October 1, 2026
ROME, Ga. — The voices of Georgia Baptist students who gathered at SURGE music camp this summer will soon carry far beyond the campus of Shorter University. The high school choir at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s annual music camp recorded songs for a new Semsen Music resource designed to help student choirs and worship ministries across the country and around the world.
The project gave Georgia Baptist students a role in creating a professionally produced resource that will be used by churches looking for music shaped by real student voices.
Daniel Semsen, a worship pastor, arranger and founder of Semsen Music, returned to SURGE this year after recording three songs with students at last year’s camp. Those songs became part of a 10-song project released as a resource for youth choir directors.
“The response has been excellent as choir directors prefer to hear real choirs recorded and not just Nashville session singers,” Semsen said. “It gives them a better picture of how the songs will sound with their choir, a real choir.”
SURGE, held each summer at Shorter University in Rome, helps students sharpen their musical gifts and grow in their faith. This year marks the 71st year of music camp in Georgia.
The partnership with Semsen grew out of conversations about how to provide fresh resources for student choirs and churches that use music in student ministry, according to Rhon Carter, worship and music catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
Carter and Semsen had discussed earlier models in which students learned and recorded music that later became available to churches. In 2025, Semsen came to SURGE with an engineer for what Carter described as a test run.
“We just did a sample to see if it would even work,” Carter said.
It did. The three-song project went well enough that Carter invited Semsen back for the 2026 camp to record a fuller project with the high school choir.
For Carter, the partnership fits the larger purpose of SURGE, which is not only to train young musicians but to help develop the next generation of worship leaders.
“Students love gathering together, and they love music,” Carter said. “It’s a great tool to motivate them and help them learn discipleship or leadership, which is what our camp is doing.”
Semsen and his wife, Christy, started the company in 2021 after seeing several long-time choral publishers close around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. They believed God was calling them to help fill the gap for churches.
“Semsen Music exists to partner with worship ministries everywhere by creating practical, purposeful and powerful resources that enrich worship leaders, equip choirs and worship teams of all ages, and encourage the body of Christ,” he said.
For Carter, the opportunity is significant not only because students were able to record with Semsen, but because their voices will become part of a resource offered to churches well beyond the week of camp.
“What an incredible opportunity for Georgia Baptists to be chosen by Semsen Music Company to come and be the recording voices for a project that he’s providing worldwide,” Carter said.
The project is expected to be published in August. Carter said the students also are expected to present the songs live during the Sunday night celebration service of the Georgia Baptist annual meeting on Nov. 8 in Warner Robins, with Semsen joining them along with a live band, orchestra and choir.
Carter said that helps students see that their work at camp is not “seven days and done.”
Semsen praised the students’ work throughout the week. “They were so awesome,” he said. “They worked hard in rehearsals, learned the music quickly, and were very responsive to my teaching and instructions.”
But the highlight for Semsen was not simply musical precision. It was watching the students understand the message they were singing.
“I think the best part of the week was seeing them make breakthroughs in their own worship and their ability to communicate the message of the songs we were singing,” he said. “Choir is about so much more than just the notes on the page.”
Semsen said his hope "is that it is a blessing and a useful resource to other youth choirs. I hope that people will hear the passion and energy in the SURGE kids’ voices and be inspired in their own choirs.”
For the students, the project was both exciting and stretching.
Bradley Ryan, 14, who is entering ninth grade, has attended SURGE for two years and participated in both recording projects. This year, he was selected as one of the soloists for the album.
Semsen, Ryan said, pushed the students to do their best. “He was super clear, concise, and didn’t settle for letting me and my peers make mistakes. I feel like he wanted the best out of me and my fellow soloists and friends in the choir.”
Ryan said he hopes the finished project will do more than help other choirs learn new music.
“I hope that through them many hear the good news of Jesus Christ and are saved because of them,” he said.
While Ryan is still considering his future, he knows he wants it connected to church and worship music.
“I’m super thankful for SURGE and Semsen Music for giving me these wonderful opportunities to attend these camps and participate in these recording projects,” Ryan said.
Hannah McLeroy, 18, an upcoming college freshman who has attended five SURGE camps, was excited to record again after taking part in last year’s project.
She appreciated the way Semsen kept students encouraged while helping them improve.
“Mr. Semsen is amazing to work with for recording, because he helps keep the energy up and keeps us excited,” McLeroy said. “He gives us great feedback on what can be improved without making people feel horrible about messing something up.”
She said SURGE’s impact reaches beyond music because students are surrounded by others from different backgrounds who share the same faith.
“That’s such an important thing for teenagers and kids to do, even if we all believe one main thing,” McLeroy said.
McLeroy is beginning college as an architecture major, but said she would love to pursue music and ministry.
For Elizabeth Drudy, 16, who will be in 11th grade this fall, the recording project is a reminder that choir is a shared effort rather than an individual spotlight.
“I saw it as much more of a group effort, which I was more than happy to do,” said Drudy, who has attended two SURGE camps.
Drudy also appreciated Semsen’s encouragement, both to individual students and to the choir as a whole.
“He is such an encouraging leader,” she said. “He believed in all of us as individuals as well as as a whole choir group.”
Drudy sees the project as more than a choir resource. “I hope that these recordings reach many people my age who will hear our genuine and heartfelt worship and be moved by it and drawn to the Lord,” she said.
Drudy plans to continue playing piano for her church youth group and is open to pursuing ministry in whatever capacity God leads.
Semsen said he left SURGE grateful for what he saw among the students and leaders.
“It was abundantly clear that God was at work in this camp,” he said. “It’s inspiring to see. I wish every state had a music camp like this.”
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