Dr. Randy Clark Interviews Jeremy Riddle

well it is my privilege and an honor and a delight to be able to interview today one of the leading worship leaders of our time Jeremy who I know that you have been working for some time I'll ask you more details because I don't know the details but at Bethel which place I love love bill love love the culture you know just love what's coming out of there and and prior to that you were involved in heavily in the writing music and worship and involved at the vineyard movement and and I think I read something as said that you began to get exposed to vineyard at 13 years old and I think what I read you you quoted John Wimber who said it's more caught than taught sure so you know you have such a rich heritage could you just kind of tell us a little bit about your pilgrimage yeah and I'm curious to know in what way and how did God lead you to go back now and to become the worship leader at the Anaheim vineyard yeah well it's quite a story I'll try and make it simple and and to the point but yeah just a little bit about our journey my family's journey it's impossible for me to talk about my journey without talking about my parents who are saved in the Jesus Movement and the Lord just woke something up in their hearts and they had a really stable life like my first my first years probably about twelve years old my dad was a practicing attorney and they had a large number of kids seven all together I was the second born and we went to a First Baptist Church you know and life was was very very normal but something was a hunger and appetite was was born in them when they were radically radically saved in the Jesus Movement and so they're always on a pilgrimage always looking for the more of God you know always looking for where that was and that led them to join why I am for a period of time which is honestly where the first seeds were sown in my heart as I my first exposure to like contemporary worship or that kind of thing was watching this amazing worship better named Bob Fitz and and something went off in my heart and no one here would that have been that's gosh I was 12 so that would have been like 1989 88 89 something like that so so we spent a probably a total of a year at the at the base the big base the wyman besan Kona in Kona Hawaii and my dad though is just always a worshipper always hungry to find he just had a he had a got a nose to find out where the worship movements were happening and and he began to listen to this guy named Kevin prash who was at the Anaheim vineyard at the time and we had relocated to Southern California and we were just kind of in a search you know at that point in time but old see my dad we'd begun to make an hour-long commute to the vineyard and that's when I was about was about 13 years old and something just happened to me there it was like the Lord it was the soil that the Lord was you know planted me in that season I remember just being 13 years old and going up to the front o is just something happened and worship I was just drawn to worship and you know you don't have the articulation at that age you don't understand what's happening to you don't know any of that but you're being formed and I was being formed in a house of worship but all these and everyone who was it was kind of a rising name and worship was coming through that house and and I got a front-row seat to one of the most significant worship movements you know you know of our of our time so super super grateful but but yeah now I look back and I see exactly what John meant when he said more is caught than taught because it wasn't through a lecture it wasn't through you know a seven-course teachings of you know this is what worship is it was being immersed in a culture of worship of the people that poured up arts to the Lord that weren't doing this performance or platform but they would wear their hearts on their sleeves and they would just pour out their hearts and there was such these holy moments of divine connection with the Lord and that just formed you it shapes you and so what began to come out of me was just what I saw come out of others I don't know it's just a wild wild journey so were some of those main worship leaders that at at the Anaheim at the time was I was Eddie Eddie Espinoza was still there he was he was amazing my Andy Park was a significant guy there at the time to Brian Dirksen mostly coming as a visitor but he was frequent David Ruis was always coming down just wild full of the holy spirit gosh Kevin brush was still there for a thing two three years while while I was still there Rita Springer would come through from time to time I was at that recording where she's saying make us a prayer and just tore the the roof off I'm just trying to think about all the Danny Daniels was there oh gosh who else was there at the time Daphne rattle maker Cindy rest Meyer well let me ask you quite a personal question she had to do that it's a personal - meaning yeah how would you characterize this timeframe so then you were being formed what was the what how would you characterize the atmosphere the the culture the the visitation was the vineyard at that moment that season of time was it in a time of well I just used the term revival for visitation I think in many ways yes but but you know John John there was never any hype if anything he would work to deescalate hype and and any kind of emotionalism that that you know that often kind of accompanies that I I think it was a moment where the services were characterized by by again like a profound move of the spirit but it was a people who are simply being present to the leadership of the Holy Spirit it was and in some ways you showed up there was there was a sense there was a heavy weighty sense and again I was so young so you know these are like almost foggy memories but I remember the very first time we walked in it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't that the building that it is now it was an action in Cerritos it was that this old kind of what is now a flea market but there was this massive building I remember water house yeah yeah I was there yeah as the 12 year old boy and I remember feeling this sense of reverence like a sense of awe in the room and I've been walking into churches for you know most of my life and I've never felt that and it was just weighty it was the weight of his presence and so that was that was definitely something that was not unusual I guess but but distinct you know and but you never knew what was going to happen because it was it was John you never knew what was going to happen in worship you never knew who was going to and that was you know in fact the day when people would stand up and give words and you know speak in tongues and all of that it was just had the air was pregnant with possibility and but I think that atmosphere was intentional like and I don't think it was necessarily even call that revival or even renewal so much as what what I to be the way that we ought way as the church should function when we come together that there is that dynamic John