This week I found a great Q & A interview with Christian recording artist, Joel Engle. I would like share it with our online community. Thanks to Kim Jones' efforts in conducting this interview.
Joel Engle is a nationally-recognized worship communicator. God has
given Joel a broad range of gifts to communicate worship as a musician,
songwriter, author, speaker and worship leader. As a musician and songwriter, Joel has published more than 40 original
songs, created SPIN360 (a worship resource that goes out to more than
4000 churches each quarter), and has had his songs recorded by SONICFLOOd,
Charles Billingsley and Point of Grace. As an author, he has written
material for the Surrender Conference and co-authored Glorify, a
devotional through the Gospel of John. Joel is a dynamic speaker and
that gives him the ability to communicate effectively from God's Word
about worship. Churches bring in Joel every year to share his testimony,
teach workshops on worship, and speak to the body. Joel is both a
student and a teacher of God's Word to thousands of people each year.
Finally, as a worship leader, Joel has reached hundreds of thousands of
people. He has led worship with Dawson McAllister Conferences, Student
Life Camps, Youth Evangelism Conferences, and much more. The bottom line
is that no matter what you may know about Joel, one thing is for
certain, God has set him apart to communicate God's heart of worship.
Kim: You know, you're nationally recognized as a worship leader and communicator. What was it that made you feel like your church should be bigger than the church down the street?
Joel: You know, for me it's been a spiritual evolution, if you will. That's exactly how I started. I started out as a college student leading praise and worship at my school. And we did a thing every day ... In Acts, chapter two, it talks about how the disciples met every day at 3 o'clock to pray. So we did that at school every day for a whole semester during my junior year. We met every day at 3 o'clock to pray and to worship God. God just did this huge work. We started with just three people and we ended up having about 200 people every day, jam packed into this little chapel. There was no marketing or posters. People just came. Through that I winded up traveling a lot to different churches doing concerts and leading music. It just kind of evolved and I started taking the music even more serious and my writing (songwriting) more serious. Then I wound up doing a project with a very well-known Christian worship artist and the next thing you know, I'm traveling even more. I don't think you ever really set out to do great things. What happens is that the passion that you have for what you do at the moment begins to develop and it kind of catches on fire. I think that's what happened. One of the bad parts though is that you wind up becoming busy or successful, or whatever you want to call it, and you get more demands and then you wind up kind of resting on that. You forget where you come from. For me, the last couple of years has been getting back to what God started doing in me 15 years ago.
Kim: How do you stay grounded when you reach that pinnacle? Especially after reaching the level of success that you have?
Joel: I think first of all ... you know Bill Murray, the actor and comedian, he made a statement that I read that said "When somebody becomes a celebrity, they're a jerk for a year and a half to two years no matter what". I think that there's a lot of truth in that. For me, I kind of lost being grounded for a while and I got the big-head. I knew how to cover it up though. Instead of bragging I was just like "The Lord did this" ... but I was telling ten thousand people! Spiritualized self-promotion. But what happened is that because I'm involved in my local church and I don't mean that I just show up on Sunday morning, I'm talking about deep relationships with people ... you know, you can't live like that for long without getting your head knocked off in love. I have accountability in my life from my pastor to the guys in my Bible study that meets on Monday night (there's six of us that meet). And I've got all kinds of friends in the ministry that really know me and speak freely into my life, whether I want to hear it or not. It so happens that because I'm a worship leader, and worship leaders don't really know each other because we get paired with speakers, all of my best friends are preachers. So if I get too far off, there's a sermon getting ready to hit me. Plus I have a wife who is a Godly woman and a family who loves me and they're all Christians and they'll all speak into my life. I think you have to be surrounded by people who love you and know you for who you are. Then you have to desire that accountability. It's doesn't just happen naturally. You have to be intentional about it. I have been going to my church for about four years now. I went to church on Sunday's, but I really wasn't plugged in for about six years with my travel ministry. I was just so busy traveling that I'd come in, just sit in the congregation and then leave. I wasn't really experiencing Biblical fellowship. So I was so dried up spiritually and I was craving those relationships. I prayed and God led me to my church and my life was changed. The people in my church could care less what happens in my quote-unquote ministry career. They're more interested in how I treat my wife and my children. It's a neat thing. I'm very blessed.
Kim: I read in your bio that in 1997 you and your wife started SPIN360. Wow! For a resource like that to be used world-wide in thousands of churches is just awesome.
Joel: I tell you, it is the most amazing thing. To be honest with you, I can't believe it at all. I mean, we are not business people at all. The whole thing developed because I'd go somewhere to sing, before the big worship wave really hit, like at a camp or something and everybody would run up to me after the thing and want me to write up the chorus to the song that I had just done. I'd be like man, sure ... But after about the third time it was driving me nuts! I couldn't take it anymore. They would be asking me for tracks to take back to their churches to sing the songs. A buddy of mine said you ought to start a company. It was like "whoa ... ding"! So we just started out with this really cheesy mailer for the national network of ministers that we made up. Immediately we got about 150 people signed up. We're were like "We don't have enough music! These people paid for music! We better go make some more music". So we made the music and it's just grown every year. It's so weird to hear. I'll go play at a church and some 25 year old kid will come up to me and say "I learned to play music from SPIN". Over and over again. Or a praise band will come up to me and say "Yeah man, we learned how to play our instruments through SPIN when we were in high school". That just blows me away. I think right now that there are about 150,000 students every week using SPIN. It's crazy. We're excited though.
