made a phone call that night and got a date booked for November. [Judith was there for the recording!] Then I went back up to North Carolina, and started writing and it happened fast--fresh inspiration for brand new songs, shelved songs, suddenly I had it! My goodness. We made a commitment to move forward in it and God came right into that.

Some of these songs are coming from a place of the desert─of my heart hurting. Songs like “The Oil and the Wine” in particular; that song is about healing. In that sense it’s a real special album; it’s a testimony of my recent journey with the Lord and of His goodness. It’s kind of that Psalm 40 thing, where it talks about, “I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined and heard my cry. He pulled me up out of the pit,” and then one verse later it says, “He put a new song in my mouth.” And that’s what happened! The Lord really pulled me out of a pit, a difficult place, and the moment He pulled me out of that pit, He put a new song in my mouth. It happened that fast!

Obviously I believe this album is a testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness, but it’s also serving notice on the enemy! He may have intended one thing, but he’s really going to regret it. So I made many trips back and forth to Jacksonville to rehearse with the band and shape the songs, and then we recorded it live in mid-November. After that was the editing, the overdubs, the mixing and all that—and now it’s done! I’m very excited; I really love the new songs and how the album came out. I believe these are songs that will really speak to people and reveal further revelation of Jesus. They’re declarations of the word and truth that we need to speak over our lives, because they’re weapons for overcoming!

“And that’s what happened! The Lord really pulled me out of a pit, a difficult place, and the moment He pulled me out of that pit, He put a new song in my mouth. It happened that fast!”

Going back to your musical training—who or what are your musical influences? What other worship leaders or genres?

I didn’t grow up listening to anything other than Christian music. As far as worship is concerned, some of my influences in the beginning were people like Kent Henry—he was the first person I ever heard lead worship who knew how to flow and sing prophetically. And there was Morning Star and their music. When I discovered their sound my world was really rocked, especially people like Don Potter and Leonard Jones. The way I describe it to other people is that when I first visited Morning Star something on the inside of me just started vibrating. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is a sound I didn’t know we could do. I’ve never heard of this before.” Something inside of me just woke up, like it was always there. I was never the same. Not to be really dramatic or anything, but it was a marking moment for me. I had heard something within me that I needed to release, and so I started to do it!

Other current worship music and leaders do inspire me. I love to hear how other people create songs and express certain timeless truths, including everything from the big streams that we know about—Bethel, Jesus Culture, maybe a little Hillsong— but also IHOP. IHOP has definitely influenced me over the years—that style, that flow, that depth of content.

I have to ask, what is the story behind you and your dog?

There is a story, and I’ll try to summarize it. For my entire life I was severely allergic to cats and dogs, and when I was a kid that was a bummer for me because I had always wanted a dog. And not just any dog. We had an old set of World Book Encyclopedias from 1960 or something in our house and I loved the dog section. There was page after page with pictures of all these dog breeds, and I circled—I kid you not—the Shih Tzu, the Pekingese and the Maltese. All the ones that looked like mops; those were my favorites. Fast forward to adulthood and things did not change; I was still allergic, even with “hypo-allergenic” dogs.

Now my friend Lisa had a litter of four puppies that were a Shih Tzu/Pekingese mix, and I could not stay away. I was smitten with all of them. I named all of them—but specifically Annabelle was my favorite. And I had this experience with the Lord where I believe He told me that Annabelle was my dog, but I thought He was surely wrong. I began to notice that I didn’t have issues around those puppies. I also lived in an apartment at the time, and I wasn’t allowed to have pets.

Basically what happened was: 1) The Lord completely healed me of allergies. I have no issues with any dogs or cats now. And 2) Annabelle became my little catalyst for change. I had been feeling for a while that the Lord was telling me to buy a house and put my stake down in the ground here in the city, and I was afraid. But because Annabelle was my dog and I was sticking with her, I needed to live somewhere else. Next thing you know I’m a homeowner! The Lord really knows those desires of our heart. And we might think, “That’s so trivial.” And He says, “No, watch what I do. I’m going to heal you and give you—in fact those dogs that you were circling in those encyclopedias—I’ll give you one of those!” He’s sweet like that, isn’t He?

He sure is. Wow. That is so incredible…Last but not least, what is next for you?

There’s a few things going on. There’s been a wave of writing, so I think the next album will be quick to come. Also, I’m praying through the specifics, but I know that I’m called to start a school of worship in some form or fashion. I can’t get away from that even if I wanted to, so I’m pursuing that in the next few years. It’s something that will have to unfold.

Sounds exciting. We’ll be praying for you!


You can purchase Kelanie’s newest album, “You Are The Radiance,” directly from our online bookstore: HERE

We are so thankful for Kelanie, for her music and all that she does and contributes to the CHM family. For more info about her and links to her social media feeds, make sure to visit her website: www.kelanie.com

And to keep up with her music previews and update, you can also subscribe to her Youtube Channel: HERE