Podcast Transcript
Kristian Stanfill: when you have that kind of a hunger for God, meeting with leaders who have consecrated their lives and prepared themselves for the work that God wants to do.
It’s just, it’s a, it’s fertile ground for God to do something pretty amazing.
Ryan Loche: Welcome to the Church Collective podcast. In this episode, we had yet another opportunity to talk to Christian Stanfield. It’s basically becoming an annual thing, and we absolutely love it. There’s so much that he unpacks, and it’s cool to talk about the next generation’s desire for worship as they’re coming out of passion. We talk about that Agnes Dei moment, that’s just all of our churches are doing.
Talk about narcissism and pride in the church and how to grow in the Lord and actually let him refine us when we’re doing it. And not just say, Oh, I want you to grow me Lord, but I like actually opening ourselves up to what the Lord is going to do in our lives. So I’m sure you’re going to love it.
So here we go.
Kristian Stanfill: Yeah. Yeah, it’s been a wild year so far, it’s been a full year so far. We started with conference here in Atlanta in January and we it was amazing. Maybe my favorite conference that I’ve ever been a part of with passion the most impactful, most significant, I think in a lot of ways.
And. Then out from there, we just been working on finishing up call on heaven, which came out a couple of weeks ago or a week and a half ago. And so that’s exciting that’s out there and people can hear what happened at passion through the songs. And then church is rolling in passion. City church is on fire right now.
There’s a spirit of worship and a hunger for God. Like We’ve never seen that’s no, no hype. That’s like the real deal. And so it’s really exciting. And my wife, Carrie and I are doing good for kids are doing good. We’re hanging in there trying to keep it real.
Ryan Loche: Gosh, so many questions even to, I’d love to hear, because I’m sure everybody listening is man, there’s a hunger for God at the church I’ve never seen before.
What do you think has happened? Or maybe give us a little bit of a story on what’s making you sense that? When did you sense that was happening? And I know it’s almost impossible to put exactly towards what happened. Here it is, guys, take this to your church and do this. But, what do you attribute it to?
Maybe tell us a little bit about
Kristian Stanfill: what’s been going on. Yeah I’ll give you a little bit of the back story. I think last year, 2023, we started the year off. And Louie had this really clear little bit of vision that he gave to our team and our church from the very beginning of the year.
He said, Hey let’s not do business as usual this year. Just as an organization or as a church, I’m sure you guys understand you can get into this. This is how we do things and things are moving and this is just how it happens. And Louie, really came off the top of the year last year and was like, Hey let’s shake that up.
Let’s not, let’s just be available to whatever God wants to do this year as we worship. As we gather together as a church and that honestly, that little bit of vision, just, unlocked something in our church. And, it takes time for things like that to really get rolling and catch on. But that even rolled into our preparation and our planning and our prayer for Passion 24.
We just started we had, we just had a sense that God was going to do something really significant and different in our midst at conference this year. And obviously we didn’t know exactly what that was going to look like, but we did know that he was asking us to prepare diligently and consecrate our lives for the work that he wanted to do.
And that was like almost all of last year. We really felt that leading up to 24. And I could go into the nuts and bolts of it all, but that just generally speaking, that’s how we were leading up to conference. And as we were writing, as we were praying, as we were talking through production and programming with our team, it was all through this filter of let’s just be ready for whatever God wants to do.
And and then when we got into the bins earlier this year, we sensed it like from the drop, there was a hunger for God in the room. These students came just wanting something real, wanting an encounter with a real, with the real living God. And I think you guys understand what I mean, but like you look around and you just see like deception on a mass level, right?
And it’s like a generation, a whole generation has been sold a bad bill of goods. It’s and they’re going I’m going to throw a flag on the play. That’s not what you said it was going to be, or you told me this was going to fill my life up, but it didn’t. I’m still empty. I’m still searching.
And it felt man, this generation came a, just. looking for something real and authentic or be just students coming going, I’m crying out, I’m calling on heaven for the sake of my campus, my city, my family. And man, when you have that kind of a hunger for God, meeting with leaders who have consecrated their lives and prepared themselves for the work that God wants to do.
