He might have trouble counting his 334,000 followers on Instagram, but that is nowhere near as difficult as counting the infinite blessings in his life!
Seph (Joseph) Schlueter, an Ohio-based 24-year-old singer-songwriter and Catholic worship director, just received the K-Love Fan Award for Breakout Single of the Year.
His song, "Counting My Blessings" has reached nearly 21.5 million streams on Spotify and has been used on Instagram over 900 thousand times.
Schlueter sings, “One, two, three, up to infinity. I’d run out of numbers before I could thank you for everything.”
This song, which has helped Schlueter top song charts around the world, has a central focus on gratitude and expressing how much the Lord has done in his life.
Schlueter spoke with ChurchPOP about the song's success.
“The song has been used in reels and TikToks over one million times by your everyday user, Hollywood celebrities, professional sports players, and everyone in between," the artist said of the song’s popularity across social platforms.
"Counting my Blessings" began to gain great attention in the fall of 2023 when it topped the charts in Brazil.
“Internationally, the song hit #1 on the Viral 50 in Brazil... and was even played on secular radio stations in the country,” Schlueter shared.
Following this, Isadora Pompeo, a Sony Brazil artist, recorded a cover of the song which garnered over 100 million views on YouTube.
Waves were later made in the United States when Christian radio networks began playing "Counting My Blessings" daily. Schlueter exclaimed that the song eventually “hit #1 on all four Christian radio charts.”
A week ago, the fans of the American Christian radio station K-Love cast their votes and awarded Schlueter the K-Love Fan Award for "Breakout Single of the Year," Schlueter’s first award as an artist.
When asked about his journey to number one, Schlueter shared that he began taking piano lessons at age five and picked up the guitar in high school.
He led worship with his dad from time to time and following graduation, he joined Damascus, an Ohio Catholic ministry.
“[This is] where I began to songwrite consistently for the first time,” he shared.
Now, as the worship director for Damascus Worship, he says, “I'm blessed to lead a team that's pioneering worship music for the Catholic Church...all with the purpose of bringing revival to the Catholic Church here!”
Arron Richards, executive director of operations at Damascus, has worked closely with Schlueter as they craft original Catholic worship songs together. When asked about Schlueter's role in the band, he quoted Pope Saint John Paul II:
“'Man cannot fully find himself, except through a sincere gift of himself.'"
"Joseph Schlueter has lived out this reality in truly coming alive to the call on his life... [he is] impacting the Church through worship music through his gift of missionary service with Damascus.”
Ultimately Seph Schlueter’s music is impacting lives in both the Catholic Church and the broader scope of Christianity.
“The whole point of doing this is bringing souls to Jesus,” he said, “and to hear stories all the time of how my music is doing--that has been so honoring and inspiring.”