Why Worship History Matters: Honoring the Generations Before Us

In this episode of Protect the Altar, Deborah Hong sits down with Chad Gentry of 90's Worship Night to discuss the importance of honoring the generations that have gone before us. Together, they explore why understanding the history of worship matters, what today's worship leaders can learn from past moves of God, and how gratitude for previous generations helps shape a healthy future for the Church. This conversation is a powerful reminder that we are not building alone—we are standing on the shoulders of those who faithfully paved the way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

But I will tell you the amount of spiritual warfare we had producing that episode. Like it's just incredible. Uh, Brownsville in in particular, inexplicably in bright sunny weather, lost power on two separate occasions while we were talking about the revival, everything went out, and it's on film, and there were a lot of other things too, you know, for you know, the local church and worship teams. It's just you're not gonna if if you do something meaningful for the kingdom of God, you're not getting a free pass for that. The enemy's gonna have a response.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

The new generation arises. Sometimes it can be easy to forget what God has done in the former generations, and I think God is really emphasizing honor. This is what's birthed out of honor. You're honoring the person that that impacted your life so much, and then you're also honoring the moves of God from that era and the songs that were birthed in that era, and how we're honoring this generation and that doesn't mean that you know, just because it happened in the 90s, God still doesn't want to use it today, and it doesn't mean that that generation is obsolete, they're very, very important. And I think God is turning the hearts of the sons to the fathers and the fathers to the sons. Welcome back to another episode of Protect the Altar Podcast. And here today I have someone very special all the way from Nashville, Tennessee. We have Chad Gentry with 90s Worship Night. Chad, it is so exciting to have you here in person.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

Well, thank you so much. It's exciting to be here, Deborah. And uh, as we were just saying, couldn't be more excited for what's going on with North Palm Worship.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

That's right. And we're excited about what God's doing with 90s worship night. And as well, we are having a live worship night here with 90s worship night and North Palm Worship and Paul Balash. So we are so excited about that. So tell us a little bit about yourself because some people may have not had the opportunity to meet you and know a little bit about you. Tell us where you grew up and your your moment with the Lord that brought you to like a real relationship with him.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm originally from southern Indiana. Um, and you know, I grew up as a teenager right in the thick of the mid-90s, you know, which I still think you know arguably the most special time of modern history, you know. Um but you know, I I didn't really have an interest in church, you know, when uh you know my parents kind of you know begrudgingly, you know, uh made me go as as an early teenager, you know, talking probably 13, 14 years old.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Right.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

Uh but we started attending a local assembly of God church in the area. And you gotta remember too, I I grew up in kind of what we call rural, you know, southern Indiana. So I I literally, my house was uh you know, an island amongst cornfields. You know. I mean it was it was definitely, definitely country. Uh so in our church, uh the Assembly of God Church was probably the only church within a 30 mile radius that was doing modern worship. You know, all the other churches were still at that point in time doing you know the hymnals and and all of that choir stuff. Right. Uh, but our church was doing, you know, Hosanna music, you know, and and Maranatha, and uh later we get into Vineyard and all the other uh amazing, you know, music that came out of uh the worship movements of of the mid to late 90s. Um yeah, so we started going there. Uh, so in like probably '93, '94. Uh and it wasn't until uh beginning of 1995 where a couple of you know the kids that were in the youth group, they'd kind of seen me around, but I was I had no interest in you know, socializing with any of them. I had my outside life doing sports and all that.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Right.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

And at that point, I was getting ready to join, you know, um become a freshman in high school later that fall. So I I had no interest in in doing anything there at the church, just being honest. But after weeks of you know prodding me to, hey, you need to come to summer youth camp, it's an amazing time, you know, it's a lot of fun. You just you just gotta trust us, you gotta go. And finally I caved in, and you know, my parents thought, yeah, it sounds like a really, you know, really good idea to be something good for you to do this summer. So I went, Deborah, and it's just like the Lord got a hold of me. Wow. And it everything just changed.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Those are so special.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

