LAND OF THE LIVING MAGAZINE - Magazine - Page 41
voice off in our life and to speak to us the whole time. I told Him, "I can
get through it if I can hear but if I stop hearing You voice, I may not
make it."
How did you get into ministry?
I went to college to be a Youth Pastor and dropped out after two years
and then got my Associates degree in Record Producing. My whole first
part of my journey was all about how I can use ministry to get to the
ultimate goal of being famous. I never told myself I was doing that but
looking back, I can see that is totally what I was doing. Then I left ministry
altogether and went and did music, then came back as a Worship Pastor
and did Youth Ministry. I knew who God was and I knew I liked Him but He
was a means to get to what I wanted. After I was filled with the Spirit, I
began to go back to those I had stepped over and decided from that
moment on, I was going to champion Jesus in people and the calling on
their lives and I was going to trust God with my future. As soon as I met
Him, I knew that I could trust Him. Once I trusted Him, He began to give
me eyes to see everyone else, not just myself. I could finally see Him.
What is Worship House?
Pioneering a
Worship
Movement
An Interview with Associate Pastor:
Philip Herndon
You can't dream of pioneering a worship movement if you're
obsessed with yourself. Are you willing to taking the long road
of becoming selfless and the process of that because it's the
number one thing and it's brutal. For me, I wanted to have a
worship movement but it was based on what I could do and my
gifts and God never gave it to me. I was always so angry but
to do this you have to be truly selfless and open to whatever
God wants to do, even if it looks crazy. Like "Jesus, what do
You have?" Not, "How can I build some great thing for You?"
Because a movement can't rise and fall on someone's good
talents. It has to be willing to die to self everyday. For so many
years I pioneered to myself and so now I'm very sensitive to
what it looks like. So many years I built my kingdom and it was
just useless.
How do you trust God through the night
seasons?
It's history with God. It's the faithfulness of God through every
season, not the easiness. His faithfulness was so good that
even through my wife's cancer diagnosis, I couldn't do anything
but trust Him. One thing I asked of Him, was to not turn His
Worship House is a culmination of the last 14 years of walking with the
Spirit. I've seen the worship movement disconnected, in competition,
scared to lose their people and holding onto them like commodities or
that their guitarists are their possession and they just don't know who their
Dad is because if your afraid to lose what you have, you don't know how
faithful your Dad is. I've even caught myself thinking, "that person's gonna
leave," but I'm always reminded that they're not my person...they're Jesus'
so if we are a part of the journey to open the door for them to get where
God is calling them to then I can champion it, get behind it and celebrate
it. So I hold loosley. I want them, but I don't need them because God gives
us what we need. They aren't my ticket to get anywhere. Sometimes our
best has to leave, so that we don't miss the diamonds in the rough. Those
young ones that could be overlooked because they're just hanging out
worshipping Jesus but God is raising them up. I'm not searching for stars. I
wait for the ones Holy Spirit highlights. Competition is believing that God
won't provide and performance is when it becomes about being better
than the people you're standing beside. Instead of realizing that we can't
be all things to all people and just glad that the person was reached even
if was by another leader that day. So it sparked this idea to help whoever
comes to us, to walk with their community, empower them to step into the
life that God has for them and move in the Spirit so that they can build
something that is going to last. We'll also host community worship nights
all over the nation but you have to use musicians and worship leaders
from multiple churches and you can't have it in a church.
Being a Leader, how do you fight the battle of
feeling used?
That's the thing though...I consider it a joy. If I am means to an end, I am
super grateful. When you were that person, it gives you a grace for it. I
would never be offended at being someone's stepping stone. It's actually
what I'm called to do. One of the first lines I wrote for my new EP :
Heirloom was on the song called, "Children" and it said: "And I'll watch the
road as you build on the back of my name, and that's okay." What hurts
me, is when that is my heart for people and its misinterpreted. But when
you're called to something, you get back up and you do it again.
What's the purpose of songwriting?
Most people think you're trying to be famous when you put out an album
but we're not trying to be famous, we're trying to be faithful. When God's
given you people with gifts, I feel its my honor to steward what God's
given us and to make platforms for what God has put on their lives.