It’s just, it’s a, it’s fertile ground for God to do something pretty amazing. And it says in scripture, it says that God’s eyes are moving across the earth, looking for those whose hearts are fully committed to him so that he can strengthen those people. He can put his wind behind those people.
And it just felt like at conference, his eyes rested on Mercedes Benz stadium and said, I am going to do something here that is going to change everybody, change everyone’s life that’s in the room, but also it’s going to shake and change and reshape a generation. And none of this is hyperbole, by the way, like I’m not like blowing smoke.
You can go listen to the record, watch things back. God is on the move on the earth right now. It’s an awesome time to be alive. And I think we’re all committed to staying ready for whatever he wants to do at
Ryan Loche: any moment. No, it seems like similar stories are even coming out of a lot of various churches and movements and it’s awesome to hear.
Yeah,
Kristian Stanfill: that’s true. What did
Chris Bellamy: it look like this year? I know in years past you’ve had like multiple locations. Was it all at Mercedes Benz this year or did you do the multiple
Kristian Stanfill: sites? No, it was all at Mercedes Benz, which is always preferable, honestly, to have everybody in one place. It’s it’s awesome.
It’s just so great. And it’s a big room, for sure. It’s it’s a. It’s a picture that sticks with you, you look out and it feels like a whole generation in a building, and you feel the significance of the moment. You feel the potential in the moment. And I think if we had it our way, we would, we’d probably always just be in one place together.
Schedules don’t always line up that way. Yeah.
Chris Bellamy: Do you feel like, cause I know each year post COVID has been like a inching back towards. I don’t know what it used to be like do you feel like it’s, is there any like leftover COVID vibes or is it all, as is everything, do you feel like now everything’s back, opened up and no restrictions.
Kristian Stanfill: Yeah. It all feels like full throttle, man. It all feels like in terms of like the COVID thing. Yeah. Like I feel like we’re all like open back up. I would say spiritually speaking we’re like so far beyond where we were in 2019, 2020. Yeah. Spiritually. Okay. Yeah, bro.
We’re dude. It’s man, it’s like something has bursts. Like something has just it’s just like bursting forth like this, the work of God in the, and I love what you said just a second ago, Ryan, like I, I feel the same thing I’m hearing. Yeah. I’m hearing from friends. I’m watching things happen, even on Instagram and things.
I’m like going, man, like something is something’s happening right now. And we’re like witnesses to it. And yeah, so I would say spiritually speaking, we are, we’ve really far surpassed where we were pre COVID. Like
Chris Bellamy: what kind of things do you feel like there’s like a yearning now, like for, and do you feel like it like reset
Kristian Stanfill: things?
Yeah, I do. I think the last few years, I can speak for me personally and I can also speak for, what we’re, what we’ve seen here in Atlanta. And, just looking around, I think it shook a lot of the foundation up and you’re like, the last few years left us going okay.
That wasn’t quite as steady as I thought it was going to be, or I was, I had, I thought this would always be okay, but it wasn’t okay. And I think we’ve all come back to the truth that Jesus is the cornerstone and he isn’t shaken and God’s word is truth, not relative truth, but like the truth and you can build your life on it.
And so yeah, I do. I think that there’s a hunger to your word. A yearning. For that kind of real thing and authentic place to build your life for sure. The
Chris Bellamy: reason I was asking is I, for some reason yesterday, I just saw a ton of people posting memories from 2020 and just reflecting on like where they were.
And, especially people in the industry that are in the music industry, and reflecting on man, it’s it feels like forever ago, but it, It also was yesterday, but I, it’s just there’s a, I felt a spirit of optimism and just, reflection as people were talking about it and, passing conference obviously would be like a really good example of where things are at as far as people gathering and just,
Kristian Stanfill: worshiping together.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And again, just to talk personally to, I think there was a, I don’t know, like the word sifting comes to mind. Like it just feels like that God was like, you know, yeah, just shaking things off of us, like personally and the church like globally that needed to be shaken off.
There are things about my life that look drastically different than where, from where I was in 2020 to today, there are things about my life that, I am not a part of my life anymore, like things that didn’t need to be a part of my life. And man without the last few years, I wouldn’t have been prepared to stand in this moment and be available and ready to lead and be a part of what God’s doing currently.