It it it really, really was, you know. And um what was fascinating was, I mean, just kind of getting back to you know, worship music, is even you know, sitting in church prior to that, like I was learning the songs, you know, that we were doing on Sundays, but they they weren't you know they weren't hitting.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

They were not hitting, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

And after that youth camp experience, it was just completely different.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Then all of a sudden those same songs hit. They they they did this is crazy how that happens. It's a heart thing.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Absolutely absolutely. And to the point where I'm like, well, I think the Lord is calling me to you know be involved with worship, which I didn't really know what that looked like or how that would even you know occur at the time. Because, you know, really all I had been doing up until that point was just kind of messing around on guitar.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Yeah, I wasn't even singing, I didn't even start singing until college, funny enough. Um, but you know, I just kind of took that little seed and the very minimal amount of skill that I had, and uh, you know, I braved to you know, talk to uh you know the senior pastors, like, hey, you know, would it be okay? Can I come up and shadow you know the worship team on Sunday morning? And I just kind of learned by that, you know, and some of my earliest memories of of doing that was I was actually like writing out chord charts when I was like 15 years old and and really studying song formations and you know just how a song together, which ironic. I mean, it's kind of one of the things I'm known for now is you know, knowing how to build events and set lists and and putting all that together. So that started incredible.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

See, the Lord was training you even in adolescence when you maybe didn't even see like what how does this make sense? Then God gives it context later on in life. Oh wow it all makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

Well, one 100%. You know, I mean I I could never have guessed at that point, you know. I mean, I was just excited to get the you know play my guitar, my four chords unto the Lord, you know, and uh you know, then I became you know friends with some of the other folks on the worship team, and and uh it just so happened they were all involved with the youth group. Uh so next thing I know, we've kind of formed like this little worship, you know, uh band in our youth group.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 6:25

And you gotta remember, like we were I mean, we weren't that good. I mean, we were serviceable, but back then serviceable we were serviceable, but no one was doing it back then. Right. So I mean, we were literally getting calls from the city.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Like no social media either.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

Like there was nothing, you know, and so word of mouth was just getting out. So I mean we were traveling with like a three or four state radius doing like these worship nights. Like youth nights, and youth nights, yeah. Wow, yeah. So I'm I'm here, and I was the youngest in the group. So I mean, I was like literally like 16, 17 years old. Wow, you know, we were taking the church fed out and just going far and near, you know. So it was really at that point I I kind of learned what worship ministry was, at least from an evangelistic standpoint. Yeah, that's amazing, you know. And um I was very fortunate at that same time was when a lot of now what we look back as 90s worship, you know, being that's when all those records were coming out. Obviously, the you know, browser revival with you know, Linda Cleveland and the Brownsville worship stuff, uh, you know, integrity music released the Darling Check, shout to the Lord album. Exactly, you know, that year, uh Delirious was just you know getting going. Obviously, the the vineyard stuff was picking up heat because of the Browseville revival, so everyone was is getting to know that. So the mid-90s, specifically '96, when I, you know, started really, you know, diving into worship. That was a special year to that is a special year.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That's a special year, you know. Okay, so tell me why. Fast forward now, you're an adult. Tell me why did you start 90s worship? What was God stirring in your heart exactly?

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Yeah, well, I mean, it definitely wasn't uh a preconceived notion, you know. Um, and I've had a lot of people, you know, just make an assumption that I've talked to that this is a passion project. I'm like, I am passionate about the subject matter. Don't not do not get me wrong.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

He knows every fact about 90s workshop.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

He knows every fact.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

But you know, to see anyone who's seen the behind the scenes blood, sweat, and tears that has wedded to it.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

