LISTEN ON YOUR SMARTPHONE
Listen while you drive, workout, or do chores! Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Tune In, iHeartRadio
Not sure how? CLICK HERE
Follow Us!
TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, or FACEBOOK
Transcript
AlexGuys, I’m so excited to tell you about my brand new Copy Me course. This is a 34 lesson in depth video course where I literally show you everything I do for my Ministry at my Church. I work at a large Church in Los Angeles, and I let you look over my shoulder as I do all the different tasks and routines and systems and structures for my Ministry here. And I not just explain what to do or why I do it. I also show you exactly how I do it so that you can take these principles and these habits and these structures and these routines and these tasks, and you can immediately apply them at your Church to bring about health and vitality in your Ministry. Sometimes it’s just helpful to see how other people do things so that you can get new ideas to implement at your Church. And this is as in depth as I’ve ever been. It’s the longest course I’ve ever done. I think it’s 6 hours of content, and I cover so many different topics. Pretty much you name it, we cover it. I talk about how I schedule my teams, how I set up planning center to be more efficient, how I set up my stage, how we make our Ableton live sessions, how we route our audio, how I give new team member feedback, how we run our preservice check in meetings, how we debrief our services with our production Department, I mean, literally everything.
AlexAnd I give you access to my audition process and our files. I give you access to our Ableton live session template. I give you access to the training that I give to our new team members. So, I mean, you are getting a ton of super valuable information in this course. And listen, the best news is it is included for free in my full course bundle. So I’m not raising the price of my bundle. I’m giving this to you for a limited time, for free. So if you buy the bundle, it’s $99 for five courses. Now you’re getting the Copy Me course as well. So that’s six courses, 14 hours of training for $99. And because I love you and because you’re an awesome listener, you can get 25% off that price by entering the promo code WMT podcast at checkout. That will take 25% off. So that’s like $74 for six courses, 14 hours of training. I mean, it’s crazy. Good deal. So what are you waiting for? Go to Worship Ministrytraining.com and get the full course bundle, including the brand new Copy Me course for a limited time included, free of charge.
Tommy WalkerAll right.
AlexI hope that helps. Let’s dive right into this month’s episode. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Worship Ministry Training Podcast. My name is Alex and Fijian, and I am your host. And if you are a new listener, welcome to the community, to the family. So happy to have you. We are just a group of worship leaders all over the globe who are trying to grow in our craft and our calling so that we can honor God and serve people. And so welcome. And I would encourage you, if you are a new listener, to go scroll through all the previous episodes from the past eight years and find the topics that you need help in. Right now, I try to make every episode topical and as in depth and practical as possible so that you can apply that knowledge immediately to your Ministry. So go scroll through the list, find your favorite topics, add them to your Up Next playlist and devour the content and grow and learn in this month’s episode, I’m talking with Tommy Walker, who is a veteran worship leader and songwriter. He wrote songs like he Knows My Name, many of you know that song.
AlexAnd he has just been faithfully serving his Church here in Los Angeles for the past 30 plus years. And so what I asked Tommy to talk to us about today is like, give us your advice and your wisdom as someone who’s been in the game for 30 years, talk to us younger worship leaders or those of us who are just getting started about what we need to be thinking about, how we need to view our ministries and what really matters in the long run. And so that’s what this episode is about. Tommy drops mad wisdom, so get ready to be encouraged and pumped up. And I will see you on the back end after this interview with Tommy. Hey, everybody, I am here with the one and only Tommy Walker. Tommy, thank you for being on the podcast.
Tommy WalkerThanks for having me.
AlexIt’s going to be fun. Tommy and I had a little bit of technical issues in the beginning, but we are going to make the most of the time that we have together. And Tommy, I was doing a little bit of research on you before we hit record like this morning, I was checking out your website and just some of the other things that you do online. And I found out that you have two honorary doctorate degrees. So you are actually Doctor Tommy or Doctor Walker. We’ll call you Doctor Walker.
