Volunteering as a Keys Player at Red Rocks Church with Micah Weber

Watch on YouTube

Come hang out with Carson Bruce on the Worship Keys YouTube channel as he chats with Micah Weber, a passionate volunteer keys player from Red Rocks Church. Micah opens up about his move from Oklahoma to Colorado, why worship leaders matter, and what it means to serve as a volunteer in worship ministry. You’ll hear practical tips on keeping a servant’s heart, how the Nashville Number System helps musicians, and why staying close to Jesus is key to avoiding burnout. Expect real talk, musical moments, and a powerful prayer for church volunteers. You won’t want to miss this one!

Micah Weber

Red Rocks Worship

Transcript

Speaker: 0:08

Welcome to the Worship Keys YouTube channel. My name is Carson Bruce, so glad you're here. We talk all things music theory, gear, industry and ministry for your worship keys playing. If this episode is beneficial for you or you have any questions as you continue to watch, feel free to comment below and I'd love to hear any feedback that you have along the way. So let's get into today's episode. I am with Micah Weber. Yes, sir. How are you, Micah? What's up man? I'm good. Super excited to be here. We're in Red Rock's Worship red Rock's Church, their studio space. Now, last week we had Spooky Scott on, which I know you love. Spooky. Yes, sir. Spooky. Shout out spooky if you listen and love him. Man, we love Spooky. And I think actually I even though he's not here with this in this episode, I still feel his presence. Lingering, yeah. From last week. But no, he is just right over here anyway. Super glad to have Micah Weber who plays keys at Red Rock's Church Volunteers. And Micah, you're originally from Oklahoma, is that right? Yep. Tell us your journey. How did you end all the way up here in Colorado? Oh, man, where do I start? And how old are you by the way? I'm 26. Okay. I know you're pretty young. Yeah. Yeah. I'm 26. So I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life. I was born and raised in a small town called Duncan, about an hour and a half south of Oklahoma City. Is that where Dunkin Donuts started? No. Oh, we get that all the time. Very common question. Yeah. So from Dunking, but I lived in Oklahoma City for the past. Four or five years. That's where I went to college at, got my bachelor's. I was going to a church in Norman, Oklahoma called Quest Church. It's about 15, 20 minutes from OKC. It's like a suburb thing. That's where I was gonna church. And at the time when I was there, red Rocks Worship went on tour and they came to Quest. And at the time I was like, I love Red Rocks worship, so I'm gonna go of course, 'cause that's my church. I'm gonna meet up with them. And, they had and they still have worship leader hangs so got to meet with everyone. Got to talk. So that was super cool. That's really cool. Yeah. For those of you who do not know, which I met you in Nashville. Yeah dude. When y'all came, we were on tour. Worship leader hangs is really cool. But what is Worship leaders Hang Worship leader hangs dude, worship leader Hangs is so cool 'cause it's like. All about just getting to know the people of the churches that Red Rocks Worship goes on tour to. So getting to know the people of the church, getting to know their volunteers, who's there, who serves, who leads worship, and getting to just pour into them and also just get on the same page as what their church is doing, how God's moving, and honestly, how we can help, whether it's prayer or helping 'em out in anything. So it's super cool just getting to hang out with them, getting to know different people. So long, long story short, me and John meeting eg. Player for Red Hooks worship. Shout out John. Love you man. Yes. John's so great dude. John's so dope. Just ah, yeah man. Amazing. And he's a big synth guy. I gotta get him on the big, we gotta get him on the episode doing some synth stuff. Dude, he can take you all the way down and back about since, so I believe it. Yeah man, he's awesome. But so I met him at the worship leader hang and we hit it off and he was like, man, you need to come up to Denver soon, let's hang out. And so we did. But it was crazy 'cause at that time, when. The concert happened there I was like in the season of life where I wasn't sure where to go next. Like I was thinking about moving to Dallas. I was gonna go serve at a church down there. I was thinking about going to grad school in Missouri. I was thinking about moving to Florida, 'cause I'd always wanted to be in Florida. So Colorado was never like on my radar. At all. So it was like Colorado's eh, I'd love to visit but wouldn't live there anyways, the night of anyways. It's just, it's not even, if