This is really an obedience.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Yeah, this was uh, you know, and and I kind of joke jokingly say, you know, had I really known what this is gonna be, it would have been a little bit harder to heed the call, you know, with with the You'd have been like Jonah going away from Nineveh. Oh yeah, it it it would have probably scared me to death. Yeah, I mean I knew it was gonna be a a big commitment. Um, and it you know, it started uh really well it was it was in September of 2020, yeah, right during the height of COVID when the pieces started coming together. And and what the catalyst was was my you know long time you know mentor and and friend, uh the late Danny Chambers, who was uh he you know the last several years of his life was a pastor of you know local church there in Nashville, which my wife and I we actually met at and we attended for several years together, which was which was great. But I had actually met Danny back in '96 because he at that time was leading a lot of the youth, you know, conferences and camps and whatnot, specifically Youth America, which was in Oklahoma City, a big, you know, youth camp every summer. Um and our you know, youth group, I think on the heels of us kind of starting, you know, our own worship band and really diving into worship, we ended up going out there and I got to meet Danny for the first time, and and our church did. And that kind of coincided with Danny's move from Oklahoma City to Nashville, which Southern Indiana is only like you know, two and a half hours away from there. So we immediately our trucks our church struck up a friendship, you know, with Danny and his ministry. So he came up several times. Uh one time he actually brought Lincoln Brewster with him who played guitar for him. And that was actually funny enough, our church was the first uh solo uh performance that Lincoln ever had. And then he went on and obviously did amazing things, or still doing amazing things. Uh, but that really, you know, left a mark on us and and our church, and kind of fast-forwarding again to 2020. Um that September, you know, Danny passed away, you know, unexpectedly.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 10:25

And uh it was a really really bad month, just you know, in general for me. I just turned 40 years old at that point and was just really discouraged by what was happening, you know, just in the world, you know, with COVID, in the community, all ministry kind of grinded to a halt, at least the you know, the traveling aspect of it. Um and then we got the news of of Danny's passing, and and it was that was like the nail in the coffin. That was it really, really was, you know, and um you know, I i I was grieved, you know, for for uh several weeks afterwards, and and uh I remember just you know saying a simple prayer like Lord I'd love to do something, honor Danny. Don't even know what that would look like or be, but kind of here I am, send me. Didn't think anything more of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

So folks, be careful when you say that prayer.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

Yeah, when when you want to, you know, honor people and uh you know really um shine a light to you know some very important narratives of history and ministry, uh be careful what you asked for, because you you may get that you know that desire granted. And uh sure enough, you know, I did in December of that year uh of 2020, that was when I kind of the best way to describe it, kind of had a download of what became 90s worship night and how we started.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So what was that download? What did the Lord show you about it?

SPEAKER_04 11:47

You know, it really I I had an encounter with the Lord right after Danny passed, uh, which I don't have time to get into all of that, but I kind of knew that the Lord was preparing something for me to be involved with. Uh but several weeks went by and nothing materialized on that. So I'm like, okay, well we'll we'll see, you know, see when the l whenever the Lord, you know, rings the bell, I'll uh I'll be ready. And and it and it was in December. Um and yeah, my wife and I, we were uh leading uh a Christmas season service at a friend of our church, and um you know we did obviously a bunch of Christmas worship songs as you would expect during that time of the year. Uh but we actually we stuck a couple of 90s worship songs in the set just because we knew that you know some of the folks there would be familiar with it. Uh but then also kind of is is our own little way to just uh you know honor Danny. So we did one of his songs called Let the Reign of Your Presence, uh, which is you know very prominent, at least within the charismatic you know, circles back in you know the mid to late 90s. You know, so we just did that song to honor him, and uh the Lord just moved in a really special way that day. I think someone just out in the congregation, I think, had like had had a healing. No one prayed for him, just he was in the middle of worship. I think we were like leading silent night when that happened. That's just how powerful that that service was. Um probably the most powerful like Christmas season service I've I've ever been in. But as we were talking afterwards, uh one of my friends was like, Man, you know, you really should think about you know coming and doing a 90s theme worship night, you know, at the church here. And I kind of like, oh yeah, that'd be that'd be really cool. And then uh later at lunch, it was just like hit me like a bolt of lightning, like that was the Lord just starting to reveal what uh what he's wanting us to do. You know, I kind of started a few months ago. I'm starting to understand now what that is.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