Tommy WalkerDoc Walk, please.
AlexDoc Walk. I love it. I love it. So everybody, Doc Walk is going to drop some mad wisdom on you all today and Tommy on your website, on your bio. One of the things that was encouraging to me, and I knew this previously, but you’ve been at the same Church for 30 years. You’ve been faithfully married for many years. You have raised your kids in the Church, and you’re just living out your desire to be faithful and obedient over the long haul. And can you please give massive advice and wisdom to all the young worship leaders that are just getting started that are maybe one decade into their Ministry? And you’ve probably learned and gleaned so much over the last three decades of serving in one local fellowship. I’d love to maybe just start with this question, Tommy, which is, how do you view Ministry now 30 years into it, as opposed to how you viewed Ministry when you first were getting started?
Tommy WalkerWell, I think maybe a great way to go about this is just to tell my story a little bit because I moved to La from Texas to go to music school to pursue being a Christian artist. I was doing music school and I was writing and I was passing out my demos and trying to do the whole thing. I was being constantly rejected everywhere. But I had been told, don’t wait for that perfect scenario before you start giving your life away and serving God, but just start now. So I met a drummer at Musicians Institute here in Hollywood where I was going, and he said, there’s this little Church in Eagle Rock. So I went there and I showed up. I said to the pastor, you don’t know me. But my mom told me I shouldn’t wait for the perfect moment. So if you need anything. So I started playing guitar on the worship team. And then at a point, the pastor said, hey, why don’t you write songs for Christian Assembly? And I thought, well, nobody else wants my song. So I started serving my Church with all of my gifts. And what I discovered is through giving my life and kind of my passions all through my local Church.
Tommy WalkerInstead of creating Tommy’s World and Tommy’s whole thing, God blessed me and I was able to do all the things I wanted to do. And I got to lead worship in stadiums and travel to many nations, and I got to sign record deals and do all this thing. But one thing I realized through all these many years is like you sign a record contract. I don’t even know if people do that anymore. I think some years anyway dream come true. Well, then you find out, well, but then the record contract ends because it always has a beginning and an end. And then you do this amazing tour and you’re just all up for it. And the tour is awesome, or the tour is terrible, whatever it is. And then the tour ends. But here’s what I’ve learned. But the Church doesn’t ever end. It’s never going to go away, and it stays there. And I think if anything I’ve learned or have, I guess I already knew it. But now I really know it. The way God is at work on planet Earth is through all these hundreds of thousands of local churches, all these usually somewhat unimpressive little places, but all of us together combined every week.
Tommy WalkerThat’s how God is at work. So if you’re whatever your ambitions are or your musical ambitions and you’re a worship leader or whatever, I’m telling you, if you’re serving your local congregation. You made it. You’re doing it. Look no further and give your first fruits, the very best of who you are. And instead of trying to get good enough so that you can leave your Church, that’s what it always was before. Once you got good enough, you can move to Nashville and abandon your Church, make the worship at your Church incredible. And don’t forget, you’re already there. That’s what’s been just driven home to me. And yes, it is a challenge and we’re dealing with all the things that go with the imperfections of the Church and you’re dealing with musicians that aren’t great and relationships that can be difficult with staff members and all that. But I’m telling you, it’s worth it to make it as good as it can be. And God will use you in a powerful way.
AlexMan, what an incredible exhortation and incredible start to this conversation. That’s something that I’ve been telling some of my young proteges, I guess, recently, which is there is nothing else eternal Besides the Church of God. Like, nothing will move into the new heavens and new Earth except for the Church. So what better thing to invest yourself into? This is the only thing that lasts is these people.
Tommy WalkerLet me tell you. Like, people won’t, not even you are too young to know this. But there’s a thing called Promise Keepers, this amazing men’s movement that was happening. And when it was at a time like on a given Saturday, there would be like four or five stadiums simultaneously full of men worshiping and learning how to live lives of integrity for the Lord and their families and everything. And I got to lead worship at a lot of those. And then I got to lead worship for Franklin Graham for a while. And actually it was one of Billy Grant people don’t even know who Billy Grant is anymore.