you look outside, it's just so bland out there, dude. Yeah. It's so flat out here, man. There's goodness. There's nothing to see here in Colorado. Exactly. Weather. It's just, no, I'm just kidding. It's beautiful. It's amazing, dude. Love. It's beautiful states. I love it now. But yeah where was I at? I was in that season of not knowing what was next, and then I went to the worship night, the orthodox worship had, and there was just like this crazy, like indescribable piece that whole night, and I didn't know what it was. I was like, this is crazy. And so fast forward couple months I got to hang out with John, come up here to visit, and he was like, man, we need a keys player at one of our campuses at the Arvada campus. He's you should pray about it. And I went on to pray about it, but I knew in the moment, like instantly I was like, yes, this is where I'm supposed to go and I'm supposed to do, it's like within the span of three months after they came to my church, I was packed up in U-Haul and in January of 2024, I was on my way up here. So amazing and then amazing. Rollercoaster events happened when I moved up here, but that's a no story. Hey man, we might have time for it, dude. That's so cool. So I love the Worship leader hangs because I was able to be a part of one in Nashville and what I love about Red Rocks is so when other Christian artists go on tour, now it's not, we're not bashing anybody or anything, but a lot of, there's a lot of separation between Yeah. The artist. The musicians with the artists and the people and the audience and the people that have bought all the tickets to be there, to see them and spectate. But I love red Rock's worship because they have really been a communal group and they want to they don't want to. They always, yes, there's a spotlight on them, but they shine it, they put it right back onto Jesus. Yes. And onto each other to say, Hey, this is, we're on, we're in this together. Yep. And I love that they're very focused on the local church. Like it's not just a facade, it's not just the lyrics and the words, the music that's just going out, wanting it to be a hit on radio or something. Like they, they literally Red Rocks worship. They're here to lift up the name of Jesus. And I love that they have worship leader hangs so they can connect with the local church. That's so cool, man. Dude, it's incredible. So I wanna talk about in this episode, the heart of volunteers within local churches. Maybe you're, maybe you've been keeping track of the worship keys for a little bit and you are a volunteer at your church. Maybe you work a regular job during the week. Maybe you're not like spooky who's programming and setting up Ableton sessions or making his own little spooky patches on the Nord States three, maybe you're not full-time staff at a church. Maybe you are a volunteer who loves to play keys like Micah here, really proficient on keys. Obviously you wouldn't be asked to play at a campus or fill in or do anything, go on tour with Red Rock's worship if you weren't proficient on the keys. Obviously that is, part of the big process is learning to be proficient in your ministry. But maybe you have the tools, maybe you have the opportunity to serve somewhere. I wanna talk about the servant heart and just the willingness to serve. Because Micah, it's my understanding that you are a volunteer here. Here at Red Rocks, you're not on staff. Yep. And you're not a paid member to be a part of the church, is that correct? Correct. Yes. Yeah. All, and maybe many of you, maybe many of you are in that same boat where you're not paid. Some of you have commented on Instagram or you tell, oh, that sounds great, but hey, i'm not a paid keys player. This is all that I'm doing, so I really can't. Giving myself like X, Y, and Z. But I really just wanna really just wanna say, hey, Mike is a great example of a volunteer who's really doing a great job over here at Red Rocks and Spooky speaks highly of you. And obviously John pulled you in and I know Tyler must love you as well, and Oh yeah, I love him too. The whole team, man. Talk about the difference between when you know that you're called to do something and when you do it because you feel obligated to do it, if yeah. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah. When you know you're called to something, it can be very easy to make that all you want to do. Like that can and you may not even know where, when or how that's gonna happen. You know what you're called to do, but it's not always. In that moment that you'll get to do it as opposed to obligated you know what you have to do and you have to be there for it 'cause it's more structured and there's more like responsibilities to it or whatever it may be. The beauty of serving is knowing that you can be called to something and do it through a way that doesn't require obligations. Yeah. Because you get to do it out of your heart, outta the love of your heart, outta your passion for it, out of just the desire that God has placed there. Yeah, man. So I think as someone who gets to serve all the time, like volunteer it's so special and rewarding. The grand scheme of things. 'cause it can get very easy to get burnout. It can get very easy to forget why you're doing it in the first place. And especially with volunteering at a church and as keys player or any instrumentalist, any musicians, they, I guarantee you, they all feel this way. But it can get so easy to feel like, oh, okay, I'm just volunteering. They don't really need me. No one really sees me. That kind of thing. You can, it can get very easy to feel that way, but. I dunno, I feel like I just need to share this right now. I just feel like it's very important to know that God sees you and God puts you in that place to serve for a purpose. You're there for a reason. Yeah. So I just want, just wanna share that. But I think that's, again, that's the beauty of it, is getting to serve is, it's a blessing, it's a privilege. I, so good man. I'll start with that man. Yeah, I love that. Talk about what are some practical things that makes you feel. Seen, welcomed, and keeps rehearsals, practices Sunday mornings running well, that you love whether that be through planning center stuff or whether that what your leaders do. What are some practical things that you have seen here at Red Rocks that actually makes you feel a part of the team and not like an outsider or you're less than, like there's a little tier of, oh, here are the pro guys, here are the volunteer guys. Like how do you feel? Truly a part and appreciated and loved here at Red Rocks Church Man. And this could apply to any church out there, yeah, man. It all comes back to the worship pastors. It comes back to our worship leaders here. They're every campus. They're also incredible and amazing, and they genuinely care at every campus. Anyone who's in charge of that campus, they want what's best for their volunteers. Whoever's on their worship team, whoever's on the production team, whoever's on the serve team, whatever it is, like I've noticed that at Red Rock specifically, and I know it's at tons of other churches everywhere, but especially Red Rocks Church, like they make the volunteers feel valued because it's more than just that we're doing something because they need to fill in or something. No, it's 'cause serving has a purpose. That's what we're made to do. We're made to serve, we're made to serve the Lord. Made to serve people. Yeah. But yeah, definitely like on the practicality of it, it is just, it comes down to who you're surrounded with. And when you're surrounded with such great leaders, they reach out, they make sure you feel good. They make sure you feel seen. They make sure if you're getting burned out, you need a break. They make sure, don't always feel obligated to say yes, say no when you need to know when to say no, kind of thing. It comes back to the leadership man, and they're so awesome here. I love all of 'em. So I love it, man. It's a big responsibility as a worship leader or worship pastor. Leadership in general a huge responsibility. How, as a volunteer do you give back and use and encourage even your own leaders who Yeah. Mostly need it. How do you how do you do that? Yeah. How do you try to encourage your leaders and help support them the best you can? I know as a leader, it's just as easy to get burned out and to feel the same way. It just comes down to always making sure I'm there as a friend first. More than anything, more than just a keys player. I wanna make sure that everyone knows that I'm there as their friend, and I see them leading and I see them pasturing, and I just go outta my way to make sure that it's known that they're killing it. They're crushing it. It's just reassurance, man. Reassurance is, it's essential. So I just make sure to always get that across to all of our leaders and pastors. That's awesome, man. Yeah. And listen, you're a young guy and I know you haven't been at Red Rocks for years upon years. But what would you say, even within your experience now what are some encouraging words that you could say to someone who, a volunteer who might feel burnt out or a little tired or might want to give up serving, or maybe it's okay to take a little time off, but what would you say to someone kind of feeling burnout by church leadership or the church or the worship team? I would definitely recommend going back to the first love getting in the secret place and locking eyes with the father. Come on, man. And just focusing on Jesus and why you do what you do. 