And that's so powerful because I think a lot of times I I've seen it where the new generation rises and they just sometimes it can be easy to forget what God has done in the former generations. Yeah, and then you know, and and I think God is really emphasizing honor. This is what's birthed out of honor. You're honoring the person that that impacted your life so much, and then you're also honoring the moves of God from that era and the songs that were birthed in that era, and how we're honoring this generation and that, you know, it doesn't mean that, you know, just because it happened in the 90s, God still doesn't want to use it today. And it doesn't mean that that generation is obsolete, they're very, very important. And I think God is turning the hearts of the sons to the fathers and the fathers to the sons, and you know, and through this ministry, it's remembering what God has done in previous generations is so important. And I love that because, you know, we've talked about how even our church, we love to intermingle the new with the old. And it's so powerful because if you have a new song and then all of a sudden you go into one of these 90s songs that has so much history and so much weight, or even some of the hymnals that we talked about, you know, the that can be so powerful and to intermingle those, it's really incredible. And so now 90s worship night, you're doing these docuseries. The first episode's already available. It's with the Brownsville Revival and Lyndokoolie, and it was so impactful when I watched this. I cried. And I'm not a I'm not like a crier, y'all. I'm not a crier. I don't just like cry. You know, there are some people I know that are just their criers very easily. I'm not one of those. And so when I watched this and it moved me, I could feel the presence of God on it. I was like, what in the world is happening?

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Yeah, well, it's so funny you mentioned that because it kind of goes back to, you know, what I had just mentioned, had I really known the full scope of what this was going to be. It'd been a little bit harder to heed the call. But when we started, when we officially launched in January 2020, well, I'll I'll go back in December after we kind of got the initial vision for 90s worship night. My wife and I we went away for Christmas vacation and we did a ton of praying. Some more miraculous supernatural stuff happened that were kind of god winks about all this. So we officially launched in January of 2021. Wow. And I knew kind of early on in that month that there was gonna be some sort of like documentary, you know, presence with this.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

And do you have any history? No, of course not.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Absolutely, absolutely not. I'm not a filmmaker, never been a filmmaker, never aspired to be a filmmaker.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Uh, and I was just like, well, the Lord's gonna get a lot of glory out of this if if this is a happening.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

He was me, he can use anybody.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Yeah, I'm not gonna like no one's gonna be like, oh, well, we knew Chad was gonna make it a you know a feature, you know, worldwide successful docus. No, yeah, no one everyone who knew me, they were I a lot of people thought I was crazy. I really didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

In these documentaries, you're the one doing the interviewing of all of these basically worship honorary icons, however you want to say them, legends, worship legends.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Yeah, I I think you know, really for me, I I will say I I I kind of do have a gift of I I kind of understand what the important narratives are, I think, you know, especially if we're looking at because kind of you know, our what we felt the Lord was leading us with a series is for each episode to be about 40 to 45 minutes in runtime. So I mean you can only have so many sequences, you know, in in that amount of time. So knowing what what you're you know needing to cover is important. You gotta know. And I'll tell you too, Deborah, I I'd heard a filmmaker say that did, you know, documentaries, and it really stuck with me. They're like, if you end up with the same story at the end that you wanted to tell at the beginning, you weren't listening along the way. You know, really meaning you're gonna uncover so much.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

If you plan stuff, then you're not gonna discover new things.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Discover new things and really understand through the interviews uh new information, new information, or maybe you you might recalibrate, you know, what the most important narratives were.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah, because you discover something new. Wow, that's so powerful.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

You know, and in episode one, you know, just like you mentioned, yeah. I mean, there were a few things in I mean, I knew a lot of what we talked about, but there were a few things that I had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

You know, was one of those things the story behind I Need You More?

