To say the least, Ernest Cockrell is an accomplished drummer. In the limited spare time that he has, he's often sitting behind a drum set, storming up quite a concert with either the children's or the adult choir at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.

"It keeps me out of trouble," Cockrell says.

Out of trouble? Try out and about. Cockrell, who by the way is the head pastor at the church on Saratoga Avenue, as well as the chairman of St. Andrew's School, has been on many adventures with his passion for playing percussion instruments.

"Percussion has taken me to amazing places in ways I would have never expected," he says.

And indeed it has. To name just a few, he's played inside Constitution Hall in New York City and marched near the Mississippi River wearing a colonial uniform during a Fourth of July celebration.

Cockrell started experimenting with the drums at the age of 10, after several years of piano lessons.

"I was a small kid," he says. "I remember the drums were bigger than I was. Learning to play the snare drum was more technical and difficult than I expected. It took a lot more skill and practice than I originally assumed."

Cockrell proved that practice makes perfect. In addition to bringing home awards from state drum competitions, he soon found himself playing in the Idabel High School Band and Orchestra, the Oklahoma City University Symphonic Band and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.

With so many years of experience on the drums, Cockrell can easily pick up any beat in practically all types of musical genres including Latin, jazz and Dixieland. However, there is one type of music that Cockrell says he just can't seem to get in sync with.

"Rock is rather boring," he says. "It's too repetitive."

And repetition is something Cockrell doesn't get much of in his busy life. Between helping to manage the school and the church, teaching adult confirmation classes, counseling premarital couples and playing at a few concerts here and there, Cockrell has been working on publishing his first book, which he says is sure to rock the boat. It starts with a shocking suicide of a bishop.

"I try to get people to look at the bigger picture," he says. "My job is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable—to stretch people's comfort level."

And if that doesn't stir up conversation, perhaps his musical will. Titled The Heavenly Host, the musical is based on major events in the Bible.

"It's fun and piercing," Cockrell says. "It gets to the heart of what I think the Bible is all about."

The text for the musical is complete and copyrighted, but Cockrell is in the process of composing the songs. He has yet to announce an opening date for the musical. In the meantime, he will continue to do what he has been doing—shaking things up on stage and in the church.