AlexCrazy.
Tommy WalkerOne of my dreams was one of my heroes and I got to actually end up was like the last time I think he ever spoke, I got the lead worship of that. But here’s my point. I’m at this packed out arena for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. And then I realized if it wasn’t for the Church, there would be nobody here because they have people like, move to a city to literally go to all the little churches, the big and little churches and meet Church leaders and the pastors and everything. Hey, would you be a part of our crusade? And they do a fabulous job with it. And so then you get to this place and it’s packed out with Church people and Church people at yes have invited nonbelievers and all that. But what I learned with all of these parachurch ministries that I’ve gotten to be a part of through the years is if it wasn’t for the Church, the thing you’re trying to leave as a worship leader because you’re trying to be whatever you’re trying to be you’re trying to leave. Nothing exists without the Church. And if you want to be like a Christian artist and you’re going to do concerts and you’re going to go on the road, all those people that are going to come there, they came from that Church.
Tommy WalkerYou know what I mean? So it’s the Church. I’m telling you at the Church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. It’s not going anywhere. No matter what the media says. God is at work and he loves his Church. Make your Church great.
AlexOh, my gosh. This is so encouraging because so many of us are discouraged at our little churches or our little whatever. I’m just thinking of some of the people who email me from Africa and they’re like, we’re just trying our best, but we don’t have anything. And the people are brand new believers. But it’s like what you’re saying is there is literally nothing more valuable than the Church. And that is how God advances his Kingdom on the Earth is through these little Podunk churches that aren’t perfect and aren’t great, but man such value that you’re speaking into us. Thank you. I would love to hear when you think about a Ministry, now that you’re 30 years into your Ministry, how would you define a successful Ministry? When would you tell somebody that they’ve been successful in their Ministry?
Tommy WalkerWow, that’s great. That’s an interesting one. One of my life verses has become one of my life versus now that I’ve been so deep and far into this, I’m going to get this wrong. But it says, work enthusiastically for the Lord. I’m messing it up because you can know that whatever you do for him is never useless. That’s the point of the verse. I tell you when you go and we all have done our worship services and it was just terrible. And you’re driving home, you think that’s it that was the last time. I’m never doing this again. But the Lord is reminding you and telling us the fact that you were faithful and you showed up and you served, he promised that he did something, he was using you. It’s never useless. And so it’s a pretty tricky thing to figure out what success is because the Kingdom success is so different than ours. But I think faithfulness to be in it for the long haul. I always like to think maybe with worship leaders like youth pastors, they only last two years at every Church. So I like to count my years as like dog years.
Tommy WalkerSo I’ve been a worship leader at my Church for like 150 years. But to be encouraged. So I think success, I think it’s basically faithfulness over the long haul. This is probably going to be one of your next questions is how do you do that? And to me, it has a lot to do with number one, believing that God is at work if I can believe I led worship at my Church this last weekend. It wasn’t anything like crazy amazing, but I did it. I was faithful. And if I can look back and believe, I believe that God transacted some eternity through my life. If I can believe it, I’ll keep doing it till the day I die because that’s all I really care about. But if I’m doubting that, I’m not sure if anything good is coming from me getting up early and taking my shower and doing my rehearsal and trying to not get offended at somebody or whatever, all it is. If I don’t believe it, I’m going to give up. And then number two for me got that one. Then it’s keeping it creative because as a creative person, I get bored easy, as I’m sure you do, too.