used to say that worship was always intended to be a two-way street it was never intended to be just this one-way vertical thing where we send up our praises to heaven and then we go on with our day that there was meant to be this interaction from heaven and that changes everything like when we do something as simple as just to open up a space for God to be God and we're listing and we're seeking we're attempting to discern how he's moving and what he's speaking and and we empower leadership when we grow leadership who are able to recognize how the spirits moving and they're able to call that out that changes everything it electrifies things yeah you know so I don't know if you want to call that revival so much as I think the church being the church and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and orchestrate you know that's what it was that was what stuck with me you know and the same thing I saw at Bethel not honestly so when did you go did you go straight from Anaheim to bath or was there a secure this route no baby there was a route yeah I don't think I could have handled honestly Bethel coming where I was coming I'm from Anaheim and the journey I think the Lord knew I needed a detox period so you know we we moved up to a small little County called Lake County to be with my parents and originally we were gonna plant a church and that never materialized but but I realized that the Lord had drawn me out to a wilderness and and to get a hold of my heart again and so and it was a season of realizing that and all my zeal and spiritual fire to see the Lord there was a lot of stuff that needed to happen in my heart and and the Lord the Lord just began to move and to break things down in me there's a humbling season but I'm so grateful because it created a real appetite and hunger for me it's like a two-year period by the end of that two-year period I'm like Lord I just have to find more of you like I have to find like where you're moving and you know where where is this this people that my heart is longed to join and I just began to kind of scour the earth and every church that I attended and led worship at is just like Lord is this where you're drawing where are you drawing us and we'd heard of Bethel and and we you know honestly we didn't know I was a little skeptical of it you know and yes so we decided to visit for a weekend and that weekend changed our life and I didn't you know honestly I didn't it wasn't about I didn't know hardly anything about the culture of the church I just knew that we walked into that sanctuary and they began to worship that my heart was undone and I felt that exact same thing that I felt like in the early Anaheim days and I was like I don't know what this is but I know that I can't live without it and I know that that I will not become whoever made to become in God without being for here you know and so and then we just moved everything up and anyway it's a crazy story after that but it's a long one so you over there how long so I was there but almost 10 years almost 10 years yeah so I was there I came just in very good years really significant years this is before Bethel music had come onto the scene it didn't exist it was as but a but a twinkle and Brian Johnson's eye and you know in his heart of and and yeah it was just a wild wild time the environment was just so charged so full and it lifted worship and he pulled worship out of you and honestly I don't think I grew more as a worship leader in any other season of life than I did my first two years of Bethel particularly in learning how to follow the Holy Spirit but that was very much because of a senior leader who who gave such tremendous permission for for those who got on that stage to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit now I've never known anyone like Bill and how how how he did that you know it was almost he was impervious to what was what was happening in the congregation whether that whether or not they understood what was going on or not I remember being in worship sets where we're an hour and a half deep I'm exhausted the band's exhausted the songs are gone my voice is gone but you could feel that the Lord was doing something and I would look out being just waiting for like when's the person gonna come up and and then this thing you know and and I look down and I hit much to my dismay at the time is you just bill bill it just be like I'm like oh this is not ending anytime soon and it was a rewiring and an understanding of and it was such tremendous permission and after a while instead of being discouraged when I would look out and see half the room sitting down I had like oh but that man like he sees something and it would give me the courage to you know the whole team to just press into the deeper things of God and always what would break out in those moments was just crazy such as such a such an amazing song a time and the songs that flowed and yeah remarkable remarkable time so I don't know if I can focus that well I have this theory and it's just the 13 you don't have to agree with it at all but it seems to me in my exposure yeah you know I grew up Baptist I grew up Baptist at least you were bad too still 13 husband still 18 no actually a 32 when were lame from the vineyard came to my Baptist Church and then changes came but one of the things I always was intrigued by with no teaching and no modeling actually his furloughs first 32 years was why is it that certain songs that we would sing even in the Baptist Church it feel his presence for to get choked up and tears in your eyes and other songs didn't do that at all Wow and I and so for me my exposure the vineyard was not only being taken by the theology the balance in the theology toward a good understanding of the gifts in the kingdom but the other thing that really captured me at 32 years old and having been preaching since as a teen was the worship yeah when they came in and you know just had the guitar and started singing those songs just like you promised you'd come I was have done and I was jealous I was bad at blame the first two songs when they first got there cuz he just got a nail on the front row lift his hands up like this it was just worshiping and I think what's he doing why is he doing that does he know we don't do that I was upset with him but by the third song I was jealous of the freedom and as I started listening to the songs if they just so you know so touched me so and I remember it was so foreign to us because I'm from the Midwest we were one of the first vineyards in the Midwest but it was this Wow there's something different approach and then I I got this little for one or two set cassette-tape teaching by Weber about worship and it was about the atmosphere about not cheerleading yeah just take the go there yourself and pick the people with you yeah and I gave it to my song leader who became a worship with you that's right there's the transition or the transition from waiting songs commercial worship and it was such a beautiful time of being touched the worship so here back to where I was chased