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.
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| Joel Engle |
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.