SPEAKER_04 18:26

Yeah, that that was that was definitely one of them. And I remember when Lyndell told that to me, I'm like, oh my gosh, like that's in the docu series. I was like, we gotta track Bruce Haynes down and get it.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Whoa, so you so you okay, so for those who haven't watched it, first of all, go and watch the first episode of that docuseries with about the Brownsville revival and what God did from 1995 on several years later. And so out of that, Lyndell Cooley, the worship leader, wrote, co-wrote a song with a friend who was really battling and really struggling, and it's I need you more, and we still sing it oftentimes at church today. Very powerful song. And so that came out of that movement, and the story behind the song of I Need You More literally moved so many of our team to tears. We're like, whoa, God is so good. That song is so powerful today, and you would never know, you would never know unless you know.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Exactly, you know, because you know, that was back in the age, you know, the pre-internet age. So I mean you didn't have all the social media going around and all these interviews and no podcasts and all that.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

But you could feel the power on it.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

You could, you knew that there was something special about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Especially the line, I never want to go back to my old life.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Yeah, that was my favorite line of speech as well. And Bruce actually he wrote that about the situation, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

He never wants to go back to his old life and what he struggled with, and so that is incredible.

SPEAKER_04 19:44

Oh, it's incredible. It was wild, and I remember, you know, I ended up, you know, Lindell got me in touch with Bruce because you know Bruce like lives like near the you know Branson, Missouri area. And uh it was so funny because we we got it set up and like I was I had a million things going on. I was like, man, I gotta find a videographer just remotely to go over there and and film this, you know, and I'll jump on Zoom. So like I literally, I was like, Lord, just show me who I need to call here to get this done. And within like 10 minutes, I found the guy. I caught him. I was like, I said, this is gonna sound really weird, but I'm working on this Christian, you know, faith-based docuseries. I think I I get the feeling that you're you're probably Christian as well, and I need you to do an interview for me. This guy was like, Who are you? What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 20:27

I got the feeling that he was a Christian, yeah. Okay, and so he was definitely freaked out.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

So then he's he was he was a little bit Okay, but was he a Christian? Yeah, he was, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yeah, so your feeling was right.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Yeah, yeah. And again, it just you know, the Lord's led all the way.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

So what you're saying is we have to be led by the spirit, and we it may be a little bit not normal sometimes, but it produces such great fruit. Yeah, and it produces such great results for the kingdom. Yeah, so then he so you track down this guy, he's your videographer, you're doing the Zoom now interview with Bruce, which is so crazy because now that you say that, I remember like the single shot. I think he was in front of a bookshelf. And it was so cute, and I loved how you did that because I actually loved that it wasn't the same type of interview setting as with Lindell because I felt like it like changed it up a little bit. Yeah, it was kind of cool just to have his perspective jump in.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

So it's like God even made it even more cool for the It was all the Lord, you know, and it I mean, if I would have had my own druthers and had, you know, a huge budget, I mean, yeah, we'd have flown everyone in and got this like real fancy place.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

But again, it's just sometimes organic is the best.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

It is, and I I think so many times God is counter perfection. Right. You know, when it comes to production, he likes messy, yeah. He likes likes raw, you know, and I think that really goes back to the whole Brownsville worship narrative was what launched that whole thing was the raw recordings that were Bronze with volume one and volume two that Lindell didn't never wanted to do and definitely didn't want to get out there other than you know just sell probably a couple hundred out the back door.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

It's so hard for artists. This is so hard for worship leaders, it's so hard for perfectionists. But that is a revelation right there, is that the Lord loves the raw, like the real, the real us, the real worship, the real sound, not trying to manufacture something or sound like other people or trying to, you know, let this is the modern sound. Let's just uh you know implement that. It's like, no, what is your sound? What is God pulling out of you? And that makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Yeah, uh one 100%. And I do think that was one of the special things about the 90s period was there was so much diversity with sounds.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

You have Ron Cannoli, you have Paul Balash, you have Darlene Check and the entire Hillsong movement, and then you have Delirious. I mean, talk about all the different sounds, and plus there's so many more that we could name, and you you probably know every one of them.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Quite a few of them. We're hoping to do episodes on on many of those, so we'll see how the Lord leads.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Well, which by the way, you have another episode that is in production. Tell me about that. I cannot wait. Yeah, that's out.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