a little rabbit there but where I started saying seems to me that wherever the greatest songs are being written it seems to have the most anointing and power and touching the most people if it's coming out of a place where there is if I don't use the word revival let me use the word a sense of visitation and presence in that congregation yeah and among that people yeah and you can almost tell where the movement our local church was that buy the song as it came out during that season you could actually see seasons and I remember right before 94 there was another season of these songs that began to come out yeah and around 93 94 and it's almost like we were singing and the visitation come visit us and yeah so I I just really feel that there is people don't know how do you write this kind of songs music that that captures the hearts of the world I don't think there's a formula other than the the writers hearts have been captured for yeah well I I mean this is something deep because I you know songs I'm songs writers leaders I find that they're they're never kind of self-made like they're not they're not these isolated things that that come into being just to have someone sometimes sometimes there's always an exception to this that where they come out of just someone's personal experience and encounter and the Lord gives weight to that and and and kind of there's favor on it and it travels the earth but most the time I see songs they're birthed in a culture their birth in a greenhouse they're they're they're birthed in an environment and those leaders that those songs come from there they're not self grown or self-made either they're there they're grown in that greenhouse and and I think I spent a lot of time studying like what what is that culture what is that greenhouse what are those those ingredients that grow those kinds of leaders that grow those those those kinds of songs and and the thing is is when I and I would say there's deep similarities between Bethel and and vineyard it was like but both the worship our programs can become so cluttered with so many agendas that the heart gets buried like the heart gets covered up the the wellspring of life gets covered up when the heart you know gets diminished and I and I feel like what vineyard did is it just kind of moved all these other things like this is our job is not to to be Cheerilee as a job is to not try and drum up any kind of thing our job is to come before the Lord to connect with his heart and to lead people and it's just so interesting when I came to Bethel like I it was a different language but but but the same kind of heart it's like our goal our agenda the pre like this is this is the the the dominant like there's no no competitive agenda with this it it is about his presence like and at the time it wasn't known for its songs or anything it was a people who would simply prioritize his presence over anything and you know Bill taught his leadership slike if you were enough if you were in a holy moment if there was any sense of the Lord doing it like there was such a reference for that for that moment like can he trained a group of people to know how to steward that like that's the whole hosting his presence was just recognizing when God is moving when he's presently he's manifesting his glory and understanding why I knowing how to partner with that and not quench it but to see it you know released but it's just moving it's decluttering the thing and restoring the heart and and I go like man when you restore the heart of this thing and and you say we are here to minister to the heart of God this is this is our number one primary responsibility when we come together it's amazing the environment that that creates and then out of that environment out of that soil because it's soil really and when you teach when you raise up a people it's it's not just a stage it's not just leaders I think when I first came to Bethel the thing that captivated me was the people like the leaders weren't even that great to be totally honest it wasn't like oh wow look at these amazing impressive leaders they were grown later but I just studied the people they just like the worship leader could be incompetent and that room was going there and like it was almost moving that team where their hearts were already there and I was like where did you come from who trains you like how did you come into being and then I watched bill as he was does an architect the owner honor comes to creating a people who know to wait on the Lord and press into his presence and and that it was that people that grew those leaders it was that environment that grew those leaders then ultimately birth those songs and so you know on this journey that we're at again like I feel like Lord I want the keys that build that that reestablished the foundation I want to see the tabernacle the thing of worship your people a heart of worship restored and protected in the earth and so that it might have its full impact on its purity and its power well it would would ya do the thing that it was made to do so you know I've been studying that and kind of giving myself and I still still feel very much like a student you know but but I do know that that it's it's as simple as coming back to the heart every single time like it's not there's nothing complicated about worship you know it's why that that story of that woman that that just had to let Jesus know that that sacrificed dignity that sacrificed everything to get to the feet of Jesus to to to wipe her wipe his feet with her with her hair and with her tears you like like I have to let you know even if the whole room is disgusted by what's happening if the whole room is checked out and they don't understand like I have to let you know Jesus what you've done for me and how you moved like all my life I just think da there's so much there Randy but but I think that's the you know if there's one thing I feel like I'm supposed to kind of champion and and guard and protect the earth it's the purity of worship and it's always just going to be about the heart you know you know Jamie how old are you I'm uh I'm coming up on my 42nd year here and married she'll be married five kids how old are your children 17 to 7 and everything in between now you are as I said an introduction have you already returned to Anaheim yet are on you yeah we've been there a year in three months years right Ben yeah and can it what about how did the would call you back there yeah because I mean you were you were really in a good spot yeah very prominent yes church at the time and how did how did the Lord lead you better than and not only that but for what was the purpose there that he gave you yeah we're still discovering I think the purpose and you know it's funny how the Lord leads you I had a friend of mine described it like this that sometimes the Lord will will will dangle a carrot I don't like this imagery all the way but this bear with me but all kind of dangle a carrot to get you off the couch and then once you're moving he'll it'll kind of swing you to the left you know or swing