'cause it's not about getting on a stage and putting on a performance, which is volunteers that can really catch up to getting to be that point. And you feel like that's what it's all about. Oh, flashy lights, oh, smoke. Okay, here they come, another service. Let's do this. But when you lock in the secret place and get your intimate time with Jesus, when you focus on that and you know who you're doing it for and why you're doing it, you won't get burnout. That's good. So that's just what hits me right up front. Sinful as that man. I love it. I love it. Okay. How long have you been playing piano keys? Dude, I've been playing piano for, let's see, 15 years now. I started when was 11? Okay. 26 now. So yeah, 15 years. Talk about that piano journey when you were 11, 12, 13. Yeah. What was your method of learning? Did you learn about year? Did you learn classically? What did that look like as a kid? Yeah, I started piano lessons when I was 11. I took piano lessons for roughly about six months, and then I stopped taking lessons because I wanted to learn by ear. So I started playing by ear and then I just did that. So I started out learning classical and. That's how I like started and I was like, wait, I love this. Like I'm meant to do this. This is for me. So I just started playing by ear and then fast forward a couple years, I started leading worship in my youth group and I was 15. Awesome. That's when I just got adapted to the worship scene and I fell in love with it. Worship music was just like, spoke to me more than anything it ever has. So I was like, this is what I wanna do. So from 1516 to now, I've just been, I've just been in it. That's awesome, man. Yeah. Who's your favorite worship leader? So favorite worship bleeder? At the moment or all time? All, all time. All time. All time. Favorite worship bleeder. Stephanie Resinger. Ah, yes, absolutely. Stephanie Gringer or Carrie job? Oh, Carrie, Joe. They're both right there in there. Pillar? Yes. When you said first Love, it reminded me of her song First Love. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. So yeah they're pillars and just like what I was raised up in and how I like, saw the Lord through music, but absolutely. Currently, as of recently, Brandon Lake has really been one for me. He absolutely his music speaks to me. I don't know if many of Brandon late. He's not really well known. Yeah. Now you may have heard like one or two of his songs, but yeah, dude. And then another one is Abby Gamboa. Oh, so good. And then, and she's in Texas, right? She's in Texas, yeah. She's in Dallas. She's actually at the, she's at upper room, which is the church I was gonna go to. Okay. I was figuring I was, that's where I was probably assuming that was upper room. I was on the way there, man. I'm telling you. I was like, like eyes were set. I was like, I'm moving to Dallas, I'm going to upper room. I already had connections and then God was like, eh, no, you're not going here. You're going. The whole other catapult you into this. Yeah. And then honestly, another one of my favorites right now is Red Rock's. Very own Cory Miller. Come on Cory. Corey, I don't get me started on that guy. So good. His song never gets old. Oh man. He's that song. He's special man. It's so good, man. So good. Yeah. That's awesome. And yeah, Abby Gamboa, if y'all don't know her either, you need to listen to her. She's incredible. Give Me Jesus and Pure are my favorites from her. So good. So good dude. Incredible. Yeah. But yeah, I love that. I love those worship leaders too, man. I'm right there with you. Tell us a little bit about your playing, about your journey. When did you specifically tell me about when did you learn the national number system and how to utilize that? Yeah. With people on playing. So I played like chords a lot until I was probably 17 or 18. And then I moved from the church I was at where I grew up in youth at. I moved churches, went to another church, and I started playing there and that's when I learned Nashville Numbers System. So I started playing my numbers. I was like 18 and then just rolled with that and just, do y'all use numbers exclusively here at Red Rocks? Yeah. Or, okay. Yeah, we try to use numbers. 99.9% of the times now on, on planning center. I'm just curious. Yeah. On PCO there, do you guys have chord charts attached to every song, or do they just give the list out and you just come prepared to play it? Yeah. Like how does that work? Yep. Yeah. And Planning center, PCO has everything attached. Everything you need. It's got chord chart, it's got numbers, it's got lyrics, it's got different. It's little tracks for anything you need, whether it's the keys part, drums part, it's all there, man. Yeah. Locked and loaded. Yeah. Shout out. Spooky. Yeah, spooky spook. That's awesome. That's great. I want people to hear this because the national number system is so crucial and beneficial, so crucial for people in multiple ways. And we've talked about this so many times on the podcast, but you said you started leading. And playing like 15, 16 years old. And then you learn the national number. System started using it when you were 18, 19, 20. Now you're 26 and you're using it all the time. Yeah. And probably it's like it becomes another language where it's like it does it when you. When everyone's speaking in, in the band, you just say the numbers, you know what's going on. But when you go into an environment where they're not, it's hard to switch it, isn't it? Yeah. 'cause you're like, whoa. Exactly. What are you talking about? Oh, okay. We're just, okay. Yeah. EA, okay. Instead of saying the numbers, but I think the numbers is such a crucial thing. And a quick thing when you're doing signals or, yes. Especially in. Other genres in certain churches where you're doing quicker changes it's not as flowy. Not as free flowy as like a Red Rocks or Elevation or Bethel. Maybe it's more. Even more gospel driven, where there's more chord changes. Yeah. A lot. And you need those quick boom. National number system is so crucial. So I wanna take a time Yeah. Take the time just to hear you play a little bit, man. Sure man. Yeah. You talked about intimacy and the prayer time and how important that is. Do you ever just sit down on the piano and just play? I do, man. Yeah. So many times. Yeah. How sit down and play? Is it daily, weekly? Sometimes I try to as much as I can. Yeah. Sometimes it can't be daily just 'cause I get busy and caught up with stuff. But yeah, man, I guarantee you, I can promise you that I don't go more than two days at a time without playing because then I'm like, okay, something's missing. Yeah. And it's therapeutic for most of those peace players just to sit down and play and. I would encourage you guys that are listening to Keys players, that if this is your outlet and your tool and you're using this at church and you're playing, let there be times where you just sit down and it's not for the Sunday morning or the tour or the recording for the studio and let it just be, I just wanna play Yep. Until whatever happens. Absolutely. We're on the North stage three here, and I know Spooky has some patches that he's brought up. This is the same keyboard spooky used last week 'cause we're in the same space and everything. But yeah man, I just want you to go for it. I'm gonna put on some Yeah dude headphones too to hear you play. But yeah, man. Take it away, man. Yeah. I feel like it's so easy, like during, like when you get in like quiet time or something you can get in your head very easily about what you wanna play. 'cause you're so used to playing like structured, and then I like to just usually can start with a song that like is popular, and then just let that song like just sink in and sink in that you're in a moment of like worship and restoring yourself, getting filled that just go from there. I love throwing that Major seven in. Something like that. Dude, that was awesome. I love that. And you just noodling around, just noodling, using your scales intervals. I love the sixth intervals you were doing in there. Yeah. Just absolutely beautiful. And I think it's beneficial, even if you did grow up playing classically most of your life, you can still learn to noodle around and do this, get some chords. Absolutely. Learn your skills, which you probably already know your skills, obviously if you're classically trained, you know your skills. But then it's just like, how do I translate that to just doing? Playing freely rather than playing exactly what's on the page, which is a huge skill. But dude, thanks for being on the pod today, Micah. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. Are you on Instagram or anything? Yeah, I am. What's your Instagram handle? Yeah, it's Micah d Weber. Micah d Micah Weber. Mica d Weber. We're gonna, we Webber we're gonna follow you man. We're gonna connect. Do it man. And your shirt. I love your shirt. It says Essentials Fear of God. Yes. Fear of God. Tell us about that shirt, man. Is that a brand? Is that what, where did that come from? Oh yeah, dude. Yeah. Essentials has their own brand. It's all about like fear of God. I don't know how it got started, honestly. There you go. I just know one day I was walking in packed sun and I saw the shirt and I was like, I'm getting that. There you go. Because I was like, fear of