Hopefully, when this airs, maybe it will be either out or close to being out. But yeah, but episode two is gonna be about Darlene Czech and you know, the origin of Shout to the Lord, both the song and the album, which uh became the integrity music title of 1996, that in my opinion was the most important worship album of the 1990s decade. Wow. Yeah, as far as its influence and yeah, it's longstanding impact.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

It it has had a long-standing impact. Even that song, and which I love that she wrote that song right out of Psalm. Unlike scripture, y'all. When we write from scripture, it just hits different. It just hits different. And so she was just doing that, and she wasn't trying, you know, to to make it, you know, globally. That and so her story is really incredible. I can't wait till that is out. Was there any surprises on that interview that you were just like, I had no idea? Because you know a lot of information.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

Yeah, you know, I mean, I pretty well knew the metamorphosis of Hillson worship, you know, going from because I think a lot of people, a lot of people only got on the bandwagon kind of during the Hillson United, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, that was a good bandwagon though.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

Very, very much, but you know, what but it existed before that. There was so much that happened. Yeah, and in in the early nine, I mean late 80s to early 90s, it was I mean, Hillson worship was multicultural, you know, it was influenced by Brooklyn Tab, you know, Alvin Slaughter, you know, Ron Cannoli, all of that, you know, and that's kind of what they were emulating in their house, you know, was really you know being influenced by that. And it wasn't until Delirious came out that they kind of made that transition from that to more of like the ambient, you know, worship sound that the you know people kind of equate that to today.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Wow, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Yeah, so that so that I already knew that, but I think a lot of the viewers will find that that fascinating. Yeah. Um, you know, I I think in it although I I kind of knew the story behind you know Darlene leading that integrity project, I didn't really know some of the you know nuts and bolts of the behind the scenes, which I don't want to spoil because people need to watch it, but that was really fascinating. And I immediately knew, you know, as we were getting into that subject matter, I'm like, this is gonna kind of be the centerpiece sequence of the episode, you know, that that we build around. And I'm really excited about it. I think uh there'll be a lot of tears shed for for episode two, just like there was episode one, you know, and again, that's that's all the Lord, you know, just moving on.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

And when God's in it, it just there's an eternal thing that that you're connected to that you're just like, this is definitely the Lord, and you feel it. And that's so exciting. I love that. I love what you're doing, and I love that you're doing it uniquely and by the spirit. Like it's not like a court, you don't have everything calculated where it's just like we're gonna, you know, make this much money and you know, all this stuff. And you're uh literally you're just being obedient to the Lord and you're making it happen, you're being persistent. I love that. And so what I wanted to, you know, finish this conversation was also like how you were personally impacted from Brownsville. So you mentioned to me that you went in '97.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Yeah, you know, I I didn't have any like crazy experience there, you know, but it that really makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

But you got to witness everybody's crazy experience.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Well, yeah, that plus I do think, I mean, because of what we're doing now with 90s worship night, I I think the Lord let me go there back then to just be a casual observer.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah, because that's not normal. Not everybody, your age and that time got to go all the way down to Florida. You're from Indiana, go all the way down to Florida. You know, not a lot of people. So that was a very cool thing that the Lord allowed you to do.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Yeah, it it was wild. And and I mean, and I tell people like, I'm not saying that revival won't happen again, but it it's not gonna look like that. Like that was a yeah, that was a once in a generation type of phenomenon to where you, you know, in a lot of things, it was lightning in a bottle. I mean, culture had to be in a certain place, yeah. That it was, the church had to be in a certain place. Um, so it, you know, I you couldn't recreate the conditions that made Brownsville Brownsville, but just to again, you know, to think about a small, you know, I mean, Pensacola is not a small city per se, but back then it was definitely smaller. It was smaller, and you know, they were just kind of in a you know little pocket of Pensacola where the church was at, and it was just a normal assembly of God denomination church. Yeah, I mean, probably bigger than most at at that time period, but uh but you had four and a half million people in that five-year period, they estimate, walk through those doors.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

That's incredible, you know, and it's not like some large mega church.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