Does that make sense? And I think that’s just what I feel personally, but I think it’s happened like all over the world. I think the last few years it was like a shaking awake Whoa, like this is, Whoa, like I need to get some, I need to bring some things into alignment here. Like I’m like, I’m out of whack in some areas and I need to bring things back into alignment.
And as God has done that, and as, as much as we’ve been willing to let that alignment happen we’re prepared to move with him in the work that he’s doing. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Ryan Loche: Gosh, I wonder I loved it. Like you said, God’s really sifted even your life. I’ve, we’ve all been through various seasons where God’s really growing us.
And I think like when we’re on the mountain, we think about those times and Lord use me, we want new wine, no, not in old wineskins. It sounds like something we want to sing for. But then often like when we get into it, it’s not so much fun. So I would love to hear any insight you might have for somebody who, I guess on both sides, somebody who’s looking for that refining, they want it.
But then even somebody that’s in it and you’re like, wow, this isn’t as fun as I thought it’d be. Do you have any encouragement maybe from your own life? Like how you’ve managed to, handle it or walk
Kristian Stanfill: through it? Oh yeah, man. No, it’s not fun. It sucks, honestly. Like it, it hurts really bad.
It really is not a fun thing to look in the mirror and to realize that you are so far off course and you don’t even know I don’t even know how to get back online. That’s not a fun thing to look in the mirror and see that. It’s also not a fun thing to go to your friends and your pastors and have to tell them what’s really going on in your life and go, Hey man, there’s some things about my life you didn’t know.
And you’re going to be pretty shocked and disappointed when I tell you these things. But what I can tell you from experience is that the only way through it is through it. The only way to get onto the other side of it is to go through it. And that means like going through the messy parts of it, going through the hard parts of it facing up to the consequences of it.
Sometimes going, This really hurts, but I know that in order to grow and to be the man that I’m made to be and to do the thing that God’s called me to do, I have to go through all of this. And I can say now, nearly four years on the other side of that season of my life, it is so worth it. It is so worth it.
to think that I wouldn’t be here today experiencing God like I’m experiencing God, participating with him in the work that he’s doing on the earth right now, loving my wife, loving my kids, fully present and in the light in my community. This is the way of the kingdom. This is the way that we’re meant to live.
And when we’re living that way, we’re experiencing the exhilarating, abundant life of Jesus. And that’s all I can say. I can’t make anybody listening to this go through it, but I’m telling you, do the thing that you need to do. Take the step, start going through it. I know it can look like a mountain, but you gotta go, you gotta go, you gotta go up and around that mountain, man.
You gotta do the work. Yeah. Cause I’m telling you, man, it you’re missing out on the best parts of life. Sure.
Ryan Loche: How do you, in the context of doing that in the church how do you foster a relationship with your leaders? Like you said, you have to be able to go and talk to your leaders and say Hey I’m working through this.
I need some help. But I can immediately think of a number of people listening, being like, man, if I say anything to my leader, They’re going to send me out the door. I can’t be candid about it. Do you have, yeah, what advice might you have for that person? I’m sure you’ve coached guys through it too.
Kristian Stanfill: Yeah. It’s tough, man. It’s tough because I know that is people’s reality sometimes. They don’t have that kind of relationship or rapport or trust. Yeah. I think what I would say is, Sometimes you, you think that’s not there, but if you find that you take that step, it’s actually there more than you think it is.
Yeah. That’s great. Do you know what I mean? So I was terrified to I’ve been very, I’ve been very open about what I’m talking about, by the way, like you can go find it. Like I struggled with alcohol for a long time and got sober three and a half years ago. I had to deal with a lot of Just a lot of addictive things and I had to bring all of that into the light and to have to call like My pastor and my friends and tell them what was going on I was terrified and I thought what was gonna happen Ryan I thought as I was gonna call them and I was gonna get a truckload of shame and judgment and cast you out, but I got the opposite.
What I got was okay first of all, I We love you and we are going to walk with you every step of the way through this recovery process, whatever it takes to get you help. We’re here for it. Now there were some very real like consequences. It’s like there was some very real, there’s some fallout that’s just the, that’s just what sin does, right?
That’s the fallout of sin. But. I’m still here. And all of my pastors and my friends are still my pastors and my friends. They’re still around me. And so I think what the reason I say all that is that sometimes the enemy’s tactic is to make us think that if we say the thing, we’re going to become the outcast.
When really, if we take that step, the other person on the other line might go, I’m so glad you told me that. I want to help you. I want to love you through it. And I’ll also say that sometimes you taking that step can actually lead someone else to that same kind of freedom. Yeah. So I know it’s a scary step, but it’s like It’s necessary.
Now, here’s what I’m not saying. I’m not saying just go like air all your dirty laundry and all your baggage to everybody or whatever. Find some, find one person. This is how I have two guys in my life that I trust with my whole life. They know everything about me. And those two guys is where I started.
I was like, here’s what’s really going on. It started there. And I knew I can trust these guys and we can walk together. Yeah, I would encourage you to find one or two people that you can really be open with and, yeah.
Ryan Loche: It’s similar to even going back to where we started with our conversation.
It seems like people want something that’s real now. And, for myself and Chris, 20, 25 years in ministry, especially at the start, it felt like there was no room for any sort of not even sin, it’s just like everybody in leadership was basically flawed. Like we needed to put on something like that.
And it’s encouraging that people want the real and yeah, like in, in your testimony, like obviously being real brought so much fruit out of it and hiding it would have, only gone poorly eventually, but man, bro, it seems like everybody wants
Kristian Stanfill: that. Yeah. Yeah, and I can’t I just I can’t say enough like the reason God wants to deliver us from these things whatever it is is one so we can experience his abundant life, but two, so that we can work with him in what he’s doing.
We are invited into his story on earth, which is a mind blowing idea. The God of the whole universe is working on our planet to bring salvation to people and we can participate with him in that. And I can’t do that if I’m, if I have all these secrets over here. If I’m living in the dark. Man, it’s worth it.
It’s worth the work.
A topic
Chris Bellamy: that Ryan and I have been talking about lately and a lot of our listeners have been bringing up more recently is like narcissism and pride in the church specifically with with, pastors and, Worship leaders or anybody that’s on the platform, and like dealing with that and then dealing with it, it almost tends to sneak up and everybody that’s on some kind of platform have you ever had to deal with that or do you like, what encouragement would you have for people that are just either struggling with somebody that’s, over them or struggling with it
Kristian Stanfill: themselves.
Yes, I’ve dealt with that for sure. Deal with it a lot more than I wish I dealt with it like in my own life, honestly. Yeah, man, I think I can just speak personally. I think humility is a byproduct of being with Jesus. And I think if we’re in close proximity to Jesus and we are abiding.
John 15, if we’re abiding in the vine and his life is flowing through us and we’re walking with him intimately, that puts everything in its right place. It just, it reshapes and restructures everything about my life, when I’m walking with Jesus. So I think that’s, that’s the first thing.
But then, in terms of pride. And pride is super sneaky. Narcissism is super sneaky. And it has a way of angling in, even when I’m on stage leading worship sometimes, which is just a wild thing that can happen. And I think what I’ve learned is that It’s good for me to be honest about that stuff.
So for instance, if I’m leading on a Sunday or wherever and some kind of thought like that starts to creep into my mind, I’ll immediately just say it out loud to God. Not into the microphone, it’s just, fine. Just step back a little bit and just go, God you see what’s happening right now.
You see where my mind is drifting to Lord, just deliver me from that right now. And I just want to say I am here for you and I put myself wholly in your hands. I want to be fully present right now with you and remember that this is for you. And man, I just, I can’t tell you like just the nearness of God that I feel like in that prayer, just in that moment, just to just take the mask off.
There’s no sense in trying to pretend with God when he sees it all anyway, it’s just go, Hey, I’m, this is what I’m thinking right now. And I don’t want to think this, but I’m thinking it. So just hear it. That’s super helpful. That’s where it has been for me. And then. Again, back to these people in your life that you trust, I talk to my wife often.
I talk to my three closest guy friends that again, just know everything about me. I talk to him about this stuff all the time and I have to keep talking about it or it will, pride is a vine that will choke me out. It will choke me out. It will choke you guys out. And if we don’t talk about it, if I don’t say these things out loud.