Tommy WalkerAnd we always want to blame that on somebody else. But if you’re the worship leader, it’s your job to bring the freshness he’s the one that put that creative thing in you, that thing in you that doesn’t want to hear the same song all day like everybody else doesn’t want to keep hearing something new and fresh and creating something fresh. And so you’ve got to tend that garden yourself. And you’ve got to say, I’m going to do a new arrangement or a new song or a new twist or a new video or a new watch something and keep it fresh. And I’m telling you, not just for the sake of the people in the congregation and the people that are coming that are lost, that are hopefully going to hear the gospel, but for survival for you and survival for your team, you got to keep it fresh. And I also always felt a great responsibility for my team members, my volunteers that are showing up to rehearse and whatever like, I put on me that I’m going to do something in that rehearsal that’s going to make them want to come back and rehearse next week.
Tommy WalkerThere’s going to be something somewhat challenging or beautiful or amazing or cool or something. Anyways, for me, the creative and the knowing that God is at work has sustained me through all these years.
AlexThat’s so good. Can I ask you that little comment you made at the end about you dedicate yourself to making sure that you’re going to do something to make your team want to come back? What are some of those ideas that you would implement?
Tommy WalkerWell, for me as a songwriter? A lot of it would be new songs, like, even if it’s just like an added little vamp to an old song or something, but it would be like a kind of a cool groove or chord change or something that just feels really new and really fresh. And I feel like when my volunteers are showing up, I’ve created enough of this culture that they’re thinking he’s going to throw something at me. And it also helps keep their head in the game. Like, if they already know for sure. Absolutely. That there’s going to be nothing new or fresh. It’s hard to keep your head in the game. But if the leader is going to throw something new at you, you kind of got to pay attention. New songs and new arrangements and things like that usually.
AlexOh, my gosh, I’m thinking about all the churches out there that literally just play to the tracks, and they play the exact same arrangement the exact same way in the exact same key every time. Talk about getting stale on board.
Tommy WalkerThere’s great things that tracks can help teach people. Like, if your bass player basically doesn’t know what to play, then you can listen and you can learn how to play. I get it. There’s great things to it, but tracks are not very helpful with keeping things fresh. So keep that in mind. Maybe use tracks for half of your set. And the other thing I hate about tracks is, like, I don’t really feel like doing this eight bar intro. Everyone’s waiting for the worst, all those issues.
AlexI know I’m with you. I am totally with you. At our Church, we do tracks for about half the songs, and then half of them, we keep them open so that we can go wherever we need to. So you kind of started talking about this, but 30 years of faithful service, and you talked about how continuing to trust that God is working and then also keeping things creative. How else have you kept your soul fresh and kept the passion alive and the joy alive from week to week to week to week? Because I know even just being at my Church for five years and we do a lot of services, and if I go too long without taking a break or vacation, I just feel drained. And I have a strong devotional life. I mean, I read my Bible every day, but I can feel drained, so I’m sure other listeners feel that way. What has helped you to stay fresh spiritually over the years?
Tommy WalkerFirst, let me say that I’ve also raised up other people so that I don’t have to be the one, the one that leads every single week, and that helps a lot. Yes. I don’t think I’m any different than anybody else. Like, I have a pretty strong devotional life. It’s partly just running the race to the end and being determined to be faithful. But for me, a lot of it keeps going back to the creativity. Recently, the you version Bible app. They have that verse of the day. Well, for a few months there, I just wrote a song to the verse of the day every day. Wow. That’s even in my devotional life, sometimes I even hear God say, I’m trying to get a profound nugget for the day or whatever, and it doesn’t seem that profound. I’ll just hear the Spirit say, Tom, just put your Bible down and pick up your guitar and worship me for a while, just you and me and just go for it. And for me, it will be like singing that scripture or a repeated phrase or whatever. So anyway, that’s something that helps me.
AlexYeah. And the older I get, Tommy, and I’m sure it sounds like you would agree with this and just kind of how you answer that question. It’s not really about the feels and about the feelings. I had a friend call me recently and say, Man, I used to be so on fire and so passionate, and now I’m feeling so like just blah. And I ask some diagnostic questions and things like that. But at the end, I told him what I tell a lot of my younger people. It’s like at the end, it’s kind of choosing to just be obedient. It’s like there’s a book title called Along Obedience in the Same Direction. And I think that’s such a good description of the Christian life. It doesn’t always have to feel like top of the world most days. For me, it just feels like saying yes. Again, simple obedience.