Kim: I frequently see people and organizations that attack
Christian music that is not from a hymnal. You get out there and watch
this music touch people. So what is your response to the people that
attack music that glorifies God but with a different beat?
Joel: I think that music is a language. I call it emotions put to sound, but it's a language. For me, if I walked into a Gaither Homecoming shoot, even though I have so much respect for Bill Gaither, I probably wouldn't get into the music because that's just not my language. I speak a more pop/rock language. That's what I respond to. But I love Bill Gaither because his songs are so God centered. Because He Lives ... you know, all of those great songs that I grew up singing. So while a lot of people call contemporary music "from the devil", they don't realize that a lot of the hymns were taken were taken from secular tunes. Martin Luther took music that was worldly and put it with Christian lyrics. There's nothing new about doing that. What makes a drum any more worldly than a piano or an organ? Why is it that piano and organ are acceptable but drums and bass aren't? It doesn't make sense. I think what happens is that we miss the heart of worship. The heart of worship has nothing to do with music. I see such an amazing response everywhere I go. Not just teenagers, but people of all ages. I did a radio show a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about the "worship wars". Basically they were talking about contemporary music versus traditional. I said that number one, there is no such thing as a worship war. The only war that we have is the Kingdom of Heaven versus the kingdom of hell. You know? It's a style war ... not a worship war. I think that we need to get past the style and look to the content. I'm really into more of an edgier sound, but to me it's about the lyrics. The music has to be God-honoring. Songs are made to touch people's lives and to bring glory to God. For me, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair, having this interview with you if it weren't for bands like Whiteheart and Petra ... the music of the 80's and early 90's ... dcTalk, Steven Curtis Chapman. All of these wonderful Christian artists. I remember going to a Mylon LeFevre and the Imperials concert and my mom had just died and my grandpa had just died. I remember talking to one of the singers in the Imperials. There were like 10,000 people there, but they came out into the audience and talked to everyone after the show. Paul Smith, the lead singer then, talked to me about what was going on in my life. He prayed over me. I ran as fast as I could go get to that CD table. I played that cassette over and over and over again. God used those songs and that conversation to touch my life. I would have never had that experience if I hadn't gotten into the songs through the radio. I think that it's sad when people attack stuff based on preference. If there is a Christian artist out there promoting Hinduism or Buddhism, that's worth fighting over, but preference and style are not things worth fighting over. Music has touched me in ways that I can't express. It's touched my soul. I love to read and to hear great preaching, but there's something about music that sticks with you more than anything. I'm privileged to be able to do this for a living. It doesn't matter if it's a small audience or 10,000 people. Everytime I get to stand there behind my piano, with my band, and lift up a song to the Lord, I just can't believe it. It's a dream come true. It's a lot of hard work and sacrifice sometimes, but I wouldn't change it.
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| Joel Engle |
Kim: You know, you're nationally recognized as a worship leader and communicator. What was it that made you feel like your church should be bigger than the church down the street?
Joel: You know, for me it's been a spiritual evolution, if you will. That's exactly how I started. I started out as a college student leading praise and worship at my school. And we did a thing every day ... In Acts, chapter two, it talks about how the disciples met every day at 3 o'clock to pray. So we did that at school every day for a whole semester during my junior year. We met every day at 3 o'clock to pray and to worship God. God just did this huge work. We started with just three people and we ended up having about 200 people every day, jam packed into this little chapel. There was no marketing or posters. People just came. Through that I winded up traveling a lot to different churches doing concerts and leading music. It just kind of evolved and I started taking the music even more serious and my writing (songwriting) more serious. Then I wound up doing a project with a very well-known Christian worship artist and the next thing you know, I'm traveling even more. I don't think you ever really set out to do great things. What happens is that the passion that you have for what you do at the moment begins to develop and it kind of catches on fire. I think that's what happened. One of the bad parts though is that you wind up becoming busy or successful, or whatever you want to call it, and you get more demands and then you wind up kind of resting on that. You forget where you come from. For me, the last couple of years has been getting back to what God started doing in me 15 years ago.
Kim: How do you stay grounded when you reach that pinnacle? Especially after reaching the level of success that you have?
