Playin about 3 years. Mosty play classic rock, metal and blues. Right now I'm working on scuttle buttin' by stevie ray vaughn. I can almost play it up to speed. I play in church too. As for recommendations, download a guitar tab program like guitar pro or power tabs. These programs will really help your timing.
For gear I have:
Epiphone Explorer with seymour duncans.
Homemade Eddie Van Halen Frankestrat.
Peavey Windsor Half Stack which I'm try to sell cause its too big, I'll be getting a peavey classic 50 combo instead.
Behringer V-ampire which I'm also selling.
I've got a bunch of pedals too, I'm making a pedal board soon.
heres a picture of my frankenstrat: