Katie

John Sipe is the bass singer for The Sipe Family. His other duties with the group include: songwriter, arranger, bus driver, and mc on stage.

Before he started singing he was always busy with his families’ dairy farming operation and trucking business. They raised registered Jersey dairy cattle and exhibited their cattle at several county fairs in Ohio and Indiana, the Indiana and Kentucky state fairs, The World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin, and The North American International Livestock Expo in Louisville. In the early 1990’s they had one of the top Jersey herds in the state when they were first place with one of their cows at the national show and had another cow that stood in second place. The following year they were awarded the Premier Exhibitor award at the Indiana State Fair.  If he had extra time, it was usually spent playing basketball, softball, golf, bowling, hockey, or about any other sport you can think of.  Even though showing cows and playing sports isn’t necessarily wrong it kept him away from Bible study, prayer, and other spiritual growth. That is why he wrote the song “Step Out And Serve The Master”. Which is his personal testimony.

When not singing or running the trucking business, John now likes to spend time with his family and his grandson, Kaleb. He still does play a little golf and even though he has been out of high school 39 years, he was asked to play in an alumni basketball game and actually hit the first 3-point basket of the game. He is thankful for his health and his family’s health, but most of all the privilege it has been to travel the last eight years and share Christ with people who have come to hear us sing.

Katie Sipe is the lead singer for The Sipe Family. She does that so well we have not placed any other duties on her. She did drive the bus home once from a concert, but after that trip, we decided it was good that she just concentrate on singing lead.

Katie started taking voice lessons in the 4^th grade and progressed fast enough to join the New Calvary Quartet in the 6^th grade. As she entered Adams Central High School she secured a spot with the school choir that at that time, performed over 20 gospel concerts a year at local churches. As a junior she was picked as a soloist for the choir and blessed many people that year with her signature song “Come Just As You Are”. The next year her solo song was “Ordinary People”, and when she sang it at the final concert of her career everyone including the choir director was deeply touched.

Between her junior and senior year of high school she was accepted to go with a Word Of Life missions team to South Africa. During the five weeks she was away from home The Sipe Family had to sing without her, but it was worth it because while she was in South Africa she had the opportunity to sing at revival services, public schools, orphanages, and churches where the WOL team witnessed 70 decisions for Christ. Katie was blessed to lead three of those children to the Lord.

For three years she attended Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio majoring in music with a Bible minor. While there she traveled with two different choral groups as far away as Poland her junior year. Katie is now back in Indiana working at Starbucks and trying to finish her studies at Ft. Wayne.

When Katie attended Dr. Novell’s music school many of the students and instructors were impressed with her vocal quality and were deeply blessed by the songs she sang such as her version of “Redeemer”. If you get a chance to here The Sipe Family in concert or on CD, the first thing that will impress you is the powerful, clear, and distinct voice of Katie Sipe.

Jessica (Jessi) Sipe is one of the original members of The Sipe Family, however she is currently singing on a part time basis, because of her college commitments.

Her music career started in grade school when she was chosen often to be the soloist at elementary programs and musicals. When she was in the fifth grade she was the soloist and picked as the outstanding performer in The Fifth Dimension choir. She also took six years of voice lessons with Mary Amstutz and June McCullough, which prepared her as The Sipe Family was formed when she was in the seventh grade.

When she was in the eighth grade we started work on our first recording project. Our producer chose her to sing the first verse on one of John’s original songs “The Narrow Way”. After the project was completed Counterpoint Studios chose that song to be a song for release on their latest compilation disc. So with our first national radio release Jessi’s voice was heard on 500 radio stations with the highest local charting being on WJBD in Salem, Illinois where it peaked at #5. The following summer she completed a week at Christian Music Conference where she had the opportunity to have private lessons from Danny Funderburk. He also sang tenor with Jessi on lead, Katie singing alto, and John singing bass at the final concert of the school on Friday night, what a thrill!

In high school she sang with the swing (gospel) choir for four years, and was a member of the ladies sextet for three of those years. She was also chosen for one of the lead roles for the high school musical “Guys And Dolls”. At 6’0” tall, she is naturally a good basketball player and played on the varsity team three years. She also excelled in track for three years and was named all-conference 2^nd team in the shot put.

As high school came to a close Jessi was recruited by different colleges to continue her basketball career and chose Cedarville University where she is currently a junior majoring in Social Work with a Bible minor.  Jessi participates on the varsity track team and has recorded the fifth longest distance in the shot put in Cedarville history. Her goal is to set the school record before her career is over. On the basketball team she averaged five points and six rebounds per game. The team lost only five games during her career. Although she enjoyed playing basketball at the collegate level, she has decided to focus solely on track this year.