No, I think it it fit like just a little over 2,000 in the main auditorium, you know, to the point where they uh constantly had like the cafeteria and the other overflows just completely filled. You know, and the theme, Deborah, it's it's really I think the lasting impact of Brownsville was all the people who went but then went to their four corners of the earth.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

That's it right there, you know, in shape And they still talk about it today, they do, they are permanently changed from that experience, and that is like the evidence that's actually a work of the Holy Spirit because we can have people who have the outward display, they go to church, they do all of the you know crazy stuff that can happen sometimes if you're Pentecostal or charismatic or anything like that, but then they go back home and they struggle with anger and perversion and nothing changes and they their kids see hypocrisy. That does not change anything. But when you have people that go and they actually have an experience with the Lord and then they go back and they're never the same, we're talking about drug addicts that never go to back to drugs again. We're talking about people who were healed and they never went back to having that illness again. We're talking about major issues in the heart that were healed and then they never struggle with those things again. That is incredible, and that is what God's still doing today.

SPEAKER_04 29:24

Oh, absolutely, you know, and I entered into you know us producing the episode, you know, about Brownsville worship. You know, I mean, I knew the revival was a mixed bag. I mean, I knew that there was obviously a lot of good, but there was some not so great stuff that happened and bad actors who came in and commandeered maybe as aspects of it, or people just showing up, yeah, you know, just in the flesh. And you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Can you imagine? Like, I can only imagine because I wasn't really around, I wasn't old enough to be a part of any of that, but I can only imagine just growing up in church there because everybody has different agendas sometimes, so I can only imagine what they had to do with.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, so so I kind of went in and I was really curious to see where the conversations would go. But I will tell you the amount of spiritual warfare we had producing that episode, like it's just incredible. I mean, I'm I'm working on a book, I'm hoping to have it out next year, but just to talk about how like the making of that first series and some of the things happening, but the uh but Brownsville in in particular, uh, I mean, we inexplicably in bright sunny weather lost power on two separate occasions while we were talking about the revival, everything went out. And it's on film, you know. Uh, and there were a lot of other things too, you know, just to the point I was talking to Lyndall about it afterwards, you know. And what did he say? Yeah, I mean, he that was just another another day for him. Another day he uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Gotta live above the warfare.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

I mean, live above the I mean that and that's the thing too, and you know, kind of going back to practical you know, advice, you know, for you know, the local church worship teams, it's just you're not gonna if if you do something meaningful for the kingdom of God, you're not getting a free pass for that. The enemy's gonna have a response to it. You know.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

But for me I mean, we see that in the life of Paul.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

Yeah, you know, and I mean you can take it. I mean, yeah, is it frustrating at times? Is it painful? Absolutely. I mean, I could if we could talk 30 minutes, I can tell you the stories of what we've experienced, but it almost makes me want to go harder and encourages me that we're on the right path. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

You're actually doing something.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

Yeah, it's like the enemy showing his hand to a certain degree. Because like, if if nothing happened, I would maybe I would sit back at night and be like, are we completely barking up the raw tree here?

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Uh, but it's through you know that warfare directly against this. I'm like, okay, maybe there's something about Brownsville that the Kingdom of Darkness did not like and was not what people were reminded of.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

In the sound, the sound of the worship and the purity of it, and and then also with Darlene and the purity that she carries as well. And like, I mean, you are, like you said, sharing a narrative that a lot of people don't even know about. Yeah. So it's really powerful. So I thank you so much for this conversation. This has been so encouraging. And I hope you guys go back and watch that first um episode and then make sure you catch the second episode with Darlene. It's gonna be amazing. And then also now we're gonna go to our next segment, which is Praise or Pass. We're gonna just stress Chad out over here. We're gonna watch a uh viral video and we're gonna get his reaction, whether he would praise it or pass it.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

I will sing a good time. I love your voice. I love your voice.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

You have to apparently the lady thought he was talking to her when he said, I love your voice, but all he was doing was sing the lyrics. She said, I love your voice too.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

Yeah, the things that can happen to an ac during acoustic worship.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

And it looks like it's in a gymnasium.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

So it's easy. Acoustic is always interesting because, you know, like say when you got a full band rocket, that stuff. Oh, you'll never hear it.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

You'll never hear it. But acoustic, they're gonna get it in.