you to the right you know he's just trying to like first let get you to take those first few steps but honestly prophetic was super instrumental you know it was a probably a five year process altogether because we were when we came to ready and came to Bethel we were just like this is it we're gonna live here we're gonna die here this is we have found our people we found you know our place of belonging this is this isn't for us and so I think the Lord the Lord just he knows us so well works with our hearts so he just began to sow seeds not that we needed to do anything with the seeds but but he's just like his way of just kind of going hey there's there's there's there's something coming you know for you and it's 2013 we had a prophetic word about there being a return to Southern California and that it having to do something with our kids and so in my head I immediately built on it like an interpretive lens for that of going like we're not moving back in California apparently we'll be visiting a lot doing a lot of commuting and maybe our kids will eventually kind of take up residence there again and and but we just I could not even bring my heart - to even think about moving back you know we had just finished building her house and reading and so but but and then it just kind of was forgotten kind of buried not anything I took him in too much time kind of studying and then two years later I got another really significant word alluding to a transition and the kind where I was just like Lord I'd like this is very disruptive from the track that we were on and and I got to process that ironically with Alan and Catherine Scott one of the very first people I got to process that with and they get just gave me these words I'll never forget it and they just said hey you don't need to worry about that when the time comes you'll know and you're processing that with them yeah more than I yes that was in Northern Ireland before before they moved to Orange County it was at their church that just brought me in for their encounter more conference and and I got this really really significant work from one of the prophetic people that was coming in and and and I was like guys I don't know what to do with this and they're like you don't you don't need to like you know it'll when the time comes you know you'll know and so but and then that Rumble like you know what transition it's it's almost like if you ever watched you know a few husbands out there they've watched your wife go through that that journey and labor it's like there just comes a time where you're like these little contractions it's not that big of a deal you're able to carry on with life is normal and all of a sudden it hits a point where it's like it requires focus and attention and and it hit that point and I didn't know where it was leading I didn't know if it was even a geographic move or shift but I in the process of leadership at that time and just say hey I'm in transition and I don't know what that what that means or what that looks like I just know that that that's something there's a rumble that I'm not able to quiet you know anymore and so at the time and this crazy thing I was making a record down in LA and I was I spent a lot of time and I was just running you know as I try and run I'm a terrible runner but I do it because I hear the Lord when I run and keeps me healthy to some degree and I was running through the hills of Los Angeles and I would I began to feel the burden of his heart for Southern California again and and it was just weighty it was waiting on me and and so originally we thought it was LA and we're like we're okay we feel like gods like moving us to LA and then and it's so funny that's like the whole bill thing we're like we're moving in a direction and all of a sudden were like wow looked at houses for three months nothing and and and it was and then it was like Orange County I'm like baby this is crazy that I'm thinking about Orange County I my wife is I don't know how many people's marriages work like this put her my wife was very much like I'll kind of submit ideas and and she's the one that goes to this or no not not so much this she's a real sensitivity and in that way and I said hey is this crazy that I'm thinking about Orange County again and and she's like no I feel that too you know and at the time we weren't thinking about going back to Anaheim it wasn't it wasn't honor it wasn't on our radar and then we we got we got a text from a friend that basically told us they say hey Allen and Katherine Scott just took over the ni on vineyard and we were like are you kidding like that's unheard of like like did do they you know we were just shocked by that so we called them up and said hey tell us we got to hear the gods story on this and because they came to Orange County - not like not looking to take over the and I've been here just knowing that the Lord is pulling them to Southern California so we got together we had this beautiful kind of hilarious conversation and and we're we told them and said hey guys we're actually moving back down to Southern California as well and they're like oh my goodness like I'm like like like do you know what God's doing and we're like no we were hoping you could tell us what God was doing like one of those moments and and and and again at the same time we're just like Anaheim wasn't the focus this has been such an interesting journey for us we're first it was the nation's and we're like the Lord's calling us to the nation's and then it's the region of Southern California and then we're back at Anaheim and wondering why we're back at Anaheim remember watching these two beautiful people just kind of slug it out you know you know just week in and week out you know and and then and then and all of a sudden we're like wow we're supposed to join like this is why we're here and the Lord has just kind of done this with our focus and it's not because it's not for the region it's not because it's not for the nation's but we've just realized wow he he is restoring something and rebuilding something in this house that the story that began here is is not a story that's over it's a story that's still meant to grow and and and touch the earth and it's it's less about the vineyard it's less about the names that we create and attach to movements it's it's about it's about the kingdom and it's about the heart of worship and so honestly Randy I think every week is a week where we get greater revelation into what the Lord wants to do but um-hmm anyway I got lost on my own story there I wish I could speak to a bit more of those kind of specific you know vision points well let me ask you in the midst of this transition has been your bin now back a little over a year yeah is there a correlation between things you're going through personally or the corporate worships going through that ends up becoming part of songs yeah yeah yeah I think songs it's an interesting time I think in the world of worship right now there's a lot of testing going on in the world of worship I think everyone understands its importance