Tommy WalkerIt’s a relationship and a relationship with your friends, your family, whatever. It’s not like every minute of every day, it’s like, wow, hey, sometimes it’s really awesome. And sometimes it’s like, yeah, we’re just here and it’s a relationship. I think the fields are great, and when they’re there, let’s go for it. But I think that’s what you’re saying. It’s not what we’re placing our life upon. Yeah.
AlexIt’s kind of just like a choice. Like, yes, Lord, today I will do everything I can by your help to honor you.
Tommy WalkerI think getting older, too. Like, you know, I’m determined to be a man of faith, that when my kids bury me, they’re going to be able to say, well, he wasn’t this and he wasn’t that. He was a man of faith. To the end, I’m going for it all. And sometimes just that thought, when it’s really non feeling will just keep me going.
AlexThat’s so good. Yeah. I’d love for you to share what you see as potential dangers for worship leaders in this era. We’ve got a lot of worship leaders who are learning about worship from YouTube videos or Instagram or whatever. What would you say are the dangers that are current to our modern era of worship leading for some of the young worship leaders out there.
Tommy WalkerI think when I first started leading, it wasn’t that cool to be a worship leader. It’s really cool to be a worship leader. And you got a lot of really good looking worship leaders out there. So if we let ourselves kind of go there, we can feel really discouraged because we don’t always feel very cool and great quote is, worship is not about being cool. It’s about being humble, actually. But even maybe beyond that is worship is looking and sounding more and more of the same everywhere you go because there’s this kind of template of what it sounds like and what it looks like and it’s working and it’s successful. So instead of taking any risk to be kind of unique, not for the sake of being unique, but just being who God has really made you to be, it’s kind of a little bit too much of a risk and, you know, the others going to work, but it really creates burnout because you’re just doing what you think everyone will like. And when you do that, you don’t last very long. And I think that if you can have the courage to really like, the more you get to really know Jesus in a personal way, the more you’ll begin to understand how he uniquely wants to let that personal relationship that you have with him come through.
Tommy WalkerAnd it’s uniqueness, and that’s where the power of your anointing is. But it takes courage because it’s not necessarily going to look just like whoever going to be the same and sound the same. And technology has made it worse because of the tracks and because of YouTube and everything. It was harder to know what you were supposed to look like. It sounds like 30 years ago, but now it’s very obvious. I didn’t really think of this until just now, but I think it’s contributing to burnout because everything is just so predictable.
AlexYeah, man. I keep coming back to what you’re saying as the center of this conversation is like the role of creativity in keeping things fresh and relevant and enjoyable for yourself, your Church and your people. I’ve watched your services, and then I’ve heard obviously your albums, which we’ll talk about in a bit, but your Church is very creative musically. You put a high onus on musicianship and songwriting, and you guys sound completely unique, which I think is a beautiful thing. I think every local fellowship should sound unique because it’s a unique group of people and God’s doing a unique work there. I would love to hear what you’ve learned about music’s role in the life of a local fellowship. What have you learned about how music affects a local fellowship?
Tommy WalkerWell, it’s certainly been a big role from the beginning. You know, kind of what happened was I was looking for a Church when I was going to music school. And then the part I didn’t say was there was this saxophone player who’s still a Mario I was a big fan of. He’s a Christian, but he’s a jazz musician and he was a top session player, and he was on the worship. So this drummer at school said, I know this little Church where Gustavaro plays on the worship team, and he was there. So when I began leading worship Gusto, and then all these other amazing musicians started coming. So then I was like, well, if these people can play any style of music better than I can, then I’m going to give them a way of expressing themselves. Like, I am not going to let them just play 8th notes, only the whole thing when they’ve got this treasure trove of ability. So we would really experiment with lots of different styles and different sounds. So the worship really became very equal with the sermon back in the day, equal time and equal attention and just the people connecting with God.