I’m done, man. I’ve lost the battle and so it’s good for me to sit with my guys on Wednesday mornings at 8. 15 at a coffee shop in Atlanta and say, guys, here’s how I’m feeling right now. And here’s how my pride is wanting to choke me out. And man, it just, a lot of the power in the pride just starts to dissipate when we can be honest with it.
And then when it comes to dealing people with people like with pride who are prideful or narcissistic, I’m, it’s, it’s hard for me to really know what’s going on in someone’s heart. But when I can sense that I’m just like, that’s not really up to me. Like God, God sees that he knows how to handle that.
And that’s his job. And I’m just going to keep my focus on Jesus. I’m going to keep running my race and I’m going to let, the Bible says, scripture says, he lifts up the humble and he lays the pride down, the prideful down low. And so I’m just like, that’s the way of God. That’s the way of his kingdom.
So I’m just going to run my race. I’m gonna try to keep my eyes on Jesus. I’m going to try to stay low and just let him take me wherever he wants to take me.
Chris Bellamy: What would you say to the worship theater? That’s just yearning for something more like they’re watching youtube videos of passion and hillsong and everything And that they’re just yearning
Kristian Stanfill: for that ask for it Ask for more, keep asking for it.
I’m asking for more right now. We’re seeing so much at Passion City Church. I’m talking to friends. So much is happening. I’m going, God, with you, there’s always more. So I want more. Give me the capacity to do more. And man, for worship leaders or pastors out there who want more, man, ask for it.
Ask for it. Open your hands up every day and go, here I am, Lord. Give me more. What do you want to put in my hands today? How do you want me to lead your people? What songs do you want me to write? What message do you want me to bring? How do you want me to love my family? I want more. I want more of you. I want to be more like you.
Here I am, and he answers that prayer. He puts more in your hands. He helps you see more. He gives you ears to hear more. He gives you words to speak. And some of it, you don’t even know that you’re doing it. You’re just walking with him and you’re walking in his way and you look up and you go, there’s this wake behind you of just his life and you go, I wasn’t even trying to do that.
He goes, I know, but you’re asking me for more. Man. If you want more, ask for it and, but make yourself available, man. Again, like he’s looking for people who are aligned with him going, it’s. They’re going, I want my whole heart in alignment with your way, God. And he goes, I see you. I want, I will give you more.
So if keep asking for it, but you got to be ready for it.
Ryan Loche: That’s it. Ask for the Lord to refine you and you gotta be ready for that.
I’d love to as you’re asking for more, like a conversation, Chris and I often get in with other worship leaders that we try to help them through. And it’s always fascinating to hear everybody’s take, but where’s the balance between musically preparing everything we have to be able to get up there and execute really well.
And then also fostering our relationship with the Lord. It feels like there’s almost two, it’s almost like a Calvinism argument at this point. There’s almost a couple of camps now where it’s if I just entirely focus on Jesus, I’m going to make it. And that’ll be that. And then there’s others that are like, okay if I just get all of this music done flawlessly, that’ll do it.
And obviously there’s somewhere in between, we have to bring the skill and we have to have a heart for the Lord when we’re leading. But could you maybe give a little bit of insight just into how you navigate that tension,
Kristian Stanfill: think, I’m, I think I understand what you’re saying. To me the music is just an expression.
It’s just I love Jesus. There’s no one like him and I love him and I just want to express it. And so the music is the expression. Every time I lead, every time I’m writing a song, every time I’m leading my team, I’m loving my wife, I’m leading my kids, I’m loving my kids, I’m here talking to you guys.
I just love Jesus. And I just want it. I want that. I want it to all be an expression of my love for Jesus. And I don’t know, man, whenever I’m leading, it’s just I just want to burn for you. I just want to burn for you. Like just let me burn for you and let that fire spread. I don’t even know if that answers your question, but I just, I don’t really see, I don’t really see a difference.
I just music is the way that I get to express it. Sure. You guys, you guys have things, ways that you express it in your life. We all, God’s given us all different passions and abilities and the way that we express our love for him. And, express his glory in our own lives.