its power and and the attraction around it it's also like we're living in a day in an age in worship that we've never we've never been here before you know particularly for worship leaders and I think the battle over worship movements the battle the warfare of a worship is quite intense and honestly I've never known a better time in history to be a worship leader for all the wrong reasons then the one that we're in now there's there's a real fight over purity there's a real fight over professionalism and and never in any other time in history could someone become a celebrity make a an incredible living or any of these things off of off of off of worship you know it's just such a fascinating time and there's so much beautiful things that have happened so much freedom so much growth in the area of worship but but I but I feel that warfare now more than ever and I feel we need houses that protect the heart of worship more than ever we need those green houses that that help leaders navigate and honestly I would say when it comes to the worship movement there there are there are two two movements that give me a lot of hope for what I see is happening and one is the prayer movement and what is the missions movement and I feel like there's a sound of worship that's going to begin to flow out of out of those out of the people of God that give themselves to prayer and give themselves to and when I mean mission I I mean both compassion ministry to the lost and and and and the least and you know it's funny is there's so much again attention given to to the fruit of what happens of worship but but it's the it's it's it's it's it's the soil that that we really need to protect and you know what most people don't like just as huge of a pillar at Anaheim was its compassion was its Ministry of compassion was its ministry to the poor and was its evangelistic focus you know it's like it's really birthed by evangelists and people that that were out proclaiming the gospel and and when I look at the prayer movement and a look at the missions movement I look at what God's doing rebirthing and why way you know and I look at the song that's beginning to flow out of that and I look at the prayer movement and I see these these these two things that I think are going to really help refocus the worship movement and refine the worship movement because the missions movement that like it is its sacrificial it's it's it's lost centered it's it's not caught up and in in a church game like it's it's I is on the harvest its eyes it's it's like in the fields with the Lord you know and then you have the the prayer movement which is really just focused on ministry to the Lord the the primary importance of ministry to the Lord I'm watching these houses of prayer in these houses of mission kind of coming together and I I think there's a beautiful marriage of what the Lord is as beginning to form and I think so these are these are new things for for Anaheim but I feel like what the Lord is beginning to do is he's beginning to tie these these two things together this this this prayer movement and this missions movement Allen Scott is is first and foremost a guy who burns for the lost he burns for Reformation he burns to see cities transformed he's not necessarily you renewal guy you know he's never really he's very been impacted by that but he's like unless it's touching cities unless it's reaching unless it's transforming the the lost he's like my heart can't even get in it you know and then you got you know the Lord is you know we've been taking over the prayer piece and I I don't think I've ever felt a greater burden in my heart to ignite prayer you know and and and just creating a space where rebuilding an altar to the Lord where we're able to minister to the Lord and I think it's it's these two they're kind of incubators you know for the worship movement and it's it's the songs that begin to flow you know out of this that I that I feel because again I serve a worship songs are being written now it's becoming a it's an interesting you know thing because it's almost becoming a professional gig you know and and I and I deeply convinced that although God can move through anything you know he can he can he can take songs they've been written out of all the wrong motives and use them for his glory it's it's remarkable what the Lord does but I at the same time I really do feel that the Lord is releasing the Uniting houses of prayer houses of mission and and it's igniting a generation that's not going to be caught in the seduction of Fame or platform or celebrity but who are laying their lives down to see heaven come to earth to see the loss come to know Jesus and it's these little movements these little boiler rooms all of the earth that I be I think are we going to come the fresh new greenhouses that are going to release the anthems the ones that are coming out of full sacrificial love and devotion to Jesus it's just I feel like there's gonna be these things popping up all over the place and and I think there's something Lord wants to do it and I am that has to do with that you know and anyway that's how that's not even really an answer to your question that's a big ramble on a lot of different fronts but yeah I think for me it's it's it's like when we came to Anaheim we know that expressions and song songs are the ultimate fruit that we're gonna be able to pick off the tree but I think we're cultivating the soil we're creating a thing for the roots for the for the tree to grow and once once that tree comes into you know into maturity it will produce fruit effortlessly like not only the thing I think right now our season it's it's not trying to create fruit out of thin air I think it's tending to the garden it's its cultivating the soil it's weeding out the things that have kind of choked out you know the thing that God wants to God wants to do it's a lot of groundwork right now to create a culture you know again that's vibrant open to the Holy Spirit and anyway Randy ocka ocka gist you're tapping into like anyway just just focus me please Randy focus me my daughter told me she's I think 32 now and she told me when she was 13 mm-hmm daddy I'm gonna marry me a worship leaders and in around 15 years old her eyes were we had moved from st. Louis to Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania and her eyes were open to see a young 15 year old that she known for a couple years while and it's like God said that's your husband Wow and he it was a young worship leader and now he's like they're the same age and church is a few thousand people and why he's one of the main worship worship leaders got more a lot of responsibility for working teams and so good and my daughter told me one time we actually had a big meeting somewhere and we had a group come in and and she just felt like it didn't fit her and she said dad do not sell out worship for a crowd angie was very serious and it was something though she she caught it yeah yes you got it Oceania resident they love the presence they love worship and they're you know developing the label