KEEP LEADING

I always wanted to lead worship. I never really wanted to be a guitar player.

Growing up, I was a worship leader in my youth group. Multiple times a week I would lead services for my peers from my acoustic guitar and try my best to sing so that people could recognize the song (a real challenge for a pubescent boy with no vocal training).

So I decided to get the formal training to go with my new found passion. But a couple years into my music degree I found myself getting discouraged. I found myself doing something besides what I defined as “worship leading”. I thought I was there to run the show, pick the songs, and sing the music. Instead, I constantly found myself in a supporting role. I tried for years to pridefully, and unsuccessfully, make myself into the “worship leader” that I thought I was suppose to be.

I failed to recognize that the job of leading worship was not limited to the 30 minute music set on stage or to even one person. I had to let my narrow definition of what it means to lead worship go and try to find where God wanted to use me.

I think it’s an easy mistake to make. In churches everywhere we have designated the title of worship leader to those who lead worship during a scheduled window of time every Sunday morning. It’s convenient for us to pack “worship” away into a drawer and pull it out once a week, as our Sunday's best.

As precious as those times of corporate worship can be, worship should never be limited to music that we may or may not “be into to” on that one particular Sunday morning. It’s a lifestyle that takes whatever we have and wherever we’re at and lets us extravagantly serve Jesus.

For me, it's playing electric guitar.

Worship leading doesn't have to be limited to the chosen “worship leader” because by learning to love Jesus, as best we can, we set the stage for others to do the same...we are all leaders. It was in this moment of clarity that I realized Jesus was with me the whole time, loving selfish me, as I strove to accomplish a personal goal that almost kept me from seeing where he already using me. I was free to stop trying to be something I wasn’t and instead rejoice in who I really am.

So, whatever it is that you do. Whether that’s music, art, sports, or academics. You can lead people into worship. Jesus never called us to worship with an acoustic guitar, a synth pad, and a chorus after the bridge. He called us to worship him with our lives.

Nolan Sisk // Lead Guitar

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1 (MSG)

KEEP DREAMING

I have only had one dream since I was a kid. I wanted to travel the world playing drums. I didn’t care about getting paid, being noticed, making it to the top, or even being good at it. I just wanted to make my dream possible. For the last five years I am privileged to say I have been in fact traveling the world playing drums! This simple fact is how I have come to know God is real in my life. 

This past week I got the opportunity to teach students at Camp Electric in Nashville, TN. I focused a lot on CONFIDENCE and EGO, the two things that have shaped me as a person and also as a follower of Christ. I have put so much time and sacrifice to get where I am with music so it was encouraging to meet the next generation of musicians. Hundreds of students who took a week from their summer break to get better at their craft. 

Teaching music holds a very serious place in my heart because I like sharing how I got where I am today. I don’t teach based on what’s right or wrong but how to keep a straight path to where you want to be. It has taken me years to find my own place as a drummer and a person and I hope I can encourage others to stay determined and persistent in God’s plan for their life.

NOW that I’m living out my childhood dream the hardest part is keeping my head in the right place.

I struggle with tendencies of addiction on a daily basis but I put my job first and ultimately my faith. We are our own worst critics and I am extremely hard on myself but now I have seen what God can do. I am confident that God will see to my success because he has a great story to tell through me.

The only thing that steadies my brain is music and that's why I do what I do. God gave me the ability to work as a drummer. And I hope to reflect His grace and creativity everyday I work. 

My goal is for anyone and everyone who experiences or listens to our music to be set free. This means more to me than anything in the world and that’s why God put me where I am today. We are ready for what lies ahead. Our love and passion for what we do keeps us energized through the long days but more importantly YOU...our friends, family and fans always inspire US to keep dreaming!

-Brett "RAGE" Rocha // Drummer

“Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” Phil 1:6 (MSG)