SPEAKER_04 33:40

They'll they'll get it in, and it's uh their little phrases. Yeah, well, it's it's kind of like sometimes church can be almost like you know, you you you'll see like a bar in a grill, you know, somebody'll be doing you know, acoustic cover music and people would just be yelling out stuff. Church can be that way sometimes, you know. That's true. You just kind of have to you gotta know how to yeah, I just as Paul Blosh was talking about, you kind of gotta know how to navigate how to navigate the crazy situations.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

All right, so would you praise or pass how the worship leader reacted? He didn't really say anything, he he just made a little face.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Yeah, I I mean I I think he did about as much as as well. As you could do.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

So we praise that. We think he handled that very well.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

I think if it would have been during a more uh beat joyous song, he could have maybe had a little more fun with with it. Right, right. But yeah, yeah, you're seeing goodness of God, man. That's that's some heavy stuff.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

You gotta you gotta be really I think he was a little taken aback too because when he when he said it and then he heard I love your voice too, it like registered to him that she thought because apparently he looked over that direction where she was. So it makes it even more confusing.

SPEAKER_04 34:50

Yeah. Acoustic worship.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Yeah, bless it, bless it. We praise it, but we pass all of the people trying to insert their own concert and their own commentary.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Yeah, yeah. I'll agree with you on that for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

All right, we're going to our last segment, which is Frequently Asked Questions for Worship Teams. Before our Frequently Asked Question today, we want to kind of change it up and ask you, Chad, you've been in the worship movement, you've seen so much of the industry, you've seen all of these amazing songwriters and how they bless the church. And so we have people who are songwriters for their churches, who, you know, maybe are on worship teams, or maybe they just love worship in general. What would you say to those who want to make a difference in songwriting or they want to make a difference on their worship team? Any advice you would give them?

SPEAKER_04 35:42

Yeah, I I I think the main piece of advice, you know, and I was very fortunate, you know, having got started in the 90s, everything was looked at through a ministry lens. There was no such thing as worship artistry back then. It didn't exist. Um and I I think unfortunately, you know, sometimes when we think about worship music, whether it be writing or you know, leading or whatever, we we there kind of is an an artist-first, you know, perspective that goes into it. Right. Um and we really, in my opinion, need to get that you know back to where ministry is is the main focus. Right. And that doesn't mean that you can't write amazing songs and can't have you know great artistry with what you're doing. It's not about you know the the product of you know, it's about the heart. It's about the heart and what your mindset and focus is. Absolutely. Because if you can get that, in my opinion, if you can have that ministry first mindset, everything else will fall into place. Yeah, but that's also what's going to make your you know, your career and your you know, ministry last as that approach. And I think the proofs in the pudding with you know all the folks that we're you know working with in 90s worship night, man, that they've they've been at it for 40 years faithfully, you know, still going out and ministering, not faltering, you know, it at all, you know, at least in the big picture of things. And to me, that that that is proof that you know it was always it it started off in the right place and it's still in the right place now.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

And they kept serving their local churches, they kept writing for their local churches. It wasn't like, oh, now that I have this number one on CCLI or whatever it is, now they have this global phenomenon of a song and a movement, now all I'm gonna do is travel, I'm not gonna serve my local church. And but all all of the ones that I have I have seen, they stayed faithful to their local church, and that's what made a huge difference too.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

It's not like let me just do this gig at my local church until a bigger gig, you know, but that's not the mindset.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

No, it it's gotta be grounded in ministry, yeah, you know, and uh if if that's where the heart is, then you know you can get to you know where you want to be for sure. And where the Lord's calls you to be.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Yeah, that's beautiful. Well, thank you so much, Chad. This has been an amazing conversation, and we hope that this conversation has also blessed you and his life and his obedience to the Lord is such a blessing to the body of Christ. So we thank you for that. And keep up with Nighty's Worship Night and make sure you tune in to the next episode of Protect the Altar Podcast.