and things like that and and trying to do it in a way that's just honoring ya to the Lord but it's it's a it and got to really working in their lives so and they really really respect you and and I was wondering if there's something you could say to them as they're trying to create this atmosphere what-what is really you would say to them it'd be a priority that might help them as they're trying to as young as they are and oh yes just stay the course don't ever lose the heart like don't follow the road most traveled like you don't need to yeah stay close to the heart of the Lord keep in mind what what the heart of worship really is I just think there's so much so much distraction so much pressure so much stuff that is that is has weighing leaders down as to what worship yes it's just and I see worship leaders all over there is burdened with so many other agendas and things they're trying to be powerful and they're trying to sing songs break through her did all these things you know and I I go just love Jesus love him so well adore him so well like you don't need to kill the worship leader game you don't need to kill the song game or the lead like if you love Jesus if you make him your most precious and treasured possession if you if you if you honor his presence and his activity in your myths even if it cost you you will be rewarded greatly with with the most precious treasure that we have it is his presence if you honor that you know in your mitts do you don't ya get sidetracked with anything else I think you will create a well for nations to drink from I don't think we understand what what's at stake like you know sometimes if we can just guard the heart Bethel all these worship movements they were never the best most qualified competent organized they were often the least they were just the ones who protected the heart who guarded the heart and I'm just like there's nothing it's just not complicated I just want to encourage people but I think in order to do that it's it's it's about the whole of your life and and though and how you how you architect and again we have to keep worship it's never meant to be an isolated thing like and I'm you know if there's one thing but I feel the Lord has preserved my life with is he's never let me specialize in music he's never let me just be that the one thing you know and he's always you know there was a six-year season where he's like you need to go past your junior highers he's like Anna Anna I think that made me like it's it's it's hard to put a number to that but three times the worship later that I was just like I had to lay down music to learn how to care for a junior-high how to care for their soul like out us you know and I was like oh Lord I caught a vision for your church I I've got a vision for what you want to do with you people I think prayer ministry to the Lord like we have to we have to create spaces that aren't pressurized like Sunday mornings are pressurized where our leaders and our people can just be face-to-face with the Lord you know and learn how to be in that place of intimacy with the Lord it has to be coupled with mission and compassion I get it just has to I don't know of anything that will purify someone's life quicker then interacting and being amongst the poor and like if we're going to navigate the realms were the seduction like is so fierce like over worship leaders lives and the pressure and and all these things that can make our soul sick if we get around the least and if we follow Jesus not just as a chief worshipper but as someone who is in the fields and in the harvest who's got a towel around his waist like if we follow his lead if we follow his example like we won't lose the heart of worship like he that will purify us as we follow him and like it's about Jesus it's in the glorifying him but following him take him but like following his example and as we as we do that as we make sure that we're not creating our lives that are too insulated you know from from the ministry that he gave himself to we will protect and safeguard our legacy our destiny the thing that was supposed to be stepping into so I just don't let anything or anyone pull you from walking and being Jesus like glorifying him and it may not make sense there there may be a pruning before there's a fruit bearing and I think that like honestly the worship movement is is going to be pruned it's going to be corrected like the Lord won't allow it to continue to grow in all the ways that it's growing I think a prune is coming I'm in a season of pruning you know the Lord I think coming back to and I have as a season of pruning and it's always unto more fruit like always but first there's that pruning there's beautiful things that were grown and bore a lot of fruit and now I'm in a season of lack coming back again to the heart my purify me we used to sing that song in the vineyard refiners fire my heart's one desires to be holy set apart for you my master and I think we need to think generationally we need to think about the generation to come the ones who are we're not gonna look at all our performances and our words and our all that you know stuff but if like like where's the legacy of purity and passion you know you know before the Lord think about a generation that's just longing to see an example they may not but it but when we lead with that example we will awaken a whole generation to come and to let know and rob us from creating a space for them where where where they can become the full stature of men and women priests and kings and queens on the earth given over to the Lord like anyway that's it that's a that's a lot to say but ultimate the end of the day it's never stop following the models of Jesus like we never are ever we don't ever outgrow that you know the model of Jesus let zeal for the house the Lord my house will be a house of prayer it'll be a house of connection for all nations like yeah I let zeal for the Lord let us zeal overtake us hey Aaron there's a lot there this is awesome I I'm very much feeling to present yes ah and Randy like fathers like I don't know how many times I've sat and listened to you and my heart is like like it realized like we need fathers to speak in this area of worship I think people are sometimes afraid to speak into it because it's new it's uncharted and there's all this stuff but but fathers and mothers who remember you know and remember that that that heart remember those days you know there's so many young people that are so confused you know right now and and they're trying to navigate this the best that they know how they just need like someone who remembers you know we just had Bob and Penny Fulton come up and just talk about what God did and and talk about how sovereign and and Lonnie frisbee and just everything that began to happen talked about - wrong we spent a long time talking about Toronto and just kind of revisiting these moves of God and there's just something in it when mothers and fathers who were there in those moments remember just even what it felt like and what it was characterized like it's nourishment