Joel: I think first of all ... you know Bill Murray, the actor and comedian, he made a statement that I read that said "When somebody becomes a celebrity, they're a jerk for a year and a half to two years no matter what". I think that there's a lot of truth in that. For me, I kind of lost being grounded for a while and I got the big-head. I knew how to cover it up though. Instead of bragging I was just like "The Lord did this" ... but I was telling ten thousand people! Spiritualized self-promotion. But what happened is that because I'm involved in my local church and I don't mean that I just show up on Sunday morning, I'm talking about deep relationships with people ... you know, you can't live like that for long without getting your head knocked off in love. I have accountability in my life from my pastor to the guys in my Bible study that meets on Monday night (there's six of us that meet). And I've got all kinds of friends in the ministry that really know me and speak freely into my life, whether I want to hear it or not. It so happens that because I'm a worship leader, and worship leaders don't really know each other because we get paired with speakers, all of my best friends are preachers. So if I get too far off, there's a sermon getting ready to hit me. Plus I have a wife who is a Godly woman and a family who loves me and they're all Christians and they'll all speak into my life. I think you have to be surrounded by people who love you and know you for who you are. Then you have to desire that accountability. It's doesn't just happen naturally. You have to be intentional about it. I have been going to my church for about four years now. I went to church on Sunday's, but I really wasn't plugged in for about six years with my travel ministry. I was just so busy traveling that I'd come in, just sit in the congregation and then leave. I wasn't really experiencing Biblical fellowship. So I was so dried up spiritually and I was craving those relationships. I prayed and God led me to my church and my life was changed. The people in my church could care less what happens in my quote-unquote ministry career. They're more interested in how I treat my wife and my children. It's a neat thing. I'm very blessed.
Kim: I read in your bio that in 1997 you and your wife started SPIN360. Wow! For a resource like that to be used world-wide in thousands of churches is just awesome.
Joel: I tell you, it is the most amazing thing. To be honest with you, I can't believe it at all. I mean, we are not business people at all. The whole thing developed because I'd go somewhere to sing, before the big worship wave really hit, like at a camp or something and everybody would run up to me after the thing and want me to write up the chorus to the song that I had just done. I'd be like man, sure ... But after about the third time it was driving me nuts! I couldn't take it anymore. They would be asking me for tracks to take back to their churches to sing the songs. A buddy of mine said you ought to start a company. It was like "whoa ... ding"! So we just started out with this really cheesy mailer for the national network of ministers that we made up. Immediately we got about 150 people signed up. We're were like "We don't have enough music! These people paid for music! We better go make some more music". So we made the music and it's just grown every year. It's so weird to hear. I'll go play at a church and some 25 year old kid will come up to me and say "I learned to play music from SPIN". Over and over again. Or a praise band will come up to me and say "Yeah man, we learned how to play our instruments through SPIN when we were in high school". That just blows me away. I think right now that there are about 150,000 students every week using SPIN. It's crazy. We're excited though.
Joel: I think that music is a language. I call it emotions put to sound, but it's a language. For me, if I walked into a Gaither Homecoming shoot, even though I have so much respect for Bill Gaither, I probably wouldn't get into the music because that's just not my language. I speak a more pop/rock language. That's what I respond to. But I love Bill Gaither because his songs are so God centered. Because He Lives ... you know, all of those great songs that I grew up singing. So while a lot of people call contemporary music "from the devil", they don't realize that a lot of the hymns were taken were taken from secular tunes. Martin Luther took music that was worldly and put it with Christian lyrics. There's nothing new about doing that. What makes a drum any more worldly than a piano or an organ? Why is it that piano and organ are acceptable but drums and bass aren't? It doesn't make sense. I think what happens is that we miss the heart of worship. The heart of worship has nothing to do with music. I see such an amazing response everywhere I go. Not just teenagers, but people of all ages. I did a radio show a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about the "worship wars". Basically they were talking about contemporary music versus traditional. I said that number one, there is no such thing as a worship war. The only war that we have is the Kingdom of Heaven versus the kingdom of hell. You know? It's a style war ... not a worship war. I think that we need to get past the style and look to the content. I'm really into more of an edgier sound, but to me it's about the lyrics. The music has to be God-honoring. Songs are made to touch people's lives and to bring glory to God. For me, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair, having this interview with you if it weren't for bands like Whiteheart and Petra ... the music of the 80's and early 90's ... dcTalk, Steven Curtis Chapman. All of these wonderful Christian artists. I remember going to a Mylon LeFevre and the Imperials concert and my mom had just died and my grandpa had just died. I remember talking to one of the singers in the Imperials. There were like 10,000 people there, but they came out into the audience and talked to everyone after the show. Paul Smith, the lead singer then, talked to me about what was going on in my life. He prayed over me. I ran as fast as I could go get to that CD table. I played that cassette over and over and over again. God used those songs and that conversation to touch my life. I would have never had that experience if I hadn't gotten into the songs through the radio. I think that it's sad when people attack stuff based on preference. If there is a Christian artist out there promoting Hinduism or Buddhism, that's worth fighting over, but preference and style are not things worth fighting over. Music has touched me in ways that I can't express. It's touched my soul. I love to read and to hear great preaching, but there's something about music that sticks with you more than anything. I'm privileged to be able to do this for a living. It doesn't matter if it's a small audience or 10,000 people. Everytime I get to stand there behind my piano, with my band, and lift up a song to the Lord, I just can't believe it. It's a dream come true. It's a lot of hard work and sacrifice sometimes, but I wouldn't change it.
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