Tommy WalkerAnd, you know, I think it’s an encouraging word. By the way, this is not to lessen sermons in our churches at all. But now you can hear the greatest preachers in the world while you’re going to sleep at night, in your bed every night. But something you can’t do at home is you can’t be with the Saints, you can’t be with God’s people and worship God with them, which the Bible tells us to do, to give them praise and congregation. And so our role is maybe more important than ever. I mean, it’s so unique, but you can have a group of people declaring the truth of God in rhythm together and in melody together, saying, this is what’s true. He is actually faithful and good and with us in this moment here and all these things. And so it has a huge role and maybe bigger than ever before in its importance, which also, by the way, for whoever’s listening, if you’re not really going to Church or Church has become like, I don’t really care about that movie. I’m not going to go to the movies this week. Like, don’t treat Church that way.
Tommy WalkerWhen you decide to go to Church, you’re not just going for yourself. You’re going there to provide worship for the person standing next to you and assuring in the presence of God that way. So it’s very important and very powerful. We learned through this whole cloved thing when none of us could go to Church for a while, it’s like, no, it’s a really big deal that we gather and encourage each other in their faith as we decide to worship in that place. But yeah, when you can bring your unique expressions, like, I have such a passion, I just believe the bride of Christ would be so much more interesting and so much more beautiful everywhere you went. It was a little more different. Like, if you could figure out a way to let Sally, who plays clarinet in her high school band, be a part of your worship team and somehow make it amazing, as opposed to, well, if you play trumpet and you might have the greatest trumpet player on the planet in your Church and he’s never going to play on your worship team because they don’t have trumpet in whatever, I don’t want to name the groups out there that were all coughing, but man, what if you have the greatest oboe player on the planet?
Tommy WalkerCan’t you figure out a way to make them a part of it. It’ll bring uniqueness. Think about who God has brought to you. Not to mention the fact that you can let them live out the calling God has been gifting that they put on their life. I mean, I have such a passion to see people bring their gifts to the Church and through the Church.
AlexOh, man, you’re pumping me up, Tommy. I’m like, dude, this guy preached. Preached, Tommy, because, wow. Like, you’re right. What a waste of a gift if we don’t utilize what’s out there in the body because it doesn’t fit the mold. Wow. Crazy.
Tommy WalkerI wasn’t actually doing, Believe it or not, worship seminar in Moscow and of course, all over the world. This is what we’re saying. Everyone’s watching worship on YouTube from America and from wherever. And we were there, and we had a very kind of cool modern worship team there. And this one lady, she’s actually from Siberia. Okay. She says, Is it okay? Like, can I lead worship? Because I just play keyboards and my grandma plays keys. And then we have a Bella, like a player that’s like that three string.
Yeah.
Tommy WalkerFunny. Like a triangle. And that’s all we have. Can we worship? Oh, my gosh. That’s cooler than ever. That’s who God has brought to you. And now bring your creativity to it and form the songs you write, by the way, write songs for your congregation and your arrangements to who guys brought. And then at the end of the day, like I was saying, the Church, the Bride of Christ is actually going to be more beautiful and more interesting. Wow.
AlexAmazing. Tommy, I want to be respectful of your time talking about creativity, talking about using all these different pieces to make worship and musical worship interesting. I just listened to your new album this morning called Generational Hymns Three, and it’s super gospel infused. There’s a choir. So I want to give you a chance to talk about it. And my daughters, I have a ten year old and a seven year old who are both budding musicians, and they’re super picky. And they heard as soon as the first song came on, they’re like, who is this? This is cool. This is catchy. So my ten and my seven year old loved it. And I know the listeners will be blessed by it, too. Tell us a bit about the project. Tell us how you put it together. It sounds like a live album. Yeah. Give us some thoughts. And then I’ll put some links in the show notes for the listeners to download that.