for our hearts like it it's course-correction you know when when when when we can be by so many things you know and so I'm just so grateful they don't ever start talking you don't ever stop talking about worship and like there's so much that mothers and fathers well so need them so need them who's just so grateful for your life and it's why I keep showing up at these you know like it's literally just to be around you and and around the environments that you create because it's it's just massive it's so important so it's an honor that you keep inviting me I think yeah glad you come yeah love what you offer and what God's doing in you through you poof what Jeremy I have a question like what if someone's watching this and they're not from the charismatic movement or a third wave evangelical movement or Pentecostal movement there there may be watching their American Baptist Southern Baptist Presbyterian Lutheran Methodist and and maybe they're even the a volunteer worship leader and they would like to just know what could I do to see God show up in our church you know his presence in our worship we serve anything you could share to someone like that who has maybe never been an environment or an atmosphere to experience what we're talking yeah um yeah to me I think the journey that I'm still on and I feel still so new to but I would say if there's one thing that has changed my life my ministry given me wisdom wisdom and keys for any church circle I haven't just lied in charismatic churches you know I heard guys I have let in very very conservative ones and what I realize is that it doesn't matter what circular and everyone's hungry for God everyone's hunger hungry for a taste in his presence and and to encounter him like there's there's no I think sometimes we we keep certain things closed off because our language is so different but the truth is everybody wants what's real once what's authentic and I think the thing that I have given myself over to is understanding and growing my relationship with the Holy Spirit like understanding that and and that is universal the Holy Spirit is for the whole church he's not just for the charismatic ones or for the crazy ones the Holy Spirit is a gift and a seal and he is the orchestrator and leader of the church and and and it's not like he's very practical like he's not like you know he will ask you to do some things that might baffle your understanding but it's always amazing to me how practical the whole experience - and and it is I've just learned - to press in to seek relationship like to just build I mean and it's clumsy when you're trying to build a relationship with your the Lord like all these spirit I don't even know how to pray I I don't I don't know how to lead I'm just hungry to build a relationship with you because if I can hear you if I can discern what you're saying I I've tasted those moments where everything has changed not because of my brilliant strategy or my incredible set preparation for any of those things just because in a moment one little moment where I follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit and I watched breakthrough happen and I've learned that what what what every Church Circle what every stream of church is needing is is is not more brilliant strategy and gifted and not well gifted yes leaders and all that but it needs people who are full of the Holy Spirit and and who who are given over to following the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit will give you keys for your church in its context like where it's at in its journey and and I've had moments where just small little promptings like I don't need oh you don't have you can give me a highly I've had the minister environments for it to get 15 minutes like you know it doesn't matter I don't I don't go oh well that's three songs and I'm on autopilot like no like falling the Holy Spirit is is is a day and day out thing so in that moment I'll put together songs I'll ask the least spirit I just it's a relationship like Holy Spirit what do you want me to do here how should I navigate I always leave a little bit of space no matter what in a worship set no just going like Holy Spirit's anything you want to say is there any little impression you know and it's and and just being faithful to do it like in a just if you feel it take a risk like in your context you don't like like we're all intimidated cuz we're like well if we're gonna do spontaneous so we're gonna move in the prophetic it has to look like this like forget all the models just be faithful to follow the little promptings of the Holy Spirit even if it's just oh I feel this little extra course bubbling up just gonna sing that you don't have to make it a huge moment you don't have to drag your whole band into it this be a little moment just learn to take your people on a journey with within the parameters and the boundaries that you've been given because again we're we're servants we don't we don't always set them the parameters of where we're at we're just servants but within those parameters were called to be a spirit filled a spirit led people always and ever and and give yourself over invite commune with the Holy Spirit we have different language coasting his presence but a good host is just most and for foremost they're just a tennis they just pay attention they they realize the Holy Spirit is you know in them and upon them for the task of ministry and they're attentive to that and they realize that he's speaking and all they need to do is tune their ears to how he's speaking going that journey discovery you got to take some risk risk is a part of it you gotta you're gonna jump off some cliffs it may not always go well don't be discouraged in that journey you follow the Holy Spirit you will see breakthrough you will see him come and you will see him rewrite the story of your life a new church and just with a simple yes so I'd be my encouragement well I'd like to end by asking you kind of another strategy or another approach could you give me what you think would be maybe five of the most dangerous roadblocks or potholes or deters that that a worship leader has to watch out for that could I guess that's the other what Kirk what are some things that could take us take the worship leader the wrong way you're some of the some of the challenges that they sometimes can face yeah again I don't know if I can I can talk about five pitfalls but I can definitely talk about two - watch out watch out for I think one of the things that is needed for any spiritual leader any leader that's going to move in the house of God in any kind of authority there's there's a real surrender that has to take place a real death that if that has to take place that you know that that old quote from dietrich bonheoffer says when christ calls the man he bids him to come and die and I I think the journey that the Lord has taken me on you know people people see my life now and they don't understand the context in the five-year wrestle that I had with the Lord where where I chase significance I had a humongous appetite I