Most weeks I find myself prepping for Sunday mornings. I use several techniques such as active listening, passive listening and actual practice behind a drum set all in prep for helping lead worship on Sunday mornings. I am super thankful that all the places I play I am not looked at as just “the drummer.” I have always been encouraged to listen to the Holy Spirit and play accordingly. I have been playing for many years and I am still trying to master listening to the Holy Spirit on and off the stage. This past Sunday was no different. I had worked through the week of listening and making notes. I had spent several hours behind the drum set, all for 18 minutes of worship. I felt like I was ready to sit behind the kit with confidence.

There is also another side to what I do in which I film and make short videos of the worship set. Back in the days of drums lessons, I would often practice in front of a mirror and if I could film/record practice I would. It never crossed my mind that if I were to fast forward time I would be doing the same thing as an adult. But here we are, 22 years later. I knew I needed to work on some problem spots in my playing, so I turned to filming again. What used to be for me to improve has slowly become something other than its original intention. I was encouraged by one of the worship leaders at my home church and several other drummers to post what I had done. Throwing inhibitions to the wind, I started a YouTube channel and posted the video. I had no formal training on cameras, mics, software, but for some reason thought this was something I really wanted to give a shot.

I posted my first video Feb. 14, 2016. It is a blog style video and at the time not many people were making videos like this. Currently it has 199 views. Now to some that is an extremely low number, but to me I had a hard time believing that, that amount of people actually clicked on the video. It was the longest 3:30m video of my life. I spent hours trying to figure out editing in iMovie on my iPad. Yep, I started with an iPad and iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, its not the highest of quality, but it was produced and published. Any tutorial video you search, not matter who it is, will tell you to start with what you have. So, I did! Again, fast forward to current day and I use five GoPro cameras and my iPhone with an external mic. I have moved from iMovie to Final Cut Pro. I still find myself trying to make the best quality film with the tools I have. Am I a pro? Absolutely not!! There is still lots I have to learn. But I think learning is all part of the process.

So, I share the back story to get you to this past Sunday. I was playing at Bethlehem Church, which is my home church. On the main campus there are three service times 9:15, 11, and 5pm. When I play at the main campus, Sunday mornings start early. Call time is 6:30am, however I like to be early. I usually wake up around 5am and I try to be to the church by 5:45am. I get there to set the drum kit to my liking, set the click tracks and start thinking about camera shots. Also, not to be hyper spiritual, but I want to pray over the room, chairs, tech stuff, the hearts of the people coming to worship, the worship leaders, and finally myself. Music is powerful for me and I think its powerful for the people that come to the services. I want God to be involved in every aspect that is for Him anyway.

Nevertheless, where is this going? Well, I’m glad you asked. In a portion of a song our worship leader began to talk about how we have an enemy. We, as believers, remind him of God. Because of that constant reminder, Satan hates all believers and wants to destroy us. John wrote in his gospel that Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. I agree with our worship leader when he said “It’s time to fight back!” So, to answer your question, I’m fighting back. I believe people relate to music and to stories. It’s the only reason I can find why people, that I do not know, would click on a video. From that start date two years ago, I have subscribers on my channel that watch videos of me playing drums. Now, it could be that the places I get to play have some incredible singers and musicians. It could be that some want the “behind  the scenes” look at what we do or some are searching for help. The other side is that we all have a story to tell and you never know how your story is going to impact other people. I try to faithfully tell my story through drumming and the platforms God has given me. Making videos, blogging, social media or whatever the case may be, I want people to see Jesus.

My hope has always been that me overcoming my personal fear of insignificance, self doubt about drumming and posting videos would encourage other people to do the same. Overcoming those fears has been a long slow journey with Jesus through some very dark times. I’m not saying that journey is over either, but what I hope to communicate is that, with Jesus, the journey feasible. Jesus is not the “easy button.” Jesus is the person that gave his life for you to have a fighting chance. Everyday I go to battle, most of the time against my own thoughts, but I fight. “It is time to Fight!”