Tommy WalkerYeah. I had the amazing blessing of growing up in a Christian home, and we actually had worship in my home. So I got to worship with my parents and my siblings, even grandparents, and we would often sing the hymns. And the hymns for centuries have been the great worship generational connectors. And so that’s why it’s called Generation Hymns. And so we just try to it’s nothing revolutionary or anything, but we try to put a modern twist on these hymns, which has been happening a lot lately, and try to make it feel like the families all together. I’m a father. You’re a father. Don’t we like it when our kids are together? Do you really want your kids to love you in separate rooms? Right. Only America is smart enough to figure that out.
Yeah.
Tommy WalkerAnd anyway, the more we can be together, I think the more the father’s heart is blessed. So that’s the idea behind it. Yeah. It’s live. We did it as the Church community Church in Fort Worth with some great friends there. They have just amazing singers and musicians there in choir. Hopefully it’ll be a great blessing for the Church, a great resource. And I started a nonprofit about six years ago to give away all my music and my charts and performance tracks and everything and just live through donations and people are giving. And like you were saying with your podcast, which Congratulations, it’s really cool. But the world is becoming very global. Basically, almost every nation on the Earth has come to the website and gotten some of the charts and stuff. It’s so fun to be joined with the nation. And so we’re hoping it’ll be a blessing. We’ve released two of the singles, Power in the Blood and Give Me Jesus So Far. And for some reason, that’s the cool way to do it now is you do some singles first and then you release the whole thing. I’m learning. I think it’s 18th March 18.
Tommy WalkerThat’s when the whole album would be awesome.
AlexI’ll link everybody to your website as well so they can check that out. Tommy, this has been so encouraging to me. I’m like amped up to keep serving the local Church. Do you have any final encouragements to the worship leaders listening, whether it’s just like pastoral wisdom or whatever final words you want to leave with us today?
Tommy WalkerYeah, I just want to leave them with one more encouragement. Like, you have no idea the way God is using you and you have no idea. I can tell you because I’m ahead of you. I’m 30 years in to live a life, to be faithful to your local congregation. And let me remind you, sometimes just the relational stuff is so hard. It’s like being married. It’s the hardships of a marriage. Sometimes it’s hard, but it’s worth it to be on for the long haul. And God is using you and he’s going to bless your faithfulness and eternity is being transacted through your life. He promises that it’s never in vain. So keep going and keep making it better and better and keep growing in your gift practice. By the way, we didn’t even talk about this. I’m the old guy now. I’m still practicing every day. I’m still trying to learn new things. Don’t ever stop learning and keep improving and getting better and just be encouraged to keep serving. Maybe some of you just quit because you burned up. Well, I say sign up again and some of you are thinking about maybe serving your local Church.
Tommy WalkerDo what I did show up and say to the pastor I’m just here. Maybe you’ll be an usher or whatever and let God use you. Man, this life is so short. We want to do things now that are going to matter a thousand years from now, right? We want to make it count for eternity so go for it. And thanks for having me by the way.
AlexDoc walk everybody dropping mad wisdom so man. Tommy, thank you. God bless you. I’ll point everybody to your website but everybody go check out generational hymns three and Tommy, thanks again and we will hopefully have you back on in the future.
Tommy WalkerAll right.
AlexI hope that episode was super encouraging to you. I know it was for me. Now be sure to send that encouragement on to someone else by forwarding them this episode. Please take a second and just forward the episode to someone who you think will be benefited by it. Also be sure to check out Tommy’s new album which I have linked in the show notes and of course be sure to check out the brand new copy me course that I told you about in the beginning 34 in depth lessons teaching you exactly how I run my Ministry and showing you how you can use those same ideas, tools and tactics at your own Church. So go to worshipministrytraining.com and grab it in the full course bundle before I raise the prices on that bundle. Enjoy. It be helped by it. God bless you guys as you serve the Lord. What you do is so important. I will see you next month for another helpful episode.