had a drive for significance I'm like I I just I I can't do the mortgage and the minivan and the nine-to-five I might spare me that like I have to do something that leaves a mark on the earth and but it was so cloud it was selfish ambition and and need you know it's very orphaned it wasn't connected to the fullness of the Lord or my identity as a son of God it was connected with a need to prove myself and and establish myself and all these you know you know things and a desire for fame a real desire for personal glory you know and and so I I pursued it I chased it I gave myself to it and and the Lord just brought me to a place of total brokenness before him brought me to a belief and it was a real death it wasn't just a one time altar call it was it was a real death it was one of the most costly things where I just kind of gave up and I said okay Lord you do whatever you want to do with my life I'm tired of fighting I'm trying tired of trying to make my own way and and I would love to tell you that I was met with you know this amazing euphoric you know crazy experience but it was a miserable season of real surrender and but I begin to experience the peace of the Lord and I began to experience I began to pray like I began once I felt the peace I tasted the peace I'm like oh ho this is good and I begin to pray okay Lord I'm in it I'm in it now like whatever you want to do with my life you do it away from music like I surrendered all my dreams my dreams and my passions were the hardest things for me to surrender but I even laid those down and I said okay if it's not music if it's this whatever it is if it's not business you know whatever it is and and and I gave it all up and I and I feel like guys leaders in the church you have to lay it all down like you have to lay it all down to see a real resurrection because the thing is is the enemy his only power for seduction is the parts of your flesh that are still alive like it you know and and and if you have literally buried those and you've sucked them down into the tank like he can he can poke he can he can maybe try and awaken the old man but he will ultimately not be successful so it's if it's a real death I'm like no I am Alive for the glory of God like you can't there's no foothold left for you to try and and and and try and weaselly away or try and influence me in any any way and I just think we got to lay it out that way you know whether whether our lives of serving Jesus lead us you know from our idea of glory to glory or whether they lead us to to the you know the huts of Calcutta or whatever wherever it leads us we just want like we're good Jesus people like we surrender our influence our legacy the scope of it all we have to surrender that completely to the Lord and as we do that we leave no place for the enemy to try and manipulate our flesh or whatever lingering selfish ambition we have because I tell you what as that may not be tested at the local church level but as the Lord grows your life and and and you find more and more favor and influence that will be tested and that I'd love to say that journey of surrender was only a one-time journey it's not but one time journey for me that's been a journey I've had to revisit over and over I'm like all right Lord I surrender again I think like I surrender again and and so I think like that's massive like anyway we're we're we our lives must be on the altar like at all times we are living sacrifices to the Lord if we really want to see fire fall and I feel like we have a theologies now my concern about some of our theology when it comes to society or cultural transformation of love infiltrating the seven mountains and realms of society I think my only concern with that is if we have unser end 'red lives to Jesus we can take that theology and kind of justify a little bit of selfish ambition about like oh I was born to be a rock star so I must infiltrate the rat realm of society and really it's it's not it's not a Jesus mission it's still a personal mission where we're just after the same things that the world is after and we're hungry for the same things that the world's after and them so we have to guard that and guard that journey because we do need we are called the influence like you know the world but as a surrendered laid down lover of Jesus Christ and so I'd say surrender I'm being one I'd say cultivate Heat first love you know alive and and and vibrant to the Lord and remember you you know your place of servant you know your place of service it's so fascinating that the number one questions that the Lord asked us you know and you know that whole dialogue between Peters it's like Peter do you love me I do you love me and I I think that that first love the thing is something that we have to guard with this can become a skill set this can be consumed something that we become very very good at sometimes I wonder you know we talk about song leadership versus worship leadership I'd be an amazing thing done back at some point because you can string the right songs together you like there is a form that is powerful and and and we can just become people who learn how to execute a form and I think we are called to be lovers of Jesus and to cultivate and guard our first love that is the wellspring with which with everything else flows from and I find that that's the thing that I have to to have to fight for I have to fight to keep that love burning and vibrant and and I have to follow the Holy Spirit and how he directs me to keep that love burning and vibrant because it's not just one thing I think the way that I have kept that love burning vibrant is is to maintain the heart of a Shepherd like like to don't know if this if this thing if we don't ever get let your life be so insulated where it's not about touching and ministering to real people laying down your life for real people shepherding real people I think it's massive we can create insulated lives within the realm of worship and it's easy to do particularly as the celebrity of it grows it gets weird of the more access you have to people but we can't be too insulated from people and from the heart of a shepherd and learning how to love them and care for them and nurture them and these two things will protect your heart like you keep first love like you fear your focuses I Jesus I love you I'm gonna feed your sheep and and I'm going to continue little life is surrender to Him and I could probably keep prattling on and trying five but those are the two that I think have really really protected my you know my life you know so thank you wish I could I'm gonna write that down though I can probably write you know a book about it it's someday thanks to avoid his pitfalls all these folks Thank You Jeremy

Channel: Global Awakening

Views: 75,112

Rating: 4.9443297 out of 5

Keywords: worship, revival, jeremy riddle, randy clark, worship leader, worshipping, modern, ccm, music, christian, interview, vineyard, movement, wimber, john wimber, toronto

Id: RNMq4jKm3OQ

Length: 64min 1sec (3841 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 08 2019