We all do it different ways probably, but for me it’s the leading, it’s leading worship and all that. Does that answer your question? Is that what you’re asking?
Ryan Loche: You touched on, the foundational passage, Romans 12, one is to live your life in obedience as your act of worship.
So I think we can often get ourselves stuck a little bit because we start defining worship as just that singing time, which, we know that’s not the case, but then as worship leaders, it’s really hard to. Not just think about all the music as that part. So that’s
Kristian Stanfill: good. That’s really good.
Yeah. And yes I do. I think I understand what you’re saying too, is there is like the practical, like technical aspect of what we do, where we prepare. We rehearse every Wednesday night for Sunday, and we prepare really well. We don’t leave until we’re ready. And that is a big part of it, and, I’m sure you guys have heard, I’m not sure who said it, but somebody said it at some point, and it’s really good, and it’s really true, that the most prepared can be the most spontaneous. And we try to prepare personally in our own lives, but then as a band, so that, When it comes time to, to do what God is asking us to do, we’re like, Oh, we’re ready.
We’re ready for that. And that’s what we saw at conference this year. There are so many moments on that happened at conference. And some of them are captured on the record that we didn’t plan on doing. We just, we’re like, we’re just ready to go wherever. Yeah,
Ryan Loche: I guess one of those moments was August day and, Or sorry,
Kristian Stanfill: that’s exactly what I was going to say. I was going to say,
Chris Bellamy: what did you plan to do Agnes day? Or did it just come out? Yeah, that’s
Kristian Stanfill: great. I was teeing you up for sure. I was teeing you up for that for sure. So Yeah, that was not planned. That wasn’t something that we had talked about doing. We had not rehearsed that song.
It wasn’t in our back pocket. We just about halfway through our set on that last morning. I just felt like we needed to slow things down that we need to slow the pace and be patient. And take a breath and that song just dropped down. Just Holy spirit. It’s Hey, this is what we’re, this is what we’re going to sing now.
And, first, right into the first chorus, we just all had a sense that we were standing on Holy ground, There was I mean it was just a glimpse of, just a glimpse of His holiness and just a look, just a taste of the weight of His glory, but it was just a devastation.
Just laid us all, all flat. And what you hear is just like it happened in the moment, and so yeah, that’s a good example of, what we were just talking about, everybody in that band, we’ve all led together for so long. There’s a lot of trust there. I know that every single one of those guys and Emily, who’s playing guitar, everybody in that band, they have a heart that’s just, They’re worship leaders.
Like they’re not just Oh, I’m just here to play guitar. I’m just here to play drums. They’re all thinking about their position and their role in that band. They’re thinking of themselves as worship leaders and they’re all there. They want to see God move just as much as I am desperate to see God move.
And there’s a lot of trust there. And Our keys MD player, Jeff is somebody that I trust without any hesitation, musically and just as a friend he’s, and I knew that we could go anywhere with these guys. And so I think that’s another big part of it too, is, is the trust that’s involved when you’re playing together, but but yeah, that was definitely one of those moments that was unplanned and but we’re really grateful that we went there.
Ryan Loche: I’m sure a lot of the people that listen would be really interested in maybe a little bit of insight in how you maybe even spiritually and tactically figure out where those kind of moments fit. Because on the one side we can always I come from a pretty, we did a bunch of like hour long services at the church that I’ve led at for a long time.
And there was no room for any, it was just like completely in there and that got a little frustrating. And on the other side, there’s, people that plan for here’s our 10 minutes of spontaneous time and it’s always there. And then it always can work, but often is, maybe a little funky.
I’d love to hear maybe just some insight on how you guys actually feel for those moments and, foster them versus either, forcing them or ignoring them entirely. There’s some sensitivity that comes from both sides of it. I’d love to just hear, what’s, what are you guys thinking?
What are you thinking when you’re like, should I sit here? Should I move on to the next? Yeah.
Kristian Stanfill: Yeah. That’s a great question. I think, the first thing that came to my mind is just knowing. Louie and Shelly are They’re always encouraging us to lead that way, even before that session, Louie pulled me aside and it was like, Hey, I know we have all these things on the list and you’ve got this much time, but lead the room, man.