God, dude. Yeah, because. I actually, I first started seeing people wear essential stuff, Yeah. In secular settings. And, because I think whoever like created the brand, I don't know if they had it for like the reason of the Lord or not. But like I saw it in a secular setting and I was like, I need to get some of that because someone can come up and ask about the fear of God. Yeah. And then I can boom. That's good, man. So yeah, man. No, I love that. I love that. One last question for you. So you're 26 now, take it back 10 years. Ago when you were 16. You were just fresh with playing keys a lot and leading even as a teenager. Obviously that's when you got your license to drive, I assume. Yeah. Pretty awesome year, way back. So what would you give, what advice would you give to yourself as that 15, 16-year-old knowing what you know now? Wow. First thing I would tell my 16-year-old self is to keep my eyes on Jesus, because I, me personally, got lost and distracted by other things of the world because I was too focused on trying to fit in or trying to figure out what the world wanted. But looking back now, and obviously the Lord does everything he does for a reason, and it's, everyone has their own journey to get to a certain place. But looking back now, I did a lot of dumb things that I could have avoided certain consequences if I would've just stayed focused on the Lord. So yeah, I would, that's the main thing I would say. And then the other thing is, which I was always super involved with church and worship, but I would tell myself to just stay locked in, stay in it. Like obviously take that rest you need, take mental breaks. Do what fills you, but just stay in worship. It's if anyone, honestly, if anyone's 15 or 16 and like having that kind of feeling, stay in the worship scene. Stay in the house of God, stay in his temple. 'cause there's nowhere else like it. You can source the world, but you'll never find anything that fills you like the love of Christ. On bro. Straight up preaching, man. It just comes over. Fire, red. Just like this North stage three keyboard. No, I love it, dude. Guys, it's the worship keys podcast. Worship is always first before the keys world. Before the practicalities of it, before the technicalities of it. It's worship is first and I think your heart is really come out in this episode of what it's really about. And I think I think that you get it, man. I think that you get it and. I'm just so grateful to have you on the podcast, man. Yeah, man. And hopefully it can encourage some of you who are volunteering right now at churches. Yeah. Whether that be a large church or a small church. We need volunteers like you, man, that are serving and doing the thing, doing the groundworks and with that heart. That you have the heart position is so important. So do to end this episode, do you mind just praying over church volunteers? Yeah. Across, even across the world, but just, this area, whether that be Colorado, whether that be the whole nation. Just praying over worship leaders, worship pastors. Yeah. I know we're coming, coming out of summertime right now with this episode releasing, but would just love some words of encouragement and I know that prayer is powerful and you spoke a lot about that here on the podcast today. Guys, thanks for tuning in and we'll definitely see you next week and we'll just end with your prayer. Micah. Absolutely, man. Father, God, I thank you. Thank you for cars. Thank you for the worship keys. Thank you for this opportunity to get to, to share your message and share your word. Share what you've placed on our hearts to do for you and to. To reach your people. God, I pray for anyone out there who may be listening, whether it's a local church, whether it's a far away church. I pray that any volunteer or servant that hears this message would just feel your love. It would feel a reassurance that what they're doing has purpose, has value. You didn't put them in that position. For no reason. They're there because you love them, you trust them. You entrust them with that position. So God, I just, I pray a sense of peace and comfort over any volunteer who may be feeling burnt out right now. They may be feeling like what they're doing has no purpose. God, I just pray that you remind them. Of the zeal Lord, your word says, zeal for your house consumes me. So I just pray that zeal to fill every volunteer, every servant that is hearing my voice right now, God, would you just fill them with a peace that surpasses all understanding? God, would you just remind them why they do what they do? Would you remind them who they are in you and God would you just bless them and continue to give them strength? And God I pray for Carson in the worship keys.