Just do what needs, do what you need to do what needs to happen. And so knowing that you have your leader and your pastor behind you that way, like going, Hey, We trust you to lead is a big deal. I don’t know who that’s for, but I’ll just say that out there. When your worship leader knows that your leader or your pastor is behind you to lead the room that’s a big deal.
But then, on a Sunday where things are a little bit more Hey, they need to happen in a certain time, our kids are going to be hanging out in our kitchen. The kids room for 30 extra minutes and, leaders and parents get frustrated. That’s very real, and on a Sunday morning, it just practically, something that I like to do, if we’ve got.
A 20, 20 minute or like 22 minute clock, I’ll plan for 15 or 16 minutes of music and just and just go Hey, the rest of it, I’m just going to, we’re just going to wait and see what happens in the moment, making space for it. So if I have 22 minutes, I’m not going to plan 22 minutes of music.
Does that make sense? Yeah. It’s look, if we’ve got 22 minutes, let’s put three and a half songs in there and then let’s just. Let’s just see, let’s just see what needs to happen. So that, that’s a really practical thing. But then, in terms of just being ready for it, that, that happens offstage, man, like that’s Monday to Saturday, that’s that’s the.
the secret place, the pursuit the devotion, the the seeking his face that happens daily in the disciples life, in your life. And in my life, the disciples, like not the disciples, but like we are disciples of Jesus. You understand what I mean? Yeah. But it’s that pursuit that happens daily that prepares us.
For that moment, whatever that moment is, whether it’s, it was Agnus Dei at conference, that was that, that moment, definitely we were ready for that moment, whether it’s a moment like that or a moment at church or whatever, it’s that daily devotion that prepares you, it tunes you into His voice, it tunes you into how He leads, so that when you’re standing in those moments, you go, Oh, I hear that voice.
I know that voice. I know what you sound like. I know what you look like. I’ll go with you. I’m going with you. So I had this plan, but you’re going over here. So I’m going over here too. Yeah. So there’s some real practical ways you can do that. But I think, man, when it comes down to it it’s the men and the women who are prepared in those moments who know his voice, who know his face, who seek his face that can take people somewhere deeper.
That’s
Ryan Loche: great. All right,
Chris Bellamy: this question is completely off topic, but did you see that viral video of that little British kid that is stoked about being door holder number three?
Kristian Stanfill: Yes. Dude, we played it at our church so much.
Chris Bellamy: I was gonna say, so that’s the first thing I thought of. What, because you always talk about being a passion door holder and I used to be like, What is that?
What does that mean? I even see it on the website do you want to be a door holder? And so I was just curious if that was a thing for you guys?
Kristian Stanfill: Bro, it was. I’m door handle number three. Get in there. Yeah, it’s just so good. So good. Yeah, we played that. We played that so much. We played it on Sunday morning, and then at some point we had all of our door holders together at church.
We had them all together for a Christmas thing, and we played it, and it, that kid became our like unofficial mascot. Yeah, that kid’s amazing. That’s funny. Yeah, that’s funny. Like what is a door
Ryan Loche: holder at Pasadena?
Kristian Stanfill: Yeah, it comes from Psalm 84 where it says, I would rather be a doorkeeper or a door holder in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
And so the whole idea is that we’ve been into the presence of God. And now we get to be the ones who hold the door to let others into the presence of God, to encounter God. And so that’s where it comes from. And I just, I love Louie and Shelly are, they’re just brilliant with language and words and, It’s been a part of our culture since the beginning of Passion City Church.
And so I don’t even think about it, but it is, it does if you never heard it before you go, what the heck is a door holder? Why is it a door holder? Why do you call it that? And it makes you think about it. So that’s what I consider myself to be a door holder and love it. That’s so funny that you thought it was more than,
Chris Bellamy: it’s more than just volunteers.
Like it’s like everybody serving as a door holder,
Kristian Stanfill: basically. Yeah. So like where most, yeah, a lot places would say we have volunteers. We would say we have door holders. Got it. That’s awesome. That’s killer.
Ryan Loche: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Head over to Instagram and shoot us a DM. We are starting something really cool, and we want you to be a part of it, but you got to go over and shoot us a DM to get in early. God bless you.